2.8 exec bug fix wanted - (nf)

[greg at isrnix.UUCP]

#N:isrnix:3500001:000:1007
isrnix!greg    Dec 16 13:38:00 1983

    We are running a heavily modified version of UCB 2.8BSD on our
11/44.  I have noticed (as have others running 2.8 on other machines)
that an executable file containing nothing but the 16 byte header and
a magic word (407, 410, ...) will crash the system when executed.  I
should say that as long as the text/data/bss sizes in the header
are 0, the system will bite it.  I have done *some* debugging, but
nothing really substantial.  I >think< that the bug happens when the
system starts up the process - something like the machine faults when
the PC tries to read the first instruction (since the Memory Management
is set up with 0 length segments all around) and the trap code (or somebody
else) tries to find out what went wrong but messes up. Before I go
digging around, has anyone fixed this problem (that is, fixed the REAL
bug, not just put a patch in getxfile to disallow 0 length programs)?

		Thanks,

		Gregory Travis
		ihnp4!inuxc!isrnix!greg
		pur-ee!isrnix!greg
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