Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!hplabs!pyramid!gregu From: gregu@pyrnova (Greg Ullmann) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: BSS data segment Message-ID: <79791@pyramid.pyramid.com> Date: 4 Aug 89 19:26:53 GMT Sender: daemon@pyramid.pyramid.com Reply-To: gregu@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Greg Ullmann) Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA Lines: 22 In article <20900001@inmet> mark@inmet writes: > >As a new comer to UNIX and C I have always wondered what BSS stands for?? > According to "Life with UNIX: A Guide for Everyone", Don Libes & Sandy Ressler: "bss" stands for Block Started by Symbol. Used by a now obsolete IBM assembler, BSS was an assembler pseudo-opcode that filled an area of memory with zeros. That is exactly the effect of the bss in a.out files. The bss is also called the unitialized data. -m------- Greg Ullmann Phone : (313)973-0932 ---mmm----- Pyramid Technology UUCP : pyramid.com!pyrnova!gregu -----mmmmm--- -------mmmmmmm- "Comedy is when someone else falls in a manhole and breaks his neck. Tragedy is when I cut my finger." -Mel Brooks