XCOFF, for "eXtended COFF", defined by IBM and used in AIX, is an improved and expanded version of the COFF

object file format An object file is a computer file containing object code, that is, machine code output of an assembler or compiler. The object code is usually relocatable, and not usually directly executable. There are various formats for object files, and the s ...

. Early versions of the

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

Macintosh also supported XCOFF, as did

BeOS BeOS is an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was positioned as a multimedia platform that could be used by a substantial population of desktop users a ...

. XCOFF additions include the use of CSECTs to provide subsection granularity of cross-references, and the use of

stabs stabs (sometimes written STABS) is a debugging data format for storing information about computer programs for use by symbolic and source-level debuggers. (The information is stored in symbol table strings; hence the name "stabs".) Cygnus Suppor ...

for

debugging In computer programming and software development, debugging is the process of finding and resolving '' bugs'' (defects or problems that prevent correct operation) within computer programs, software, or systems. Debugging tactics can involve in ...

. Information for the handling of shared libraries is also more elaborate than for plain COFF. More recently, IBM defined an XCOFF64 version supporting 64-bit AIX, and used XCOFF32 to mean the original file format.

External links

IBM's description of XCOFF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xcoff Executable file formats IBM operating systems

See also

External links