[Mono-list] RE: [Mono-devel-list] Seemless Executibles?

[Andrew Arnott]

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> Don't quote me on this since I'm not a PE format guru but I believe
> at least on Windows .Net executibles pull a small feature to fake out
> the execution environment.  When you run or double click on a .Net built
> exe file, the system loads the binary where the PE header tells the system
> to load a publicly exported "start" function found in mscoree.dll and
> from there on out, this is responsible for IL execution.  The binary
> executible basically does a "redirect" to the IL interpter so the OS
> can't tell the difference and handles these binaries like old Win32
> bins.

I don't think that is right.  A .NET virus was supposedly written, which
modified the header information you speak of, but it was totally
ineffective, because it is just stub code.  A .NET signature in the PE
header just lets the NT kernel know that it is a .NET assembly and the
runtime is loaded by the kernel deliberately.  This is why the virus didn't
work.  This is all hearsay, as I am not an expert myself.  

> So here is the big money question: Can the mono runtime do this?  Has
> anyone even thought about implementing this?  Or does mono already
> do this and I've been writing little shell scripts for nothing? :-)

There is already a way to do this and use pure Linux convention:
See this web page for how to make CLI assemblies run directly from the
command line:
http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-list/2002-April/005179.html


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