Static and dynamic linking

qwerty4061 · 12-27-2011, 11:11 AM

Hi,
I was trying to run a program, compiled on Linux on a windows machine(just for fun). I understand that a dynamically linked executable cannot be run on windows because of the linux c library, and windows gives some error saying something about illegal instructions. I then tried running the statically linked application, now windows is not giving me any errors, but it still is not giving the correct output, a command prompt windows appears and disappears after an instant. But the way I see it, I should be able to run a statically linked application on any x86 computer irrespective of the OS.

I compiled code using:
gcc -static loop.c

file ./a.out gives the result
./a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, not stripped

Source Code of the sample program:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int i = 0;
  while(1)
  {
    printf("%d \n", i++);
  }
  return 0;
}

Thanks

JimBrewster · 12-27-2011, 11:19 AM

Userland applications and statically linked libraries still must interface with the kernel, and Linux vs Windows kernels have very different system calls which is why we need tools like Wine to run Windows apps on Linux.

johnsfine · 12-27-2011, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qwerty4061

But the way I see it, I should be able to run a statically linked application on any x86 computer irrespective of the OS.

Not true. JimBrewster gave you one sufficient reason. Another is that the file format is not likely to be compatible.

Quote:

file ./a.out gives the result
./a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, not stripped

Try taking a .exe file that works on your Windows system and copying it to the Linux system and using a similar file command to find out the format.