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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!masscomp!trb
From: trb@masscomp.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: magic numbers
Message-ID: <215@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 18:10:38 EST
Article-I.D.: masscomp.215
Posted: Mon Mar  5 18:10:38 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Mar-84 03:24:57 EST
References: <2639@alice.UUCP>
Organization: MASSCOMP, Littleton, MA
Lines: 9

I just think that it was really nice that whoever put in the #! feature
used the magic number 20443 for editable executables.  They used the
old 407 format for binary executables because it would have been hard
to type and noisy to print out (407 is ^G^A).

Seriously, 407 was a PDP11 Branch .+7 instruction, which was executed
to jump over the a.out header.

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274