[coreboot] SELF/ELF/LAR

Peter Stuge peter at stuge.se
Sun Apr 13 04:54:55 CEST 2008


On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 04:39:24AM +0200, Segher Boessenkool wrote:
> My current thinking is that since you will have an intermediate ELF
> file anyway, that you will transform into a SELF file (which has some
> nice properties), that it would be easier and way more future-proof
> to transform that intermediate ELF file into a final ELF file (FELF?)
> with those same nice properties (junk removed, PHDRs and notes at the
> start -- did I forget any?)

I had the same thought.

There is one rather big disadvantage however, that comes from *almost*
supporting a given format. There is some value in having a new,
explicit, file format even if it is just a subset of another,
existing, file format.

The benefit is in usability and principle of least surprise.
If coreboot supports loading certain ELF files, it will be surprising
to (some) users if it does not support loading all ELF files.

For the same reason we may also want another name less similar to
ELF, to clearly show that it is not an ELF file.


//Peter




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