shared libraries and dynamic relocation

[Stan Switzer]

andrew at frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) writes:
> Note that AT&T has announced that, with system V release 4, they will
> also do dynamic loading on exec to support shared system calls.  They
> will also trash the COFF format in favor of yet another object file
> format, ELF.
> 

Can someone summarize this new ELF format, with advantages and
disadvantages listed.  I hope they took C++ needs into consideration
(especially debugging information).  Is there provision for sharing of
string literals (or other literals) across object module boundaries?
Is there a specific storage class for "consts" separate from text (on
some architectures this is important)?

Stan Switzer  sjs at ctt.bellcore.com