Appending text to executables

[George Robbins]

In article <264 at rabbit1.UUCP> barber at rabbit1.UUCP (Steve Barber) writes:
>Will anything bad happen if I append arbitrary text to a UNIX executable
>(a.out) file?  Basically, I need to have copyright notices physically
>present in my a.out files and I don't want to hassle with relinking
>the things.
>Steve Barber    Rabbit Software Corp.

I think to be of any value, the notices have to be 'visible', not hidden
at the end of the file.  To do this, you need to arrange for text constants
to be in the statup code.

Of course, if you are laying traps to mark your code for identification,
visibility is not an issue, but then just running the executable through
'ld' again will probably neatly trim off your addition.

Yes, I know that no 'written' copyright notice is needed for the work to
be copyrighted, but that isn't the issue here...
-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr at seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)