scs@adam.mit.edu (Steve Summit) (01/02/91)
In article <310@audfax.audiofax.com> Arnold Robbins writes: >Andrew is fortunate enough to be running on a Unix system that doesn't >use COFF for it's object files --- COFF files have a timestamp in them. >If you know where it is (I don't), you can arrange to strip off the >COFF header and then compare the objects... (Others have correctly noted that a workable solution to the immediate problem is to use cmp -l.) Just a side note to those designing object file formats and the programs that manipulate them: it would be extremely nice if the nonessential information could be optionally suppressed, for exactly this reason. (There is usually adequate control over the amount of source line number and other debugging information; what's needed is a way to suppress _everything_ -- symbol tables, relocation information, source file information, invocation options, compilation timestamps -- other than the basic machine code found in an old-style Unix a.out file.) I'm not arguing against the default presence of extra information (it's usually useful, and I often wish there were more, such as source file name, timestamp, and/or inode so that a source-level debugger wouldn't quietly show me the wrong lines when single-stepping a module which I've inadvertently modified since compiling); I'm just asking for the traditional extra degree of flexibility (i.e. creeping feature). Steve Summit scs@adam.mit.edu