Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: #! loader convention
Message-ID: <7233@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 17 Apr 91 19:05:20 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.232541.23205@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 16

>I believe that the convention of interpreting #! comments in
>"scripts" is built in the loader for BSD.

What do you mean by "the loader"?  It's not in the linker "ld", but it
is in the code in the kernel that handles "exec[vl]" and "exec[vl]e".

>Does anyone know if any such mechanism exists at the same level in System
>V ?

Which release of System V?  The only release from AT&T's UNIX Software
Laboratory, or its predecessor organizations, that has it is System V
Release 4; S5R4 has a full-blown "#!" implementation in the
"exec[vl]"/"exec[vl]e" code (although with, I think, some of the
line-length limitations that BSD has).  *Some* vendors have added "#!"
to OS releases of theirs based on S5 releases from AT&T prior to S5R4;
others haven't.