5CV(10.1) 5CV(10.1)

5cv, mkppcimage, sqz - convert kernel executable to boot format

5cv [ -Dn ] [ -Hn ] [ -s ] executable outfile

mkppcimage [ -l loadaddr ] executable outfile

sqz [ -w ] [ -t ] executable

These commands convert a kernel executable in Inferno/Plan 9 a.out(10.5) format into another format used by a third party's boot loader. Most convert the input executable and write the new format to outfile.

5cv converts an ARM executable into one of several alternative formats. The output format is controlled by the -H option:

AIF for RISCOS.
Plan 9.
Boot for NetBSD.
Headerless, stripped, and padded to 2K in length. Used for the ROM resident serial bootstrap loader in a Cirrus EP72xx.
Headerless, and stripped, for general use.
EPOC IMG format. Not a complete conversion, currently sufficient for use with some NT based downloaders which autosense the file type by the "EP" signature, and then ignore the contents of the header.

The other options are:

Strip symbol table.
Enables debug output.

Mkppcimage converts a PowerPC or ARM executable to a boot image format used by PPCBOOT and UBOOT. The output file has a PPCBOOT image with one component labelled as an `OS kernel' for the appropriate architecture, containing the a.out(10.6) header, text and initialised data, all uncompressed. Symbols are not included. By default the load address is deduced from the executable's entry point; the -l option allows loadaddr to be set explicitly, with the number in C syntax (decimal by default). Other attributes are deduced from the executable.

Sqz squeezes (compresses) the given ARM or PowerPC executable using a method that achieves respectable compression for executables but is much faster to decompress than (say) gzip's. By default, both the program text and initialised data are compressed; the -t option causes sqz to compress only the program text, leaving the data as-is. By default, sqz prints compression statistics on its standard error output; the -w option causes it also to write the compressed file on its standard output. Either the bootstrap that loads it must decompress the result, or a small uncompressed stub must also be loaded that decompresses the remainder.

/utils/5cv
/utils/mkppcimage
/utils/sqz

2l(10.1), 5cv(10.1), ms2(10.1), a.out(10.5)