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What… what’s bad about a.out? It seems to be the default executable produced by GCC? I read the article but I couldn’t quite understand what the problem is to begin with. Is it a seldom used or outmoded executable format that is used for nothing but the default output or what?

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From the Wikipedia entry on a.out:

> "a.out" remains the default output file name for executables created by certain compilers and linkers when no output name is specified, even though the created files actually are not in the a.out format.

So you just rename the file, right? I honestly don’t understand why this is a big deal. Though in general I have always thought it was weird that UNIX defaults to that name instead of the name of the main source file.

GCC a.out is an ELF file (except in extremely rare circumstances). "a.out" as a executable format is like ELF, but different and practically no longer used. This is a proposal to remove the latter

Ah! Thanks.

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