> NetBSD supports 27 different platforms (see
> http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/). Some of platforms have always had
> native elf support, due to object format standisation by the vendor
> (e.g alpha). The i386 port has supported elf for a number of years,
> primarily for linux + freebsd binrary compatability. As of NetBSD1.5
> (which given the combined forces of the moon and sun should be
> released sometime early next century), the i386 port shall stride into
> the faery kingdom and, as it were, `go native with elves'. To confuse
> matters further, on those platforms which support it, the entire build
> system can be instructed to produce elf _or_ a.out executables,
> libraries, etc, by simply setting OBJECT_FMT to `a.out' or
> `ELF'. Unbelievably this `just works' -- however -- if the
> aforementioned
> variable is not set, the only reliable way to determine the object
> encoding preference is to build a test executable (which is
> the approach
> I've taken in the NetBSD ghc package).
Thanks for the info. It looks like the best way to go is to incorporate
your binary format test into GHC's configure script, I'll look into doing
this.
Cheers,
Simon
