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Date: Wed,  4 Mar 2009 12:56:17 +0100
Message-ID: <3229c0130903040356u315db58ej3bc30e24b434d425@mail.gmail.com>
From: Enrique Soriano <esoriano@lsub.org>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] 8c, 8l, and empty files
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> "Garbage-in, Garbage-out"

What does it happen when you
try to link an object file  that
does not have main() defined?

And when you try to link a malformed
object file?

In these cases, there is not any
garbage-out for the garbage-in.
There is an error, as expected.

> two things: the linker doesn't only produce binaries, it has options
> for producing other output in which a null object file may be
> applicable;

In most cases it is used to create a
binary.

> furthermore, it takes more than a single file, so you can
> see how a #ifdef-ed C file compiles to nothing (even if it's bad
> practice) but then is linked with other parts of the program just
> fine.

In the example, I was linking a *unique*
empty object file.

To create a 0 byte exec file,
that is, a binary  without
a header, is a nonsense.


Regards,
Q.