Message-Id: <199808021731.SAA21594@sable.ox.ac.uk>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <mert0407 AT sable DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk>
From: George Foot <george DOT foot AT merton DOT oxford DOT ac DOT uk>
To: Matthew Harris <Matthew AT altavista DOT net>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 1998 18:30:20 +0000
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Subject: Re: not a COFF file
Reply-to: george DOT foot AT merton DOT oxford DOT ac DOT uk
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Precedence: bulk

On  2 Aug 98 at 16:33, Matthew Harris wrote:

> hey, my mate is trying to learn C with me but when ever he trys to run a
> program it crashes with not a COFF file error.
> any idea on how to fix this?

Check for viruses.  All or nearly all viruses don't understand the 
way djgpp programs are laid out in the file, and so can't infect them 
properly.  They just infect the bit of the file they do understand 
(the stub), overwriting part of the COFF image, and so when the stub 
tries to load the COFF image it fails, giving the above error.

See the DJGPP FAQ section 6.5 for details.

-- 
george DOT foot AT merton DOT oxford DOT ac DOT uk