[Info-vax] Non-portable code

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <hi3o11$41g$1 at pcls6.std.com>, moroney at world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney) writes:
>Speaking of reading executables and non-portable code...  I had to convert
>some VAX code to Itanium which used the macro assembler and linker in a
>semi-trivial way to "compile" data (which were in the form of macros) into
>a binary file.  The old procedure used a $ LINK/NOHEADER (or similar) to
>produce a data-only .EXE that could be used as-is as binary data.  No such
>qualifier on Itanium... I had to code up a little program that interpreted
>the ELF format and extract the binary, although it did appear that simply
>ignoring the first block of data would have worked.  To make things more
>difficult, the VAX procedure used .STB files...not available on Itanium.
>A second little ELF program...

.STBs are certainly available on OpenVMS Integrity.  My SYMBOL utility's
/EXECUTIVE qualifier (Specifies that you are using the SYMBOL command to  
define a DCL symbol with the same name and value as an OpenVMS executive
symbol) relies on .STBs.

         OpenVMS VAX               OpenVMS Alpha & Itanium
         ===========               =======================
     SYS$SYSTEM:SYS.STB        SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:SYS$BASE_IMAGE.EXE
     SYS$SYSTEM:DCLDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:DCLDEF.STB     
     SYS$SYSTEM:IMGDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:IMGDEF.STB    
     SYS$SYSTEM:NETDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:NETDEF.STB
     SYS$SYSTEM:RMSDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:RMSDEF.STB       
     SYS$SYSTEM:SCSDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:SCSDEF.STB 
     SYS$SYSTEM:SYSDEF.STB     SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:SYSDEF.STB    

The OpenVMS Integrity LINKER also maintains the ability to create .STBs.

LINK

  /SYMBOL_TABLE

       Directs the linker to create a symbol table file.

       Format

         /SYMBOL_TABLE[=file-spec]

         /NOSYMBOL_TABLE (default)

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

  http://www.quirkfactory.com/popart/asskey/eqn2.png
  
  "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"