Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Pozsar Balazs]

Hi all,

This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
where does the term vmlinuz come from?


have a nice day,
-- 
Balazs Pozsar

Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[J Sloan]

Pozsar Balazs wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> where does the term vmlinuz come from?

compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz?

cu

jjs

Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Alon Altman]

On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, J Sloan wrote:

> Pozsar Balazs wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> > where does the term vmlinuz come from?
>
> compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz?

  Yes, but I think he wanted to know where 'vmlinux' came from... what does
the "vm" stand for? Virtual Memory?

  Alon

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This message was sent by Alon Altman (Psycho99@bigfoot.com) ICQ:1366540
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Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Doug McNaught]

Alon Altman <alon@vipe.technion.ac.il> writes:

> On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, J Sloan wrote:
> 
> > Pozsar Balazs wrote:
> >
> > > This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> > > where does the term vmlinuz come from?
> >
> > compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz?
> 
>   Yes, but I think he wanted to know where 'vmlinux' came from... what does
> the "vm" stand for? Virtual Memory?

Yes.  The kernel binary on ancient AT&T versions was called 'unix'.
When Berkeley wrote a new kernel with virtual memory, they called it
'vmunix'.  So naturally the Linux kernel is 'vmlinux' and the
compressed version is 'vmlinuz' as above.

-Doug
-- 
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
   --T. J. Jackson, 1863

Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Peter Wächtler]

Alon Altman schrieb:
> 
> On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, J Sloan wrote:
> 
> > Pozsar Balazs wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> > > where does the term vmlinuz come from?
> >
> > compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz?
> 
>   Yes, but I think he wanted to know where 'vmlinux' came from... what does
> the "vm" stand for? Virtual Memory?
> 

Well, I would guess: VM in this context: virtual machine

Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Luigi Genoni]

On old Unix systems the kernel was named VMUNIZ, and so the first linux
systems used vmlinuz, and that came into tradition


On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, J Sloan wrote:

> Pozsar Balazs wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> > where does the term vmlinuz come from?
>
> compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz?
>
> cu
>
> jjs
>
> -
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Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from?

[Jesse Pollard]

J Sloan <jjs@lexus.com>
> Hi all,
> 
> This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :)
> where does the term vmlinuz come from?

It is partly historical:

Original boot on PDP-11, the kernel was kept in the file /unix (date was mid
to late 1970s)

When virtual memory was added it was changed to /vmunix (early 80s I think)
to distinguish the difference on those systems that could do both (Mid 80s
I had a Motorola 68020 that still used /unix since the VM hadn't been finished
yet).

Then on to Linux, which added compression. Since the name UNIX (in all it's
forms) was copyrighted and couldn't be used to name the system the OS became
linux, and, following the progression, vmlinux hence - with compressed files
having a Z or gz extension - vmlinuz

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse I Pollard, II
Email: pollard@navo.hpc.mil

Any opinions expressed are solely my own.