From: Damian Hamill (dh4@crosfield.co.uk)
Date: 05/06/92


From: dh4@crosfield.co.uk (Damian Hamill)
Subject: Re: Executable Magic numbers
Date: 6 May 1992 13:55:42 GMT

In article <LONGSHOT.92May1225103@att2.cs.mankato.msus.edu> longshot@att2.cs.mankato.msus.edu (Erik Green) writes:

> I have a question or two: Does _anyone_ out there know what
>magic numbers/unique ID signature are on/in GCC 2.1 binaries?

        [and]

>If anyone knows a numeric signature/ byte offset combination that definitively
>says "Linux GCC 2.1 executable", please mail it to me. Different sigs
>for shared and static executables would be a bonus, but I have little hope
>on this point.

I think it would be a good idea if binaries contained a header or
signature which identified the OS & version, machine, cpu & possibly
also compiler and libraries. This might seem overkill but would
significantly aid the development of distributed systems of differing
architectures.

Any thoughts?

>-Erik

Damian