From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 29987 invoked from network); 25 Aug 2023 19:52:02 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 25 Aug 2023 19:52:02 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A44642AA5; Sat, 26 Aug 2023 05:51:53 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=tuhs.org; s=dkim; t=1692993113; h=from:from:reply-to:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date: message-id:message-id:to:to:cc:mime-version:mime-version: content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding:list-id:list-help: list-owner:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-post; bh=6eUSmxcjtxWwkJ81H/qmj1svXvMhWO8sjEff4hSK+30=; b=rDQFND0oZCooDLXVZfM5QVKP9+E/sVGE71SphC9w79Wlvqz7W9+6GVzBMDAkX+f36UBOtY 4mY62xCJI26QrQEbzj+fr//HoekCNqOtnCpqYvREyo1TyKyj4EpgQCSobj4GBIATSLJ5Dj tYp7S8WIFxNyVg+ZXXiwFEZMSBfIklE= Received: from mail-4027.protonmail.ch (mail-4027.protonmail.ch [185.70.40.27]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 06C4642AA0 for ; Sat, 26 Aug 2023 05:51:49 +1000 (AEST) Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2023 19:51:37 +0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=protonmail.com; s=protonmail3; t=1692993106; x=1693252306; bh=6eUSmxcjtxWwkJ81H/qmj1svXvMhWO8sjEff4hSK+30=; h=Date:To:From:Subject:Message-ID:Feedback-ID:From:To:Cc:Date: Subject:Reply-To:Feedback-ID:Message-ID:BIMI-Selector; b=xkqbNvbtbm6haGtrrti8rnwUCNJVr+3bxpl5eY+qoo68nrfS9zjs+OkHh3iDcTYLg w275FyjuwWG5LPZUMjCDie7JIHfKfGMfFkiB1N4wVgIKRDPGps8nx5wqL7nHMaDDhL UvZ5o3pebYPcjHiSPt0dEKnoymA+eQ96lOPYz7xYAdD40ybrqBUb9nRNp1OXFUWOOU hW784AjmTGWpXxw0yrfzIE7nVBcPSWB++KJaGAaVIjqm1j88HdYSaNqEmX0etcbojW mKL05vPOD20SQYTaZoyA0EB4GlOPFhtp+LPkMw/JE4JGQiSWEdVEcy7ivCwzp846ZE qstJWd/fD6icA== To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Message-ID: <0brzeViMphXChfHcG_z67mvox9cjHK0KEt6b0VPndBMnBcJ4ywJQFoiJ-yMaR2x2FAnxqD8RjdVCf01kftJkhw0AopHnGcoY8yCpbujx56s=@protonmail.com> Feedback-ID: 35591162:user:proton MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID-Hash: NRZ2X47GUMYZQM4SHXX24SLARHIQCUIX X-Message-ID-Hash: NRZ2X47GUMYZQM4SHXX24SLARHIQCUIX X-MailFrom: segaloco@protonmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] UNIX Disassemblers and other RE Tools List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: From: segaloco via TUHS Reply-To: segaloco Hello, I've been doing some research on the history of disassembly lately, = tools available historically, today, and what sorts of developments have be= en made regarding utilities and systems for taking a machine-code binary an= d working it back to some semblance of source code. So in the early days UNIX had das(I), a PDP-11 disassembler I believe writt= en by Ken (he's OWNER in the manual) with very little information other tha= n "it exists". Fast forward to the UNIX 4.1 manual in 1981 for the 3B20S a= nd there is dis(1), a 3B20 disassembler. Other such manuals feature dis(1)= versions for other 3B targets. Was a disassembler ever considered part of the standard binary objects tool= kit with the assembler, linker, etc. or was that the sort of thing that was= more niche and therefore just kinda cropped up when/if someone decided to = write one? Were there legal concerns to be grappled with when producing a = disassembler? Were such tools ever shipped or did they only appear in the = manuals as they were technically up in the code base, just not commonly dis= tributed or used? Also, was there any thought given during the development= of C to producing "decompilers" as has been becoming more common lately? = Or was it a foregone conclusion that C to assembly is a "lossy" conversion = and going the other direction couldn't be fully automated. Thank you for any insights! - Matt G.