Why do some compilers use "a.out" as the default name for executables?

Posted by Ville Laurikari on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Ville Laurikari
Published on 2009-08-02T05:59:29Z Indexed on 2010/04/18 2:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 436

Filed under:

Most UNIX C compilers link executables by default to a file called "a.out". Why? Is this a written standard or just de-facto standard behavior? What would break if these compilers would just produce an error message (or use a different default name) instead of producing "a.out"?

Related posts about compilers

Advantages of compilers for functional languages over compilers for imperative languages

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
As a follow up to this question What are the advantages of built-in immutability of F# over C#?--am I correct in assuming that the F# compiler can make certain optimizations knowing that it's dealing with largely immutable code? I mean even if a developer writes "Functional C#" the compiler wouldn't… >>> More
What are modern and old compilers written in?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
As a compiler, other than an interpreter, only needs to translate the input and not run it the performance of itself should be not that problematic as with an interpreter. Therefore, you wouldn't write an interpreter in, let's say Ruby or PHP because it would be far too slow. However, what about… >>> More
Is reading a book on compilers necessary to be a good programmer

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I understand the basics of compilers, virtual machines and interpreters from reading overviews in other books. But I don't know the specifics. Do you think it is important to know the specifics and read an in depth book about compilers? If so, why and please suggest a book? >>> More
JIT compiler for C, C++, and the likes

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Is there any just-in-time compiler out there for compiled languages, such as C and C++? (The first names that come to mind are Clang and LLVM! But I don't think they currently support it.) Explanation: I think the software could benefit from runtime profiling feedback and aggressively optimized… >>> More
How does an optimizing compiler react to a program with nested loops?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Say you have a bunch of nested loops. public void testMethod() { for(int i = 0; i<1203; i++){ //some computation for(int k=2; k<123; k++){ //some computation for(int j=2; j<12312; j++){ //some… >>> More

Developer IT

Why do some compilers use "a.out" as the default name for executables? - Developer IT

Why do some compilers use "a.out" as the default name for executables?

compilers

c

history

unix

Related posts about compilers

Advantages of compilers for functional languages over compilers for imperative languages

What are modern and old compilers written in?

Is reading a book on compilers necessary to be a good programmer

JIT compiler for C, C++, and the likes

How does an optimizing compiler react to a program with nested loops?

Related posts about c

Categories cloud