Re: options COMPAT_AOUT to file UPDATING to know

Am 13.07.18 um 19:56 schrieb jounijl_at_yahoo.co.uk:
> 
> === Reason:
> 
> In compiling the kernel again after a long time after 'pkg upgrade' the
> following errors. The Intel graphics card is in use and something had changed,
> the 'startx' did not start the XFCE session. This was the reason to compile
> the kernel again with the new sources of today. After two retries taking some
> time to complite, it would be helpful to ...
> 
> === Symptom:
> 
> --- kernel.full ---
> linking kernel.full
> ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: aout_sysvec
>>>> referenced by imgact_gzip.c:240 (/usr/src/sys/kern/imgact_gzip.c:240)
>>>> imgact_gzip.o:(Flush)
> 
> === Resolution:
> 
> Adding
> 
> options         COMPAT_AOUT
> 
> to the kernel configuration file.
> 
> This added the necessary 'imgact_aout.o' to the linking and the 'aout_sysvec'
> was found.

Seems you have "device gzip" in your kernel configuration?

This is a long (15 years?) obsolete option, which let you compress your a.out
binaries with gzip and execute them as if they were uncompressed. The binaries
where not paged in as normal, but loaded as one blob, in that case.

This was a useful features when Laptops had slow 200 MB hard disks, since the
space saving was substantial.

ELF binaries could never be compressed and executed that way, and the option
is not present in any kernel configuration in the FreeBSD sources. It is only
mentioned in NOTES and there is a clear remark, that this option requires
COMPAT_AOUT (and also mentions that it is only useful for a.out binaries).

Regards, STefan