Re: Multiboot Specification

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Sunday 24 February 2008 13:01, Vegard Nossum wrote:
> I have a question/comment regarding the Multiboot Specification. Since
> loaders need to read/load an object file anyway, wouldn't it be more
> appropriate to look for the multiboot header by looking up either a
> symbol name or a section name, rather than searching for a magic
> number within the first 8K bytes of the image?

No, because of the so-called a.out kludge. Since there are many (minor) 
executable formats in this world, it is crucial to provide a 
format-independent way in the Multiboot Speicification.

> This shouldn't be very difficult to implement for loaders, it would
> make loading safer (more reliable), and it would remove an otherwise
> artificial limitation. (It wouldn't have to be a requirement, but it
> could be a supplement to the magic number solution.)
>
> How would I proceed to suggest this change? :-)

Unless you have a convincing argument for the change, I wouldn't accept it.

All I can think of is about how to support IA-64. But my knowledge on IA-64 is 
too limited, so I cannot make a good decision about it by myself.

Okuji