Re: Sharing ELF definitions between NetBSD userspace and kernel

On 2025-11-25 22:13 Mouse <[email protected]> wrote:
m> Maybe it's just me being iconoclastic, but:

jk> Goal 1: To wean userland off the use of <sys/exec_elf.h> (a kernel
jk>   header).

m> Why is this desirable?  There are numerous <sys/...> headers which
m> define/describe interfaces between userland and the kernel (which to at
m> least some extent ELF is); a simple example is <sys/socket.h>.

Very little of <sys/exec_elf.h> is actually used by the kernel;
this file currently holds both kernel code (under #ifdef _KERNEL)
and ELF-related definitions for use by userland.

Other systems use one set of files for ELF (e.g. <elf.h>/<sys/elf.h>)
and another for kernel-related symbols, offering better separation of
concerns.

Regards,
Joseph Koshy | [email protected] | https://jkoshy.net/