Linux Kernel Finally Deprecating A.out Support

Linux has supported ELF binaries since the 1.x kernel days and now 25 years later, its support for the a.out file format is finally on the way out the door.

The Linux 5.1 kernel is moving ahead and deprecating a.out support with ELF binaries being ubiquitous and the old a.out support code suffering from bit rot.

Following the a.out deprecation being merged to Linux 5.1 Git on Tuesday, Linus Torvalds took it further. Linus removed the core dumping support as the code is in particularly bad shape. Linus also notes none of the modern compiler toolchains even support creating a.out binaries anymore.

Dropping that code is just 500 lines of code saving but eventually the upstream kernel developers plan on dropping the a.out support after a few kernel cycles of being deprecated and seeing if any real users come to light.