Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/888741/

The a.out executable
format dates back to the earliest days of Linux — and before. It has
not been used in any serious way for decades, but support still exists in
the Linux kernel and has resisted all attempts at its removal. Back in
January, Borislav Petkov tried yet
again to delete support for this format, leading to another extended
discussion. There is one difference this time around, though: the effort
to get rid of a.out support might just succeed.