From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <f338d576171ccf1ea6e99dc08caaa446@bellsouth.net>
To: weigelt@metux.de, 9fans@9fans.net
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:38:22 -0600
From: blstuart@bellsouth.net
In-Reply-To: <20100217133109.GA10816@nibiru.local>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] Binary format
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> * the whole loader sits in the kernel (maybe w/ some additional
>   helper deamon in userland), but userland can pass parameters
>   like search pathes, etc via env.
>
> IMHO having the dynamic loader in kernel-land (in contrary to ELF
> on GNU) not just removes the need for lots of syscalls, but allows
> a lot of optimizations, eg. code sharing w/ mmap() or caching
> relocation data.

If you're interested in how to do dynamic loading in a clean
and elegant way, take a look at Inferno.  Along the lines of
what you're suggesting, everything is a module.  The only
thing necessary to make a module suitable as a program to
run from the command line is the existence of a function
called init() with a particular signature.  After studying and
working with it, all of the other dynamic loading implementations
out there are... well the word that comes to mind is 'disgusting.'

BLS