strange comment in load_elf_binary

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2015, Mulyadi Santosa wrote:

> > I see something strange in the load_elf_binary.
> >
> > /* This is the program interpreter used for
> > * shared libraries - for now assume that this
> > * is an a.out format binary
> > */
> >
> > This comment is in the load_elf_binary. I don't know why it "assume that
> > this is an a.out format binary". a.out and elf are two different file
> > formats.
> >
> > If I misunderstand something, please let me know.
> > Thanks.
> >
> >     - mudongliang
> >
> very likely it refers to "a.out" as default object/executable name
> produces by gcc, when you don't specify certain name.

 FWIW it looks like historical stuff to me, IIUC you could have had a 
dynamic loader aka interpreter (`ld.so') built as an a.out binary and 
still serve ELF binaries.  See also other a.out in this file and 
CONFIG_USELIB.  This stuff was hairy back in the days.

 Also:

$ cat /usr/doc/ld.so-1.9.11/ld.so.lsm
Begin3
Title:          Linux shared, dynamic linker and utilities.
Version:        1.9.11
Entered-date:   01MAY99
Description:    This package contains ld.so, ld-linux.so, ldconfig,
		ldd and libdl.
Keywords:       dynamic linker, shared library, ld.so, ld-linux.so,
		ldconfig, ldd, libdl
Author:         david at ods.com (David Engel)
Maintained-by:  david at ods.com (David Engel)
Primary-site:   tsx-11.mit.edu /pub/linux/packages/GCC
		ld.so-1.9.11.tar.gz
Alternate-site: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/GCC
		ld.so-1.9.11.tar.gz
Platform:       Linux 2.0.0 or later.
Copying-policy: Copyrighted but freely distributable.
End
$ 

  Maciej