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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: where does bss come from?
Message-ID: <2424@phri.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 31-Aug-86 15:32:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: phri.2424
Posted: Sun Aug 31 15:32:25 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Sep-86 23:40:16 EDT
References: <2627@burdvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 15
Keywords: bss

In article <2627@burdvax.UUCP> eric@burdvax.UUCP (Eric Marshall) writes:
> 	Could someone please tell me where the name BSS comes from.
> The comments in /usr/include/a.out.h says that it is uninitialized
> data. What's the connection?

	I believe BSS stands for Block Started by Symbol.  An external
declaration such as "int iarray [100];" will typically get compiled into
something like the following meta-assembler code:

	.bss			; start assembling into bss segment
iarray:	.word 100		; allocate 100 words of space
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016