[comp.emacs] GNU Emacs on a Convex

ericb@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Eric J. Bivona) (04/22/88)

I'm trying to bring GNU Emacs (18.50) up on a Convex here.  temacs
compiles and will load the lisp code correctly, but unexec fails
because the magic number in the temacs header indicates that it
is a SOFF format executable, not a Berkley format (as in <a.out.h>).

If there is an easy way to tell the Convex C compiler to generate
Berkley format executables (assuming that would fix this) I missed it.
I guess that something like the COFF style header handling would have
to be implemented.

Can anybody shed some light on this before I dive into the Convex
manuals???

Thanks,
-Eric
-- 
-Eric 
 eric.bivona@dartmouth.edu

"Once a gene sequence, always a gene sequence"

dennis@uw-warp.UUCP (Dennis Gentry) (04/27/88)

>I'm trying to bring GNU Emacs (18.50) up on a Convex here.  temacs
>compiles and will load the lisp code correctly, but unexec fails
>because the magic number in the temacs header indicates that it
>is a SOFF format executable, not a Berkley format (as in <a.out.h>).
>
>If there is an easy way to tell the Convex C compiler to generate
>Berkley format executables (assuming that would fix this) I missed it.
>I guess that something like the COFF style header handling would have
>to be implemented.

I ran into this same problem trying to build GNU Emacs 18.49 a while
back.  I gave up because I didn't have much time, and I don't use the
Convex much anyway.  I did hear from a guy who had built Emacs 18.49
under an earlier release of the OS and compiler, back when it used to
produce COFF headers.  The same old executable he built still works,
he just can't make a new one now that he's running 6.1 (or whatever it
is).

In the absence of a good reason from Convex to use their special new
header format, I'd have to say this sucks on their part.  Anyway, Good
Luck converting the COFF stuff to use SOFF.  I think that's what needs
to be done, since I doubt that Convex will go back to COFF.  It WOULD
be nice if you could have the compiler generate a good old COFF file.

-- 
Dennis.
-------
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