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This article is too short. I think a.out (file format) (this page) and a.out (disambiguation page with one subpage (this one)) should be merged. --ssd 14:55, 23 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I agree on that, but I don't know how to delete the A.out page and rename the A.out (file format) page.

It would also be more useful if there was some information on the structure of the a.out format. --Bernard François 06:02, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To do that, you'd need to propose the deletion of the a.out page and get an administrator to delete it (it might be possible to get them to do the rename at the same time, so it's an atomic operation.

As for the information on the a.out structure, you might want to add it - although note that different UN*Xes have adapted a.out format in their own ways, so the question is what structures to include. (That's one reason for COFF and ELF - provide a standard format that obviates the need to "fork" the a.out format in N different directions.) Guy Harris 06:43, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have preserved the old disambiguation page at Talk:A.out/Old. --Stemonitis 13:01, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

according to "An unsung hero: The hardworking ELF": "a.out appeared in V7 UNIX"; not in V6 UNIX

Seebs is probably trying to simplify UNIX history for the benefit of those who have barely heard of V7 (I'd guess the latter); I distinctly remember a.out-format files on V6. Note that he said it "appeared in V7", not that it first appeared in V7. Guy Harris 07:13, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dennis Ritchie's scanned First Edition manuals indicate that the executable format on the first version of UNIX was an ancestor of the first PDP-11 a.out format. Guy Harris 07:20, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was checking out the source for the linux kernel and the CHANGES file for 1.0 claims that support was added in 1.0

CHANGES since 0.99 patchlevel 12 and earlier:
- the bad memory management one-liner bug in pl12 is naturally fixed.
- compiled with plain C by default instead of C++
- ELF binary support (Eric Youngdale)"

from: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v1.0/CHANGES

On http://www.quora.com/Unix/What-is-the-source-of-the-name-a-out the following link was identified discussing Thompson's PDP-7 assembler:

http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/chist.html

I'm interested in feedback - do you feel this a sufficient citation for this? if so why? why not? PaulReiber (talk) 02:39, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As I've heard nothing on this in some months I've modified the page to include the above URL as the citation for the name a.out. PaulReiber (talk) 04:09, 9 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

the Denis Ritchie's paper: The Development of the C Language redirect to http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/chist.html which is a dead link.

Cheers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Magnetwi (talk • contribs) 15:01, 27 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There is another link with accessible pdf at http://heim.ifi.uio.no/inf2270/programmer/historien-om-C.pdf. Either this, if there is no copyright infringement or archive.org link with last accessed page should be put instead of the dead link. —Preceding comment added by fragrant — Preceding undated comment added 06:30, 11 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed the external link. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 03:26, 4 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

a.out remains the default output file name for executables created by certain compilers and linkers when no output name is specified, even though these executables have been compiled and linked (not assembled)

The above sentence makes little sense. While it is possible to output the result of compiling a program, that result is useless unless you assemble and link it. The default output, for example, by compiling source.c with gcc without assembling it (that is, converting it to assembly) is source.s, not a.out. In contrast a.out is the default filename when the source has been assembled. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.130.79.38 (talk) 11:50, 14 April 2015‎ (UTC)[reply]

That's a good point, this edit should be taking care of that by removing the confusing description. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 13:11, 3 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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