4 ms·
It did, sigh. It was in the LINK'ER documentation. RSX/VMS was all about object modules being shared between concurrently running applications in separate user
by vaxman 7y ago
It did, sigh. It was in the LINK'ER documentation. RSX/VMS was all about object modules being shared between concurrently running applications in separate user spaces (because RAM was crazy expensive and DISK was crazy slow and expensive).
The format for runtime libraries, executables and memory-mapped sections in general descended from the PDP11 a bit and I believe it changed radically (for the first time in decades) with the introduction of the 64-bit Alpha architecture under "Open"VMS.
- bediger4000 7y agoThank you! I'm serious, I bought several books and inquired of VMS experts (on usenet, that long ago) looking for anything about VMS executable format. This is the first hint I've gotten.
- bediger4000 7y agoAlas, the LINKER documentation (https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548pro_contents.html https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548...) I can find only includes a description of the "object language" for VAX (https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548pro_contents_001.html#toc_appendix_a https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548...) and Alpha (https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548pro_contents_002.html#toc_appendix_b https://www.itec.suny.edu/scsys/vms/ovmsdoc073/v73/4548/4548...). It does say that Itanium VMS used ELF format executables. So I think it's still an open question as to whether VAX/VMS or Alpha/VMS executable file format ever had documentation. How did ELF format files play in VMS' idea of process-as-elaborate-address-sapce, where running a command involved reading or mapping in an executable, and then jumping to the entry point? Or did I64 VMS abandon the unusual VMS process model?