barber@rabbit1.UUCP (Steve Barber) (01/20/87)
Will anything bad happen if I append arbitrary text to a UNIX executable (a.out) file? Basically, I need to have copyright notices physically present in my a.out files and I don't want to hassle with relinking the things. Now, run files don't have checksums, so there shouldn't be any problem there. The a.out formats are pretty self-describing, so I don't think exec(2) will actually load the stuff, but I don't know for sure. So, just for the sake of argument and to provide an example, if I did cat /bin/sh /etc/group >mysh chmod 555 mysh Would mysh do the right thing? That is, would it behave identically to /bin/sh? Are there any versions of UNIX (or derivatives) where this wouldn't work? Naturally, I'll summarize responses to this most burning of questions. Thanks in advance. (No, I'm not intending to claim copyright on /bin/sh :-) -- Steve Barber Rabbit Software Corp. ...!ihnp4!{cbmvax,cuuxb}!hutch!barber ...!psuvax1!burdvax!hutch!barber (215) 647-0440 7 Great Valley Parkway East Malvern PA 19355
grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) (01/21/87)
In article <264@rabbit1.UUCP> barber@rabbit1.UUCP (Steve Barber) writes: >Will anything bad happen if I append arbitrary text to a UNIX executable >(a.out) file? Basically, I need to have copyright notices physically >present in my a.out files and I don't want to hassle with relinking >the things. >Steve Barber Rabbit Software Corp. I think to be of any value, the notices have to be 'visible', not hidden at the end of the file. To do this, you need to arrange for text constants to be in the statup code. Of course, if you are laying traps to mark your code for identification, visibility is not an issue, but then just running the executable through 'ld' again will probably neatly trim off your addition. Yes, I know that no 'written' copyright notice is needed for the work to be copyrighted, but that isn't the issue here... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)