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     A.OUT(5)                                                 A.OUT(5)

     NAME
          a.out - assembler and link editor output

     SYNOPSIS
          #include <a.out.h>

     DESCRIPTION
          A.out is the output file of the assembler as(1) and the link
          editor ld(1). Both programs make a.out executable if there
          were no errors and no unresolved external references.  The
          layout as given in the include file is:

          /*
           * Header prepended to each a.out file.
           */
          struct exec {
                   long      a_magic;   /* magic number */
                   unsigned  a_text;    /* size of text segment */
                   unsigned  a_data;    /* size of initialized data */
                   unsigned  a_bss;     /* size of uninitialized data */
                   unsigned  a_syms;    /* size of symbol table */
                   unsigned  a_entry;   /* entry point */
                   unsigned  a_trsize;  /* size of text relocation */
                   unsigned  a_drsize;  /* size of data relocation */
          };

          #define  OMAGIC    0407       /* old impure format */
          #define  NMAGIC    0410       /* read-only text */
          #define  ZMAGIC    0413       /* demand load format */

          /*
           * Macros which take exec structures as arguments and tell whether
           * the file has a reasonable magic number or offsets to text|symbols|strings.
           */
          #define  N_BADMAG(x) \
              (((x).a_magic)!=OMAGIC && ((x).a_magic)!=NMAGIC && ((x).a_magic)!=ZMAGIC)

          #define  N_TXTOFF(x) \
                   ((x).a_magic==ZMAGIC ? 1024 : sizeof (struct exec))
          #define N_SYMOFF(x) \
                   (N_TXTOFF(x) + (x).a_text+(x).a_data + (x).a_trsize+(x).a_drsize)
          #define  N_STROFF(x) \
                   (N_SYMOFF(x) + (x).a_syms)

          The file has five sections: a header, the program text and
          data, relocation information, a symbol table and a string
          table (in that order).  The last three may be omitted if the
          program was loaded with the `-s' option of ld or if the sym-
          bols and relocation have been removed by strip(1).

     A.OUT(5)                                                 A.OUT(5)

          In the header the sizes of each section are given in bytes.
          The size of the header is not included in any of the other
          sizes.

          When an a.out file is executed, three logical segments are
          set up: the text segment, the data segment (with uninitial-
          ized data, which starts off as all 0, following initial-
          ized), and a stack.  The text segment begins at 0 in the
          core image; the header is not loaded.  If the magic number
          in the header is OMAGIC (0407), it indicates that the text
          segment is not to be write-protected and shared, so the data
          segment is immediately contiguous with the text segment.
          This is the oldest kind of executable program and is rarely
          used.  If the magic number is NMAGIC (0410) or ZMAGIC
          (0413), the data segment begins at the first 0 mod 1024 byte
          boundary following the text segment, and the text segment is
          not writable by the program; if other processes are execut-
          ing the same file, they will share the text segment.  For
          ZMAGIC format, the text segment begins at a 0 mod 1024 byte
          boundary in the a.out file, the remaining bytes after the
          header in the first block are reserved and should be zero.
          In this case the text and data sizes must both be multiples
          of 1024 bytes, and the pages of the file will be brought
          into the running image as needed, and not pre-loaded as with
          the other formats.  This is especially suitable for very
          large programs and is the default format produced by ld(1).

          The stack will occupy the highest possible locations in the
          core image: growing downwards from 0x7ffff400.  The stack is
          automatically extended as required.  The data segment is
          only extended as requested by break(2).

          After the header in the file follow the text, data, text
          relocation data relocation, symbol table and string table in
          that order.  The text begins at the byte 1024 in the file
          for ZMAGIC format or just after the header for the other
          formats.  The N_TXTOFF macro returns this absolute file
          position when given the name of an exec structure as argu-
          ment.  The data segment is contiguous with the text and
          immediately followed by the text relocation and then the
          data relocation information.  The symbol table follows all
          this; its position is computed by the N_SYMOFF macro.
          Finally, the string table immediately follows the symbol
          table at a position which can be gotten easily using
          N_STROFF.  The first 4 bytes of the string table are not
          used for string storage, but rather contain the size of the
          string table; this size INCLUDES the 4 bytes, the minimum
          string table size is thus 4.

          The layout of a symbol table entry and the principal flag
          values that distinguish symbol types are given in the
          include file as follows:

     A.OUT(5)                                                 A.OUT(5)

          /*
           * Format of a symbol table entry.
           */
          struct nlist {
                   union {
                       char      *n_name; /* for use when in-core */
                       long      n_strx;  /* index into file string table */
                   } n_un;
                   unsigned char n_type;  /* type flag, i.e. N_TEXT etc; see below */
                   char          n_other;
                   short         n_desc;  /* see <stab.h> */
                   unsigned      n_value; /* value of this symbol (or sdb offset) */
          };
          #define  n_hash        n_desc   /* used internally by ld */

          /*
           * Simple values for n_type.
           */
          #define  N_UNDF        0x0      /* undefined */
          #define  N_ABS         0x2      /* absolute */
          #define  N_TEXT        0x4      /* text */
          #define  N_DATA        0x6      /* data */
          #define  N_BSS         0x8      /* bss */
          #define  N_COMM        0x12     /* common (internal to ld) */
          #define  N_FN          0x1f     /* file name symbol */

          #define  N_EXT         01       /* external bit, or'ed in */
          #define  N_TYPE        0x1e     /* mask for all the type bits */

          /*
           * Other permanent symbol table entries have some of the N_STAB bits set.
           * These are given in <stab.h>
           */
          #define  N_STAB        0xe0     /* if any of these bits set, don't discard */

          /*
           * Format for namelist values.
           */
          #define  N_FORMAT      "%08x"

          In the a.out file a symbol's n_un.n_strx field gives an
          index into the string table.  A n_strx value of 0 indicates
          that no name is associated with a particular symbol table
          entry.  The field n_un.n_name can be used to refer to the
          symbol name only if the program sets this up using n_strx
          and appropriate data from the string table.

          If a symbol's type is undefined external, and the value
          field is non-zero, the symbol is interpreted by the loader
          ld as the name of a common region whose size is indicated by
          the value of the symbol.

     A.OUT(5)                                                 A.OUT(5)

          The value of a byte in the text or data which is not a por-
          tion of a reference to an undefined external symbol is
          exactly that value which will appear in memory when the file
          is executed.  If a byte in the text or data involves a ref-
          erence to an undefined external symbol, as indicated by the
          relocation information, then the value stored in the file is
          an offset from the associated external symbol.  When the
          file is processed by the link editor and the external symbol
          becomes defined, the value of the symbol will be added to
          the bytes in the file.

          If relocation information is present, it amounts to eight
          bytes per relocatable datum as in the following structure:

          /*
           * Format of a relocation datum.
           */
          struct relocation_info {
                   int       r_address;       /* address which is relocated */
                   unsigned  r_symbolnum:24,  /* local symbol ordinal */
                             r_pcrel:1,       /* was relocated pc relative already */
                             r_length:2,      /* 0=byte, 1=word, 2=long */
                             r_extern:1,      /* does not include value of sym referenced */
                             :4;              /* nothing, yet */
          };

          There is no relocation information if a_trsize+a_drsize==0.
          If r_extern is 0, then r_symbolnum is actually a n_type for
          the relocation (i.e. N_TEXT meaning relative to segment text
          origin.)

     SEE ALSO
          adb(1), as(1), ld(1), nm(1), sdb(1), stab(5), strip(1)

     BUGS
          Not having the size of the string table in the header is a
          loss, but expanding the header size would have meant
          stripped executable file incompatibility, and we couldn't
          hack this just now.