Some General Linux Newb Questions
 

Hi y'all

Couple of newb questions

1) Is there a way I can get vim to point to different compilers or assemblers based on file extensions ? What I want is to be able to load a file with an .asm extension ,for instance, have asm syntax highlighting and what not load automatically, give it an assemble command, assembly with nasm, and catch the the output in another buffer. I can do this with emacs but am finding it to be more and more of a kludge (bout the only thing I still use it for is Lisp/Scheme). FYI I'm reading through the vim book @ http://www.truth.sk/vim/vimbook-OPL.pdf


2) Is there any decent debuggers and disassemblers for linux ? Something along the lines of SoftICE , Olydbg , and IDA. I'm sorry but gdb is an absolute pain in the ass to work with (makes me feel like I'm back in the old dos days with debug.exe). After years of reading Intel syntax (wich admitedly was very nonintuitive @ first) trying to decipher AT&T is making me go cross-eyed :)

3) I'm interested in packers/encrypters ,of wich there are tons in the the win32 world, but I don't see many for linux . Anyone know of some linux sites for this ? I need some indepth info on playing with elf headers. I remember in dos there was a way that you could build self repairing exe files can you do this with elf ?

thanks

_h

1) gdb is a great debugger. Of course you don't really
need to use it directly if you want something a little more
pretty get a front-end
ddd, kdbg or something like that

kgdb for kernel debugging

2) for a disassembler check out ldasm

3) The elf file format for your viewing pleasure
http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/files...tables/ELF.pdf

4) The thing is there is not much of a cracking warez scene
in linux b/c most of the programs available also have the
source code available. So there aren't a lot of cracker
toolz.

5) Self repairing executables aren't really feasible b/c
of privilege separation. Linux a real multi-user
operating system and as such users aren't allowed
to mess with the executables with out privileges.
You can write self-modifying code but it will only be
in memory. You could conceivably do it but it would
be silly.

6) For packers try UPX and tinlink

7) If you are interested in encryption check out gnupg

8) You will want to check out nasm if gas and at&t
syntax is bugging you.

if you really want to learn.
check out www.tldp.org
for software go to http://freshmeat.net
and as always www.google.com