This is ldint.info, produced by makeinfo version 7.2 from ldint.texi.

This file documents the internals of the GNU linker ld.

   Copyright © 1992-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  Contributed by
Cygnus Support.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being "GNU General Public License" and "Funding Free
Software", the Front-Cover texts being (a) (see below), and with the
Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below).  A copy of the license is
included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

   (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:

   A GNU Manual

   (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:

   You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds
for GNU development.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Software development
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Ld-Internals: (ldint).	The GNU linker internals.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY


File: ldint.info,  Node: Top,  Next: README,  Up: (dir)

This file documents the internals of the GNU linker ‘ld’.  It is a
collection of miscellaneous information with little form at this point.
Mostly, it is a repository into which you can put information about GNU
‘ld’ as you discover it (or as you design changes to ‘ld’).

   This document is distributed under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License.  A copy of the license is included in the section
entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

* Menu:

* README::			The README File
* Emulations::			How linker emulations are generated
* Emulation Walkthrough::	A Walkthrough of a Typical Emulation
* Architecture Specific::	Some Architecture Specific Notes
* GNU Free Documentation License::  GNU Free Documentation License


File: ldint.info,  Node: README,  Next: Emulations,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 The ‘README’ File
*******************

Check the ‘README’ file; it often has useful information that does not
appear anywhere else in the directory.


File: ldint.info,  Node: Emulations,  Next: Emulation Walkthrough,  Prev: README,  Up: Top

2 How linker emulations are generated
*************************************

Each linker target has an “emulation”.  The emulation includes the
default linker script, and certain emulations also modify certain types
of linker behaviour.

   Emulations are created during the build process by the shell script
‘genscripts.sh’.

   The ‘genscripts.sh’ script starts by reading a file in the
‘emulparams’ directory.  This is a shell script which sets various shell
variables used by ‘genscripts.sh’ and the other shell scripts it
invokes.

   The ‘genscripts.sh’ script will invoke a shell script in the
‘scripttempl’ directory in order to create default linker scripts
written in the linker command language.  The ‘scripttempl’ script will
be invoked 5 (or, in some cases, 6) times, with different assignments to
shell variables, to create different default scripts.  The choice of
script is made based on the command-line options.

   After creating the scripts, ‘genscripts.sh’ will invoke yet another
shell script, this time in the ‘emultempl’ directory.  That shell script
will create the emulation source file, which contains C code.  This C
code permits the linker emulation to override various linker behaviours.
Most targets use the generic emulation code, which is in
‘emultempl/generic.em’.

   To summarize, ‘genscripts.sh’ reads three shell scripts: an emulation
parameters script in the ‘emulparams’ directory, a linker script
generation script in the ‘scripttempl’ directory, and an emulation
source file generation script in the ‘emultempl’ directory.

   For example, the Sun 4 linker sets up variables in
‘emulparams/sun4.sh’, creates linker scripts using
‘scripttempl/aout.sc’, and creates the emulation code using
‘emultempl/sunos.em’.

   Note that the linker can support several emulations simultaneously,
depending upon how it is configured.  An emulation can be selected with
the ‘-m’ option.  The ‘-V’ option will list all supported emulations.

* Menu:

* emulation parameters::        ‘emulparams’ scripts
* linker scripts::              ‘scripttempl’ scripts
* linker emulations::           ‘emultempl’ scripts


File: ldint.info,  Node: emulation parameters,  Next: linker scripts,  Up: Emulations

2.1 ‘emulparams’ scripts
========================

Each target selects a particular file in the ‘emulparams’ directory by
setting the shell variable ‘targ_emul’ in ‘configure.tgt’.  This shell
variable is used by the ‘configure’ script to control building an
emulation source file.

   Certain conventions are enforced.  Suppose the ‘targ_emul’ variable
is set to EMUL in ‘configure.tgt’.  The name of the emulation shell
script will be ‘emulparams/EMUL.sh’.  The ‘Makefile’ must have a target
named ‘eEMUL.c’; this target must depend upon ‘emulparams/EMUL.sh’, as
well as the appropriate scripts in the ‘scripttempl’ and ‘emultempl’
directories.  The ‘Makefile’ target must invoke ‘GENSCRIPTS’ with two
arguments: EMUL, and the value of the make variable ‘tdir_EMUL’.  The
value of the latter variable will be set by the ‘configure’ script, and
is used to set the default target directory to search.

   By convention, the ‘emulparams/EMUL.sh’ shell script should only set
shell variables.  It may set shell variables which are to be interpreted
by the ‘scripttempl’ and the ‘emultempl’ scripts.  Certain shell
variables are interpreted directly by the ‘genscripts.sh’ script.

   Here is a list of shell variables interpreted by ‘genscripts.sh’, as
well as some conventional shell variables interpreted by the
‘scripttempl’ and ‘emultempl’ scripts.

‘SCRIPT_NAME’
     This is the name of the ‘scripttempl’ script to use.  If
     ‘SCRIPT_NAME’ is set to SCRIPT, ‘genscripts.sh’ will use the script
     ‘scripttempl/SCRIPT.sc’.

‘TEMPLATE_NAME’
     This is the name of the ‘emultempl’ script to use.  If
     ‘TEMPLATE_NAME’ is set to TEMPLATE, ‘genscripts.sh’ will use the
     script ‘emultempl/TEMPLATE.em’.  If this variable is not set, the
     default value is ‘generic’.

‘GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT’
     If this is set to a nonempty string, ‘genscripts.sh’ will invoke
     the ‘scripttempl’ script an extra time to create a shared library
     script.  *note linker scripts::.

‘OUTPUT_FORMAT’
     This is normally set to indicate the BFD output format use (e.g.,
     ‘"a.out-sunos-big"’.  The ‘scripttempl’ script will normally use it
     in an ‘OUTPUT_FORMAT’ expression in the linker script.

‘ARCH’
     This is normally set to indicate the architecture to use (e.g.,
     ‘sparc’).  The ‘scripttempl’ script will normally use it in an
     ‘OUTPUT_ARCH’ expression in the linker script.

‘ENTRY’
     Some ‘scripttempl’ scripts use this to set the entry address, in an
     ‘ENTRY’ expression in the linker script.

‘TEXT_START_ADDR’
     Some ‘scripttempl’ scripts use this to set the start address of the
     ‘.text’ section.

‘SEGMENT_SIZE’
     The ‘genscripts.sh’ script uses this to set the default value of
     ‘DATA_ALIGNMENT’ when running the ‘scripttempl’ script.

‘TARGET_PAGE_SIZE’
     If ‘SEGMENT_SIZE’ is not defined, the ‘genscripts.sh’ script uses
     this to define it.

‘ALIGNMENT’
     Some ‘scripttempl’ scripts set this to a number to pass to ‘ALIGN’
     to set the required alignment for the ‘end’ symbol.


File: ldint.info,  Node: linker scripts,  Next: linker emulations,  Prev: emulation parameters,  Up: Emulations

2.2 ‘scripttempl’ scripts
=========================

Each linker target uses a ‘scripttempl’ script to generate the default
linker scripts.  The name of the ‘scripttempl’ script is set by the
‘SCRIPT_NAME’ variable in the ‘emulparams’ script.  If ‘SCRIPT_NAME’ is
set to SCRIPT, ‘genscripts.sh’ will invoke ‘scripttempl/SCRIPT.sc’.

   The ‘genscripts.sh’ script will invoke the ‘scripttempl’ script 5 to
9 times.  Each time it will set the shell variable ‘LD_FLAG’ to a
different value.  When the linker is run, the options used will direct
it to select a particular script.  (Script selection is controlled by
the ‘get_script’ emulation entry point; this describes the conventional
behaviour).

   The ‘scripttempl’ script should just write a linker script, written
in the linker command language, to standard output.  If the emulation
name-the name of the ‘emulparams’ file without the ‘.sc’ extension-is
EMUL, then the output will be directed to ‘ldscripts/EMUL.EXTENSION’ in
the build directory, where EXTENSION changes each time the ‘scripttempl’
script is invoked.

   Here is the list of values assigned to ‘LD_FLAG’.

‘(empty)’
     The script generated is used by default (when none of the following
     cases apply).  The output has an extension of ‘.x’.

‘n’
     The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-n’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xn’.

‘N’
     The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-N’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xbn’.

‘r’
     The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-r’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xr’.

‘u’
     The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-Ur’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xu’.

‘shared’
     The ‘scripttempl’ script is only invoked with ‘LD_FLAG’ set to this
     value if ‘GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT’ is defined in the ‘emulparams’
     file.  The ‘emultempl’ script must arrange to use this script at
     the appropriate time, normally when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-shared’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xs’.

‘c’
     The ‘scripttempl’ script is only invoked with ‘LD_FLAG’ set to this
     value if ‘GENERATE_COMBRELOC_SCRIPT’ is defined in the ‘emulparams’
     file or if ‘SCRIPT_NAME’ is ‘elf’.  The ‘emultempl’ script must
     arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when
     the linker is invoked with the ‘-z combreloc’ option.  The output
     has an extension of ‘.xc’.

‘cshared’
     The ‘scripttempl’ script is only invoked with ‘LD_FLAG’ set to this
     value if ‘GENERATE_COMBRELOC_SCRIPT’ is defined in the ‘emulparams’
     file or if ‘SCRIPT_NAME’ is ‘elf’ and ‘GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT’ is
     defined in the ‘emulparams’ file.  The ‘emultempl’ script must
     arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when
     the linker is invoked with the ‘-shared -z combreloc’ option.  The
     output has an extension of ‘.xsc’.

‘wshared’
     Like _cshared_ but in addition to needing the ‘-shared’ and ‘-z
     combreloc’ options, it also needs the ‘-z relro’ option.  If the
     ‘-z now’ option is also used then the output has an extension of
     ‘.xsw’, otherwise it is ‘.xsco’.

‘pie’
     The ‘scripttempl’ script is only invoked with ‘LD_FLAG’ set to this
     value if ‘GENERATE_PIE_SCRIPT’ is defined in the ‘emulparams’ file.
     The ‘emultempl’ script must arrange to use this script at the
     appropriate time, normally when the linker is invoked with the
     ‘-pie’ option.  The output has an extension of ‘.xd’.

     In addition if the ‘scripttempl’ script is also invoked with
     ‘GENERATE_RELRO_SCRIPT’ defined then a second script is created
     with an extension of ‘.xdo’ to match the ‘-pie’ and ‘-z relro’
     options.

‘cpie’
     Like ‘pie’ but this version is used when the ‘scripttempl’ script
     is invoked with both ‘GENERATE_PIE_SCRIPT’ and
     ‘GENERATE_COMBRELOC_SCRIPT’ defined.  The ‘emultempl’ script must
     arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when
     the linker is invoked with the ‘-pie’ and ‘-z combreloc’ options.
     The output has an extension of ‘.xdc’.

‘wpie’
     Like ‘cpie’, but in addition the ‘-z relro’ and ‘-z now’ options
     need to be defined.  The output has an extension of ‘.xdw’.

‘textonly’
‘pietextonly’
‘cpietextonly’
‘wpietextonly’

‘ctextonly’
‘wtextonly’
‘sharedtextonly’
‘csharedtextonly’
‘wsharedtextonly’

‘rotextonly’
‘roctextonly’
‘rowtextonly’
‘rosharedtextonly’
‘rocsharedtextonly’
‘rowsharedtextonly’
‘ropietextonly’
‘rocpietextonly’
‘rowpietextonly’

‘auto_import’
     The ‘scripttempl’ script is only invoked with ‘LD_FLAG’ set to this
     value if ‘GENERATE_AUTO_IMPORT_SCRIPT’ is defined in the
     ‘emulparams’ file.  The ‘emultempl’ script must arrange to use this
     script at the appropriate time, normally when the linker is invoked
     with the ‘--enable-auto-import’ option.  The output has an
     extension of ‘.xa’.

   Besides the shell variables set by the ‘emulparams’ script, and the
‘LD_FLAG’ variable, the ‘genscripts.sh’ script will set certain
variables for each run of the ‘scripttempl’ script.

‘RELOCATING’
     This will be set to a non-empty string when the linker is doing a
     final relocation (e.g., all scripts other than ‘-r’ and ‘-Ur’).

‘CONSTRUCTING’
     This will be set to a non-empty string when the linker is building
     global constructor and destructor tables (e.g., all scripts other
     than ‘-r’).

‘DATA_ALIGNMENT’
     This will be set to an ‘ALIGN’ expression when the output should be
     page aligned, or to ‘.’ when generating the ‘-N’ script.

‘CREATE_SHLIB’
     This will be set to a non-empty string when generating a ‘-shared’
     script.

‘COMBRELOC’
     This will be set to a non-empty string when generating ‘-z
     combreloc’ scripts to a temporary file name which can be used
     during script generation.

   The conventional way to write a ‘scripttempl’ script is to first set
a few shell variables, and then write out a linker script using ‘cat’
with a here document.  The linker script will use variable
substitutions, based on the above variables and those set in the
‘emulparams’ script, to control its behaviour.

   When there are parts of the ‘scripttempl’ script which should only be
run when doing a final relocation, they should be enclosed within a
variable substitution based on ‘RELOCATING’.  For example, on many
targets special symbols such as ‘_end’ should be defined when doing a
final link.  Naturally, those symbols should not be defined when doing a
relocatable link using ‘-r’.  The ‘scripttempl’ script could use a
construct like this to define those symbols:
       ${RELOCATING+ _end = .;}
   This will do the symbol assignment only if the ‘RELOCATING’ variable
is defined.

   The basic job of the linker script is to put the sections in the
correct order, and at the correct memory addresses.  For some targets,
the linker script may have to do some other operations.

   For example, on most MIPS platforms, the linker is responsible for
defining the special symbol ‘_gp’, used to initialize the ‘$gp’
register.  It must be set to the start of the small data section plus
‘0x8000’.  Naturally, it should only be defined when doing a final
relocation.  This will typically be done like this:
       ${RELOCATING+ _gp = ALIGN(16) + 0x8000;}
   This line would appear just before the sections which compose the
small data section (‘.sdata’, ‘.sbss’).  All those sections would be
contiguous in memory.

   Many COFF systems build constructor tables in the linker script.  The
compiler will arrange to output the address of each global constructor
in a ‘.ctor’ section, and the address of each global destructor in a
‘.dtor’ section (this is done by defining ‘ASM_OUTPUT_CONSTRUCTOR’ and
‘ASM_OUTPUT_DESTRUCTOR’ in the ‘gcc’ configuration files).  The ‘gcc’
runtime support routines expect the constructor table to be named
‘__CTOR_LIST__’.  They expect it to be a list of words, with the first
word being the count of the number of entries.  There should be a
trailing zero word.  (Actually, the count may be -1 if the trailing word
is present, and the trailing word may be omitted if the count is
correct, but, as the ‘gcc’ behaviour has changed slightly over the
years, it is safest to provide both).  Here is a typical way that might
be handled in a ‘scripttempl’ file.
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ __CTOR_LIST__ = .;}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG((__CTOR_END__ - __CTOR_LIST__) / 4 - 2)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ *(.ctors)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG(0)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ __CTOR_END__ = .;}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ __DTOR_LIST__ = .;}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG((__DTOR_END__ - __DTOR_LIST__) / 4 - 2)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ *(.dtors)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG(0)}
         ${CONSTRUCTING+ __DTOR_END__ = .;}
   The use of ‘CONSTRUCTING’ ensures that these linker script commands
will only appear when the linker is supposed to be building the
constructor and destructor tables.  This example is written for a target
which uses 4 byte pointers.

   Embedded systems often need to set a stack address.  This is normally
best done by using the ‘PROVIDE’ construct with a default stack address.
This permits the user to easily override the stack address using the
‘--defsym’ option.  Here is an example:
       ${RELOCATING+ PROVIDE (__stack = 0x80000000);}
   The value of the symbol ‘__stack’ would then be used in the startup
code to initialize the stack pointer.


File: ldint.info,  Node: linker emulations,  Prev: linker scripts,  Up: Emulations

2.3 ‘emultempl’ scripts
=======================

Each linker target uses an ‘emultempl’ script to generate the emulation
code.  The name of the ‘emultempl’ script is set by the ‘TEMPLATE_NAME’
variable in the ‘emulparams’ script.  If the ‘TEMPLATE_NAME’ variable is
not set, the default is ‘generic’.  If the value of ‘TEMPLATE_NAME’ is
TEMPLATE, ‘genscripts.sh’ will use ‘emultempl/TEMPLATE.em’.

   Most targets use the generic ‘emultempl’ script,
‘emultempl/generic.em’.  A different ‘emultempl’ script is only needed
if the linker must support unusual actions, such as linking against
shared libraries.

   The ‘emultempl’ script is normally written as a simple invocation of
‘cat’ with a here document.  The document will use a few variable
substitutions.  Typically each function names uses a substitution
involving ‘EMULATION_NAME’, for ease of debugging when the linker
supports multiple emulations.

   Every function and variable in the emitted file should be static.
The only globally visible object must be named
‘ld_EMULATION_NAME_emulation’, where EMULATION_NAME is the name of the
emulation set in ‘configure.tgt’ (this is also the name of the
‘emulparams’ file without the ‘.sh’ extension).  The ‘genscripts.sh’
script will set the shell variable ‘EMULATION_NAME’ before invoking the
‘emultempl’ script.

   The ‘ld_EMULATION_NAME_emulation’ variable must be a ‘struct
ld_emulation_xfer_struct’, as defined in ‘ldemul.h’.  It defines a set
of function pointers which are invoked by the linker, as well as strings
for the emulation name (normally set from the shell variable
‘EMULATION_NAME’ and the default BFD target name (normally set from the
shell variable ‘OUTPUT_FORMAT’ which is normally set by the ‘emulparams’
file).

   The ‘genscripts.sh’ script will set the shell variable ‘COMPILE_IN’
when it invokes the ‘emultempl’ script for the default emulation.  In
this case, the ‘emultempl’ script should include the linker scripts
directly, and return them from the ‘get_scripts’ entry point.  When the
emulation is not the default, the ‘get_scripts’ entry point should just
return a file name.  See ‘emultempl/generic.em’ for an example of how
this is done.

   At some point, the linker emulation entry points should be
documented.


File: ldint.info,  Node: Emulation Walkthrough,  Next: Architecture Specific,  Prev: Emulations,  Up: Top

3 A Walkthrough of a Typical Emulation
**************************************

This chapter is to help people who are new to the way emulations
interact with the linker, or who are suddenly thrust into the position
of having to work with existing emulations.  It will discuss the files
you need to be aware of.  It will tell you when the given "hooks" in the
emulation will be called.  It will, hopefully, give you enough
information about when and how things happen that you'll be able to get
by.  As always, the source is the definitive reference to this.

   The starting point for the linker is in ‘ldmain.c’ where ‘main’ is
defined.  The bulk of the code that's emulation specific will initially
be in ‘emultempl/EMULATION.em’ but will end up in ‘eEMULATION.c’ when
the build is done.  Most of the work to select and interface with
emulations is in ‘ldemul.h’ and ‘ldemul.c’.  Specifically, ‘ldemul.h’
defines the ‘ld_emulation_xfer_struct’ structure your emulation exports.

   Your emulation file exports a symbol ‘ld_EMULATION_NAME_emulation’.
If your emulation is selected (it usually is, since usually there's only
one), ‘ldemul.c’ sets the variable LD_EMULATION to point to it.
‘ldemul.c’ also defines a number of API functions that interface to your
emulation, like ‘ldemul_after_parse’ which simply calls your
‘ld_EMULATION_emulation.after_parse’ function.  For the rest of this
section, the functions will be mentioned, but you should assume the
indirect reference to your emulation also.

   We will also skip or gloss over parts of the link process that don't
relate to emulations, like setting up internationalization.

   After initialization, ‘main’ selects an emulation by pre-scanning the
command-line arguments.  It calls ‘ldemul_choose_target’ to choose a
target.  If you set ‘choose_target’ to ‘ldemul_default_target’, it picks
your ‘target_name’ by default.

   ‘main’ calls ‘ldemul_before_parse’, then ‘parse_args’.  ‘parse_args’
calls ‘ldemul_parse_args’ for each arg, which must update the ‘getopt’
globals if it recognizes the argument.  If the emulation doesn't
recognize it, then parse_args checks to see if it recognizes it.

   Now that the emulation has had access to all its command-line
options, ‘main’ calls ‘ldemul_set_symbols’.  This can be used for any
initialization that may be affected by options.  It is also supposed to
set up any variables needed by the emulation script.

   ‘main’ now calls ‘ldemul_get_script’ to get the emulation script to
use (based on arguments, no doubt, *note Emulations::) and runs it.
While parsing, ‘ldgram.y’ may call ‘ldemul_hll’ or ‘ldemul_syslib’ to
handle the ‘HLL’ or ‘SYSLIB’ commands.  It may call
‘ldemul_unrecognized_file’ if you asked the linker to link a file it
doesn't recognize.  It will call ‘ldemul_recognized_file’ for each file
it does recognize, in case the emulation wants to handle some files
specially.  All the while, it's loading the files (possibly calling
‘ldemul_open_dynamic_archive’) and symbols and stuff.  After it's done
reading the script, ‘main’ calls ‘ldemul_after_parse’.  Use the
after-parse hook to set up anything that depends on stuff the script
might have set up, like the entry point.

   ‘main’ next calls ‘lang_process’ in ‘ldlang.c’.  This appears to be
the main core of the linking itself, as far as emulation hooks are
concerned(*).  It first opens the output file's BFD, calling
‘ldemul_set_output_arch’, and calls
‘ldemul_create_output_section_statements’ in case you need to use other
means to find or create object files (i.e.  shared libraries found on a
path, or fake stub objects).  Despite the name, nobody creates output
sections here.

   (*) In most cases, the BFD library does the bulk of the actual
linking, handling symbol tables, symbol resolution, relocations, and
building the final output file.  See the BFD reference for all the
details.  Your emulation is usually concerned more with managing things
at the file and section level, like "put this here, add this section",
etc.

   Next, the objects to be linked are opened and BFDs created for them,
and ‘ldemul_after_open’ is called.  At this point, you have all the
objects and symbols loaded, but none of the data has been placed yet.

   Next comes the Big Linking Thingy (except for the parts BFD does).
All input sections are mapped to output sections according to the
script.  If a section doesn't get mapped by default,
‘ldemul_place_orphan’ will get called to figure out where it goes.  Next
it figures out the offsets for each section, calling
‘ldemul_before_allocation’ before and ‘ldemul_after_allocation’ after
deciding where each input section ends up in the output sections.

   The last part of ‘lang_process’ is to figure out all the symbols'
values.  After assigning final values to the symbols, ‘ldemul_finish’ is
called, and after that, any undefined symbols are turned into fatal
errors.

   OK, back to ‘main’, which calls ‘ldwrite’ in ‘ldwrite.c’.  ‘ldwrite’
calls BFD's final_link, which does all the relocation fixups and writes
the output bfd to disk, and we're done.

   In summary,

   • ‘main()’ in ‘ldmain.c’
   • ‘emultempl/EMULATION.em’ has your code
   • ‘ldemul_choose_target’ (defaults to your ‘target_name’)
   • ‘ldemul_before_parse’
   • Parse argv, calls ‘ldemul_parse_args’ for each
   • ‘ldemul_set_symbols’
   • ‘ldemul_get_script’
   • parse script

        • may call ‘ldemul_hll’ or ‘ldemul_syslib’
        • may call ‘ldemul_open_dynamic_archive’

   • ‘ldemul_after_parse’
   • ‘lang_process()’ in ‘ldlang.c’

        • create ‘output_bfd’
        • ‘ldemul_set_output_arch’
        • ‘ldemul_create_output_section_statements’
        • read objects, create input bfds - all symbols exist, but have
          no values
        • may call ‘ldemul_unrecognized_file’
        • will call ‘ldemul_recognized_file’
        • ‘ldemul_after_open’
        • map input sections to output sections
        • may call ‘ldemul_place_orphan’ for remaining sections
        • ‘ldemul_before_allocation’
        • gives input sections offsets into output sections, places
          output sections
        • ‘ldemul_after_allocation’ - section addresses valid
        • assigns values to symbols
        • ‘ldemul_finish’ - symbol values valid

   • output bfd is written to disk


File: ldint.info,  Node: Architecture Specific,  Next: GNU Free Documentation License,  Prev: Emulation Walkthrough,  Up: Top

4 Some Architecture Specific Notes
**********************************

This is the place for notes on the behavior of ‘ld’ on specific
platforms.  Currently, only Intel x86 is documented (and of that, only
the auto-import behavior for DLLs).

* Menu:

* ix86::                        Intel x86


File: ldint.info,  Node: ix86,  Up: Architecture Specific

4.1 Intel x86
=============

     ‘ld’ can create DLLs that operate with various runtimes available
     on a common x86 operating system.  These runtimes include native
     (using the mingw "platform"), cygwin, and pw.

_auto-import from DLLs_
       1. With this feature on, DLL clients can import variables from
          DLL without any concern from their side (for example, without
          any source code modifications).  Auto-import can be enabled
          using the ‘--enable-auto-import’ flag, or disabled via the
          ‘--disable-auto-import’ flag.  Auto-import is disabled by
          default.

       2. This is done completely in bounds of the PE specification (to
          be fair, there's a minor violation of the spec at one point,
          but in practice auto-import works on all known variants of
          that common x86 operating system) So, the resulting DLL can be
          used with any other PE compiler/linker.

       3. Auto-import is fully compatible with standard import method,
          in which variables are decorated using attribute modifiers.
          Libraries of either type may be mixed together.

       4. Overhead (space): 8 bytes per imported symbol, plus 20 for
          each reference to it; Overhead (load time): negligible;
          Overhead (virtual/physical memory): should be less than effect
          of DLL relocation.

     Motivation

     The obvious and only way to get rid of dllimport insanity is to
     make client access variable directly in the DLL, bypassing the
     extra dereference imposed by ordinary DLL runtime linking.  I.e.,
     whenever client contains something like

     ‘mov dll_var,%eax,’

     address of dll_var in the command should be relocated to point into
     loaded DLL. The aim is to make OS loader do so, and than make ld
     help with that.  Import section of PE made following way: there's a
     vector of structures each describing imports from particular DLL.
     Each such structure points to two other parallel vectors: one
     holding imported names, and one which will hold address of
     corresponding imported name.  So, the solution is de-vectorize
     these structures, making import locations be sparse and pointing
     directly into code.

     Implementation

     For each reference of data symbol to be imported from DLL (to set
     of which belong symbols with name <sym>, if __imp_<sym> is found in
     implib), the import fixup entry is generated.  That entry is of
     type IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTOR and stored in .idata$3 subsection.
     Each fixup entry contains pointer to symbol's address within .text
     section (marked with __fuN_<sym> symbol, where N is integer),
     pointer to DLL name (so, DLL name is referenced by multiple
     entries), and pointer to symbol name thunk.  Symbol name thunk is
     singleton vector (__nm_th_<symbol>) pointing to
     IMAGE_IMPORT_BY_NAME structure (__nm_<symbol>) directly containing
     imported name.  Here comes that "om the edge" problem mentioned
     above: PE specification rambles that name vector
     (OriginalFirstThunk) should run in parallel with addresses vector
     (FirstThunk), i.e.  that they should have same number of elements
     and terminated with zero.  We violate this, since FirstThunk points
     directly into machine code.  But in practice, OS loader implemented
     the sane way: it goes thru OriginalFirstThunk and puts addresses to
     FirstThunk, not something else.  It once again should be noted that
     dll and symbol name structures are reused across fixup entries and
     should be there anyway to support standard import stuff, so
     sustained overhead is 20 bytes per reference.  Other question is
     whether having several IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTORS for the same DLL is
     possible.  Answer is yes, it is done even by native compiler/linker
     (libth32's functions are in fact resident in windows9x
     kernel32.dll, so if you use it, you have two
     IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTORS for kernel32.dll).  Yet other question is
     whether referencing the same PE structures several times is valid.
     The answer is why not, prohibiting that (detecting violation) would
     require more work on behalf of loader than not doing it.


File: ldint.info,  Node: GNU Free Documentation License,  Prev: Architecture Specific,  Up: Top

5 GNU Free Documentation License
********************************

                     Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

     Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <http://fsf.org/>

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

  0. PREAMBLE

     The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
     functional and useful document “free” in the sense of freedom: to
     assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
     with or without modifying it, either commercially or
     noncommercially.  Secondarily, this License preserves for the
     author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not
     being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

     This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
     works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.
     It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
     license designed for free software.

     We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
     free software, because free software needs free documentation: a
     free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms
     that the software does.  But this License is not limited to
     software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless
     of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book.  We
     recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is
     instruction or reference.

  1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

     This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium,
     that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can
     be distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice
     grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration,
     to use that work under the conditions stated herein.  The
     "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work.  Any member
     of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".  You accept
     the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way
     requiring permission under copyright law.

     A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
     Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
     modifications and/or translated into another language.

     A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section
     of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
     publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall
     subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could
     fall directly within that overall subject.  (Thus, if the Document
     is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not
     explain any mathematics.)  The relationship could be a matter of
     historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or
     of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
     regarding them.

     The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose
     titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the
     notice that says that the Document is released under this License.
     If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it
     is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.  The Document may
     contain zero Invariant Sections.  If the Document does not identify
     any Invariant Sections then there are none.

     The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are
     listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice
     that says that the Document is released under this License.  A
     Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
     be at most 25 words.

     A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
     represented in a format whose specification is available to the
     general public, that is suitable for revising the document
     straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed
     of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely
     available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text
     formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats
     suitable for input to text formatters.  A copy made in an otherwise
     Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has
     been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by
     readers is not Transparent.  An image format is not Transparent if
     used for any substantial amount of text.  A copy that is not
     "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

     Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
     ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format,
     SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming
     simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification.
     Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG.
     Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and
     edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which
     the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and
     the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word
     processors for output purposes only.

     The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
     plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the
     material this License requires to appear in the title page.  For
     works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title
     Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the
     work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

     The "publisher" means any person or entity that distributes copies
     of the Document to the public.

     A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document
     whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses
     following text that translates XYZ in another language.  (Here XYZ
     stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
     "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".)
     To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the
     Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according
     to this definition.

     The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
     which states that this License applies to the Document.  These
     Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in
     this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other
     implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and
     has no effect on the meaning of this License.

  2. VERBATIM COPYING

     You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
     commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
     copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
     applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you
     add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You
     may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading
     or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.  However,
     you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.  If you
     distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the
     conditions in section 3.

     You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
     and you may publicly display copies.

  3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

     If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
     have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and
     the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must
     enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
     these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
     Back-Cover Texts on the back cover.  Both covers must also clearly
     and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies.  The
     front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
     equally prominent and visible.  You may add other material on the
     covers in addition.  Copying with changes limited to the covers, as
     long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these
     conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

     If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
     legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
     reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
     adjacent pages.

     If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
     numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable
     Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with
     each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general
     network-using public has access to download using public-standard
     network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free
     of added material.  If you use the latter option, you must take
     reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque
     copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
     remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one
     year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or
     through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

     It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
     the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies,
     to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
     Document.

  4. MODIFICATIONS

     You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
     under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
     release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
     Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
     distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever
     possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these things in
     the Modified Version:

       A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
          distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous
          versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the
          History section of the Document).  You may use the same title
          as a previous version if the original publisher of that
          version gives permission.

       B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
          entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
          the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
          principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
          authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
          from this requirement.

       C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
          Modified Version, as the publisher.

       D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

       E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
          adjacent to the other copyright notices.

       F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
          notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
          Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
          the Addendum below.

       G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
          Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
          license notice.

       H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

       I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
          and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
          authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the
          Title Page.  If there is no section Entitled "History" in the
          Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
          publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add
          an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the
          previous sentence.

       J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
          for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
          likewise the network locations given in the Document for
          previous versions it was based on.  These may be placed in the
          "History" section.  You may omit a network location for a work
          that was published at least four years before the Document
          itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers
          to gives permission.

       K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
          Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section
          all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
          acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

       L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered
          in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers or the
          equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

       M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section
          may not be included in the Modified Version.

       N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
          "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
          Section.

       O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

     If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
     appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no
     material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate
     some or all of these sections as invariant.  To do this, add their
     titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's
     license notice.  These titles must be distinct from any other
     section titles.

     You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
     nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
     parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
     has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
     definition of a standard.

     You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
     and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of
     the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one passage
     of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
     through arrangements made by) any one entity.  If the Document
     already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added
     by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on
     behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old
     one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added
     the old one.

     The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
     License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
     assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

     You may combine the Document with other documents released under
     this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for
     modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all
     of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
     unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
     combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
     their Warranty Disclaimers.

     The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
     multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
     copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
     but different contents, make the title of each such section unique
     by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
     original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a
     unique number.  Make the same adjustment to the section titles in
     the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
     combined work.

     In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
     "History" in the various original documents, forming one section
     Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
     "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications".  You
     must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."

  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

     You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
     documents released under this License, and replace the individual
     copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
     that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
     rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents
     in all other respects.

     You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
     distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert
     a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
     License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
     document.

  7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

     A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
     separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a
     storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
     copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
     legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual
     works permit.  When the Document is included in an aggregate, this
     License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which
     are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

     If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
     copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half
     of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed
     on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
     electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic
     form.  Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket
     the whole aggregate.

  8. TRANSLATION

     Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
     distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section
     4.  Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
     permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
     translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
     original versions of these Invariant Sections.  You may include a
     translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
     Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also
     include the original English version of this License and the
     original versions of those notices and disclaimers.  In case of a
     disagreement between the translation and the original version of
     this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
     prevail.

     If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
     "Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to
     Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
     actual title.

  9. TERMINATION

     You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
     except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
     otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void,
     and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

     However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your
     license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a)
     provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and
     finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the
     copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some
     reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

     Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is
     reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the
     violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have
     received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from
     that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days
     after your receipt of the notice.

     Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate
     the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you
     under this License.  If your rights have been terminated and not
     permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the
     same material does not give you any rights to use it.

  10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

     The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
     the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new
     versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
     differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
     <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/>.

     Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
     number.  If the Document specifies that a particular numbered
     version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you
     have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
     that specified version or of any later version that has been
     published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.  If the
     Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may
     choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free
     Software Foundation.  If the Document specifies that a proxy can
     decide which future versions of this License can be used, that
     proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently
     authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

  11. RELICENSING

     "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site" (or "MMC Site") means any
     World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also
     provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works.  A
     public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server.
     A "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration" (or "MMC") contained in the
     site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC
     site.

     "CC-BY-SA" means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
     license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit
     corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
     California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license
     published by that same organization.

     "Incorporate" means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or
     in part, as part of another Document.

     An MMC is "eligible for relicensing" if it is licensed under this
     License, and if all works that were first published under this
     License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently
     incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover
     texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior
     to November 1, 2008.

     The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the
     site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1,
     2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
====================================================

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and license
notices just after the title page:

       Copyright (C)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
       or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
       with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
       Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
       Free Documentation License''.

   If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the "with...Texts."  line with this:

         with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with
         the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts
         being LIST.

   If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.

   If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free
software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit
their use in free software.


Tag Table:
Node: Top1088
Node: README1893
Node: Emulations2129
Node: emulation parameters4452
Node: linker scripts7844
Node: linker emulations18228
Node: Emulation Walkthrough20714
Node: Architecture Specific27493
Node: ix8627921
Node: GNU Free Documentation License32269

End Tag Table


Local Variables:
coding: utf-8
End:
