ldint.7 revision 279528
1.Dd 2015-03-02 2.Dt LDINT 7 3.Os 4.Sh NAME 5.Nm ldint 6.Nd GNU Linker Internals 7.Sh 8This file documents the internals of the GNU linker 9.Li ld . 10It is a collection of miscellaneous information with little form at this point. 11Mostly, it is a repository into which you can put information about GNU 12.Li ld 13as you discover it (or as you design changes to 14.Li ld ) . 15.Pp 16This document is distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation 17License. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free 18Documentation License". 19.Pp 20.Sh The Pa README File 21Check the 22.Pa README 23file; it often has useful information that does not appear anywhere else in 24the directory. 25.Pp 26.Sh How linker emulations are generated 27Each linker target has an 28.Em emulation . 29The emulation includes the default linker script, and certain emulations also 30modify certain types of linker behaviour. 31.Pp 32Emulations are created during the build process by the shell script 33.Pa genscripts.sh . 34.Pp 35The 36.Pa genscripts.sh 37script starts by reading a file in the 38.Pa emulparams 39directory. This is a shell script which sets various shell variables used 40by 41.Pa genscripts.sh 42and the other shell scripts it invokes. 43.Pp 44The 45.Pa genscripts.sh 46script will invoke a shell script in the 47.Pa scripttempl 48directory in order to create default linker scripts written in the linker 49command language. The 50.Pa scripttempl 51script will be invoked 5 (or, in some cases, 6) times, with different assignments 52to shell variables, to create different default scripts. The choice of script 53is made based on the command line options. 54.Pp 55After creating the scripts, 56.Pa genscripts.sh 57will invoke yet another shell script, this time in the 58.Pa emultempl 59directory. That shell script will create the emulation source file, which 60contains C code. This C code permits the linker emulation to override various 61linker behaviours. Most targets use the generic emulation code, which is in 62.Pa emultempl/generic.em . 63.Pp 64To summarize, 65.Pa genscripts.sh 66reads three shell scripts: an emulation parameters script in the 67.Pa emulparams 68directory, a linker script generation script in the 69.Pa scripttempl 70directory, and an emulation source file generation script in the 71.Pa emultempl 72directory. 73.Pp 74For example, the Sun 4 linker sets up variables in 75.Pa emulparams/sun4.sh , 76creates linker scripts using 77.Pa scripttempl/aout.sc , 78and creates the emulation code using 79.Pa emultempl/sunos.em . 80.Pp 81Note that the linker can support several emulations simultaneously, depending 82upon how it is configured. An emulation can be selected with the 83.Li -m 84option. The 85.Li -V 86option will list all supported emulations. 87.Pp 88.Ss Pa emulparams scripts 89Each target selects a particular file in the 90.Pa emulparams 91directory by setting the shell variable 92.Li targ_emul 93in 94.Pa configure.tgt . 95This shell variable is used by the 96.Pa configure 97script to control building an emulation source file. 98.Pp 99Certain conventions are enforced. Suppose the 100.Li targ_emul 101variable is set to 102.Va emul 103in 104.Pa configure.tgt . 105The name of the emulation shell script will be 106.Pa emulparams/ Va emul.sh . 107The 108.Pa Makefile 109must have a target named 110.Pa e Va emul.c ; 111this target must depend upon 112.Pa emulparams/ Va emul.sh , 113as well as the appropriate scripts in the 114.Pa scripttempl 115and 116.Pa emultempl 117directories. The 118.Pa Makefile 119target must invoke 120.Li GENSCRIPTS 121with two arguments: 122.Va emul , 123and the value of the make variable 124.Li tdir_ Va emul . 125The value of the latter variable will be set by the 126.Pa configure 127script, and is used to set the default target directory to search. 128.Pp 129By convention, the 130.Pa emulparams/ Va emul.sh 131shell script should only set shell variables. It may set shell variables which 132are to be interpreted by the 133.Pa scripttempl 134and the 135.Pa emultempl 136scripts. Certain shell variables are interpreted directly by the 137.Pa genscripts.sh 138script. 139.Pp 140Here is a list of shell variables interpreted by 141.Pa genscripts.sh , 142as well as some conventional shell variables interpreted by the 143.Pa scripttempl 144and 145.Pa emultempl 146scripts. 147.Pp 148.Bl -tag -width Ds 149.It SCRIPT_NAME 150This is the name of the 151.Pa scripttempl 152script to use. If 153.Li SCRIPT_NAME 154is set to 155.Va script , 156.Pa genscripts.sh 157will use the script 158.Pa scripttempl/ Va script.sc . 159.Pp 160.It TEMPLATE_NAME 161This is the name of the 162.Pa emultempl 163script to use. If 164.Li TEMPLATE_NAME 165is set to 166.Va template , 167.Pa genscripts.sh 168will use the script 169.Pa emultempl/ Va template.em . 170If this variable is not set, the default value is 171.Li generic . 172.Pp 173.It GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT 174If this is set to a nonempty string, 175.Pa genscripts.sh 176will invoke the 177.Pa scripttempl 178script an extra time to create a shared library script. linker scripts. 179.Pp 180.It OUTPUT_FORMAT 181This is normally set to indicate the BFD output format use (e.g., 182.Li "a.out-sunos-big" . 183The 184.Pa scripttempl 185script will normally use it in an 186.Li OUTPUT_FORMAT 187expression in the linker script. 188.Pp 189.It ARCH 190This is normally set to indicate the architecture to use (e.g., 191.Li sparc ) . 192The 193.Pa scripttempl 194script will normally use it in an 195.Li OUTPUT_ARCH 196expression in the linker script. 197.Pp 198.It ENTRY 199Some 200.Pa scripttempl 201scripts use this to set the entry address, in an 202.Li ENTRY 203expression in the linker script. 204.Pp 205.It TEXT_START_ADDR 206Some 207.Pa scripttempl 208scripts use this to set the start address of the 209.Li .text 210section. 211.Pp 212.It NONPAGED_TEXT_START_ADDR 213If this is defined, the 214.Pa genscripts.sh 215script sets 216.Li TEXT_START_ADDR 217to its value before running the 218.Pa scripttempl 219script for the 220.Li -n 221and 222.Li -N 223options (see Section 224.Dq linker scripts ) . 225.Pp 226.It SEGMENT_SIZE 227The 228.Pa genscripts.sh 229script uses this to set the default value of 230.Li DATA_ALIGNMENT 231when running the 232.Pa scripttempl 233script. 234.Pp 235.It TARGET_PAGE_SIZE 236If 237.Li SEGMENT_SIZE 238is not defined, the 239.Pa genscripts.sh 240script uses this to define it. 241.Pp 242.It ALIGNMENT 243Some 244.Pa scripttempl 245scripts set this to a number to pass to 246.Li ALIGN 247to set the required alignment for the 248.Li end 249symbol. 250.El 251.Pp 252.Ss Pa scripttempl scripts 253Each linker target uses a 254.Pa scripttempl 255script to generate the default linker scripts. The name of the 256.Pa scripttempl 257script is set by the 258.Li SCRIPT_NAME 259variable in the 260.Pa emulparams 261script. If 262.Li SCRIPT_NAME 263is set to 264.Va script , 265.Li genscripts.sh 266will invoke 267.Pa scripttempl/ Va script.sc . 268.Pp 269The 270.Pa genscripts.sh 271script will invoke the 272.Pa scripttempl 273script 5 to 8 times. Each time it will set the shell variable 274.Li LD_FLAG 275to a different value. When the linker is run, the options used will direct 276it to select a particular script. (Script selection is controlled by the 277.Li get_script 278emulation entry point; this describes the conventional behaviour). 279.Pp 280The 281.Pa scripttempl 282script should just write a linker script, written in the linker command language, 283to standard output. If the emulation name--the name of the 284.Pa emulparams 285file without the 286.Pa .sc 287extension--is 288.Va emul , 289then the output will be directed to 290.Pa ldscripts/ Va emul. Va extension 291in the build directory, where 292.Va extension 293changes each time the 294.Pa scripttempl 295script is invoked. 296.Pp 297Here is the list of values assigned to 298.Li LD_FLAG . 299.Pp 300.Bl -tag -width Ds 301.It (empty) 302The script generated is used by default (when none of the following cases 303apply). The output has an extension of 304.Pa .x . 305.It n 306The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the 307.Li -n 308option. The output has an extension of 309.Pa .xn . 310.It N 311The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the 312.Li -N 313option. The output has an extension of 314.Pa .xbn . 315.It r 316The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the 317.Li -r 318option. The output has an extension of 319.Pa .xr . 320.It u 321The script generated is used when the linker is invoked with the 322.Li -Ur 323option. The output has an extension of 324.Pa .xu . 325.It shared 326The 327.Pa scripttempl 328script is only invoked with 329.Li LD_FLAG 330set to this value if 331.Li GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT 332is defined in the 333.Pa emulparams 334file. The 335.Pa emultempl 336script must arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when 337the linker is invoked with the 338.Li -shared 339option. The output has an extension of 340.Pa .xs . 341.It c 342The 343.Pa scripttempl 344script is only invoked with 345.Li LD_FLAG 346set to this value if 347.Li GENERATE_COMBRELOC_SCRIPT 348is defined in the 349.Pa emulparams 350file or if 351.Li SCRIPT_NAME 352is 353.Li elf . 354The 355.Pa emultempl 356script must arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when 357the linker is invoked with the 358.Li -z combreloc 359option. The output has an extension of 360.Pa .xc . 361.It cshared 362The 363.Pa scripttempl 364script is only invoked with 365.Li LD_FLAG 366set to this value if 367.Li GENERATE_COMBRELOC_SCRIPT 368is defined in the 369.Pa emulparams 370file or if 371.Li SCRIPT_NAME 372is 373.Li elf 374and 375.Li GENERATE_SHLIB_SCRIPT 376is defined in the 377.Pa emulparams 378file. The 379.Pa emultempl 380script must arrange to use this script at the appropriate time, normally when 381the linker is invoked with the 382.Li -shared -z combreloc 383option. The output has an extension of 384.Pa .xsc . 385.El 386.Pp 387Besides the shell variables set by the 388.Pa emulparams 389script, and the 390.Li LD_FLAG 391variable, the 392.Pa genscripts.sh 393script will set certain variables for each run of the 394.Pa scripttempl 395script. 396.Pp 397.Bl -tag -width Ds 398.It RELOCATING 399This will be set to a non-empty string when the linker is doing a final relocation 400(e.g., all scripts other than 401.Li -r 402and 403.Li -Ur ) . 404.Pp 405.It CONSTRUCTING 406This will be set to a non-empty string when the linker is building global 407constructor and destructor tables (e.g., all scripts other than 408.Li -r ) . 409.Pp 410.It DATA_ALIGNMENT 411This will be set to an 412.Li ALIGN 413expression when the output should be page aligned, or to 414.Li . 415when generating the 416.Li -N 417script. 418.Pp 419.It CREATE_SHLIB 420This will be set to a non-empty string when generating a 421.Li -shared 422script. 423.Pp 424.It COMBRELOC 425This will be set to a non-empty string when generating 426.Li -z combreloc 427scripts to a temporary file name which can be used during script generation. 428.El 429.Pp 430The conventional way to write a 431.Pa scripttempl 432script is to first set a few shell variables, and then write out a linker 433script using 434.Li cat 435with a here document. The linker script will use variable substitutions, based 436on the above variables and those set in the 437.Pa emulparams 438script, to control its behaviour. 439.Pp 440When there are parts of the 441.Pa scripttempl 442script which should only be run when doing a final relocation, they should 443be enclosed within a variable substitution based on 444.Li RELOCATING . 445For example, on many targets special symbols such as 446.Li _end 447should be defined when doing a final link. Naturally, those symbols should 448not be defined when doing a relocatable link using 449.Li -r . 450The 451.Pa scripttempl 452script could use a construct like this to define those symbols: 453.Bd -literal -offset indent 454 ${RELOCATING+ _end = .;} 455.Ed 456This will do the symbol assignment only if the 457.Li RELOCATING 458variable is defined. 459.Pp 460The basic job of the linker script is to put the sections in the correct order, 461and at the correct memory addresses. For some targets, the linker script may 462have to do some other operations. 463.Pp 464For example, on most MIPS platforms, the linker is responsible for defining 465the special symbol 466.Li _gp , 467used to initialize the 468.Li $gp 469register. It must be set to the start of the small data section plus 470.Li 0x8000 . 471Naturally, it should only be defined when doing a final relocation. This will 472typically be done like this: 473.Bd -literal -offset indent 474 ${RELOCATING+ _gp = ALIGN(16) + 0x8000;} 475.Ed 476This line would appear just before the sections which compose the small data 477section ( 478.Li .sdata , 479.Li .sbss ) . 480All those sections would be contiguous in memory. 481.Pp 482Many COFF systems build constructor tables in the linker script. The compiler 483will arrange to output the address of each global constructor in a 484.Li .ctor 485section, and the address of each global destructor in a 486.Li .dtor 487section (this is done by defining 488.Li ASM_OUTPUT_CONSTRUCTOR 489and 490.Li ASM_OUTPUT_DESTRUCTOR 491in the 492.Li gcc 493configuration files). The 494.Li gcc 495runtime support routines expect the constructor table to be named 496.Li __CTOR_LIST__ . 497They expect it to be a list of words, with the first word being the count 498of the number of entries. There should be a trailing zero word. (Actually, 499the count may be -1 if the trailing word is present, and the trailing word 500may be omitted if the count is correct, but, as the 501.Li gcc 502behaviour has changed slightly over the years, it is safest to provide both). 503Here is a typical way that might be handled in a 504.Pa scripttempl 505file. 506.Bd -literal -offset indent 507 ${CONSTRUCTING+ __CTOR_LIST__ = .;} 508 ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG((__CTOR_END__ - __CTOR_LIST__) / 4 - 2)} 509 ${CONSTRUCTING+ *(.ctors)} 510 ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG(0)} 511 ${CONSTRUCTING+ __CTOR_END__ = .;} 512 ${CONSTRUCTING+ __DTOR_LIST__ = .;} 513 ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG((__DTOR_END__ - __DTOR_LIST__) / 4 - 2)} 514 ${CONSTRUCTING+ *(.dtors)} 515 ${CONSTRUCTING+ LONG(0)} 516 ${CONSTRUCTING+ __DTOR_END__ = .;} 517.Ed 518The use of 519.Li CONSTRUCTING 520ensures that these linker script commands will only appear when the linker 521is supposed to be building the constructor and destructor tables. This example 522is written for a target which uses 4 byte pointers. 523.Pp 524Embedded systems often need to set a stack address. This is normally best 525done by using the 526.Li PROVIDE 527construct with a default stack address. This permits the user to easily override 528the stack address using the 529.Li --defsym 530option. Here is an example: 531.Bd -literal -offset indent 532 ${RELOCATING+ PROVIDE (__stack = 0x80000000);} 533.Ed 534The value of the symbol 535.Li __stack 536would then be used in the startup code to initialize the stack pointer. 537.Pp 538.Ss Pa emultempl scripts 539Each linker target uses an 540.Pa emultempl 541script to generate the emulation code. The name of the 542.Pa emultempl 543script is set by the 544.Li TEMPLATE_NAME 545variable in the 546.Pa emulparams 547script. If the 548.Li TEMPLATE_NAME 549variable is not set, the default is 550.Li generic . 551If the value of 552.Li TEMPLATE_NAME 553is 554.Va template , 555.Pa genscripts.sh 556will use 557.Pa emultempl/ Va template.em . 558.Pp 559Most targets use the generic 560.Pa emultempl 561script, 562.Pa emultempl/generic.em . 563A different 564.Pa emultempl 565script is only needed if the linker must support unusual actions, such as 566linking against shared libraries. 567.Pp 568The 569.Pa emultempl 570script is normally written as a simple invocation of 571.Li cat 572with a here document. The document will use a few variable substitutions. 573Typically each function names uses a substitution involving 574.Li EMULATION_NAME , 575for ease of debugging when the linker supports multiple emulations. 576.Pp 577Every function and variable in the emitted file should be static. The only 578globally visible object must be named 579.Li ld_ Va EMULATION_NAME_emulation , 580where 581.Va EMULATION_NAME 582is the name of the emulation set in 583.Pa configure.tgt 584(this is also the name of the 585.Pa emulparams 586file without the 587.Pa .sh 588extension). The 589.Pa genscripts.sh 590script will set the shell variable 591.Li EMULATION_NAME 592before invoking the 593.Pa emultempl 594script. 595.Pp 596The 597.Li ld_ Va EMULATION_NAME_emulation 598variable must be a 599.Li struct ld_emulation_xfer_struct , 600as defined in 601.Pa ldemul.h . 602It defines a set of function pointers which are invoked by the linker, as 603well as strings for the emulation name (normally set from the shell variable 604.Li EMULATION_NAME 605and the default BFD target name (normally set from the shell variable 606.Li OUTPUT_FORMAT 607which is normally set by the 608.Pa emulparams 609file). 610.Pp 611The 612.Pa genscripts.sh 613script will set the shell variable 614.Li COMPILE_IN 615when it invokes the 616.Pa emultempl 617script for the default emulation. In this case, the 618.Pa emultempl 619script should include the linker scripts directly, and return them from the 620.Li get_scripts 621entry point. When the emulation is not the default, the 622.Li get_scripts 623entry point should just return a file name. See 624.Pa emultempl/generic.em 625for an example of how this is done. 626.Pp 627At some point, the linker emulation entry points should be documented. 628.Pp 629.Sh A Walkthrough of a Typical Emulation 630This chapter is to help people who are new to the way emulations interact 631with the linker, or who are suddenly thrust into the position of having to 632work with existing emulations. It will discuss the files you need to be aware 633of. It will tell you when the given "hooks" in the emulation will be called. 634It will, hopefully, give you enough information about when and how things 635happen that you'll be able to get by. As always, the source is the definitive 636reference to this. 637.Pp 638The starting point for the linker is in 639.Pa ldmain.c 640where 641.Li main 642is defined. The bulk of the code that's emulation specific will initially 643be in 644.Li emultempl/ Va emulation.em 645but will end up in 646.Li e Va emulation.c 647when the build is done. Most of the work to select and interface with emulations 648is in 649.Li ldemul.h 650and 651.Li ldemul.c . 652Specifically, 653.Li ldemul.h 654defines the 655.Li ld_emulation_xfer_struct 656structure your emulation exports. 657.Pp 658Your emulation file exports a symbol 659.Li ld_ Va EMULATION_NAME_emulation . 660If your emulation is selected (it usually is, since usually there's only one), 661.Li ldemul.c 662sets the variable 663.Va ld_emulation 664to point to it. 665.Li ldemul.c 666also defines a number of API functions that interface to your emulation, like 667.Li ldemul_after_parse 668which simply calls your 669.Li ld_ Va EMULATION_emulation.after_parse 670function. For the rest of this section, the functions will be mentioned, but 671you should assume the indirect reference to your emulation also. 672.Pp 673We will also skip or gloss over parts of the link process that don't relate 674to emulations, like setting up internationalization. 675.Pp 676After initialization, 677.Li main 678selects an emulation by pre-scanning the command line arguments. It calls 679.Li ldemul_choose_target 680to choose a target. If you set 681.Li choose_target 682to 683.Li ldemul_default_target , 684it picks your 685.Li target_name 686by default. 687.Pp 688.Li main 689calls 690.Li ldemul_before_parse , 691then 692.Li parse_args . 693.Li parse_args 694calls 695.Li ldemul_parse_args 696for each arg, which must update the 697.Li getopt 698globals if it recognizes the argument. If the emulation doesn't recognize 699it, then parse_args checks to see if it recognizes it. 700.Pp 701Now that the emulation has had access to all its command-line options, 702.Li main 703calls 704.Li ldemul_set_symbols . 705This can be used for any initialization that may be affected by options. It 706is also supposed to set up any variables needed by the emulation script. 707.Pp 708.Li main 709now calls 710.Li ldemul_get_script 711to get the emulation script to use (based on arguments, no doubt,see Section 712.Dq Emulations ) 713and runs it. While parsing, 714.Li ldgram.y 715may call 716.Li ldemul_hll 717or 718.Li ldemul_syslib 719to handle the 720.Li HLL 721or 722.Li SYSLIB 723commands. It may call 724.Li ldemul_unrecognized_file 725if you asked the linker to link a file it doesn't recognize. It will call 726.Li ldemul_recognized_file 727for each file it does recognize, in case the emulation wants to handle some 728files specially. All the while, it's loading the files (possibly calling 729.Li ldemul_open_dynamic_archive ) 730and symbols and stuff. After it's done reading the script, 731.Li main 732calls 733.Li ldemul_after_parse . 734Use the after-parse hook to set up anything that depends on stuff the script 735might have set up, like the entry point. 736.Pp 737.Li main 738next calls 739.Li lang_process 740in 741.Li ldlang.c . 742This appears to be the main core of the linking itself, as far as emulation 743hooks are concerned(*). It first opens the output file's BFD, calling 744.Li ldemul_set_output_arch , 745and calls 746.Li ldemul_create_output_section_statements 747in case you need to use other means to find or create object files (i.e. shared 748libraries found on a path, or fake stub objects). Despite the name, nobody 749creates output sections here. 750.Pp 751(*) In most cases, the BFD library does the bulk of the actual linking, handling 752symbol tables, symbol resolution, relocations, and building the final output 753file. See the BFD reference for all the details. Your emulation is usually 754concerned more with managing things at the file and section level, like "put 755this here, add this section", etc. 756.Pp 757Next, the objects to be linked are opened and BFDs created for them, and 758.Li ldemul_after_open 759is called. At this point, you have all the objects and symbols loaded, but 760none of the data has been placed yet. 761.Pp 762Next comes the Big Linking Thingy (except for the parts BFD does). All input 763sections are mapped to output sections according to the script. If a section 764doesn't get mapped by default, 765.Li ldemul_place_orphan 766will get called to figure out where it goes. Next it figures out the offsets 767for each section, calling 768.Li ldemul_before_allocation 769before and 770.Li ldemul_after_allocation 771after deciding where each input section ends up in the output sections. 772.Pp 773The last part of 774.Li lang_process 775is to figure out all the symbols' values. After assigning final values to 776the symbols, 777.Li ldemul_finish 778is called, and after that, any undefined symbols are turned into fatal errors. 779.Pp 780OK, back to 781.Li main , 782which calls 783.Li ldwrite 784in 785.Pa ldwrite.c . 786.Li ldwrite 787calls BFD's final_link, which does all the relocation fixups and writes the 788output bfd to disk, and we're done. 789.Pp 790In summary, 791.Pp 792.Bl -bullet 793.It 794.Li main() 795in 796.Pa ldmain.c 797.It 798.Pa emultempl/ Va EMULATION.em 799has your code 800.It 801.Li ldemul_choose_target 802(defaults to your 803.Li target_name ) 804.It 805.Li ldemul_before_parse 806.It 807Parse argv, calls 808.Li ldemul_parse_args 809for each 810.It 811.Li ldemul_set_symbols 812.It 813.Li ldemul_get_script 814.It 815parse script 816.Pp 817.Bl -bullet 818.It 819may call 820.Li ldemul_hll 821or 822.Li ldemul_syslib 823.It 824may call 825.Li ldemul_open_dynamic_archive 826.El 827.Pp 828.It 829.Li ldemul_after_parse 830.It 831.Li lang_process() 832in 833.Pa ldlang.c 834.Pp 835.Bl -bullet 836.It 837create 838.Li output_bfd 839.It 840.Li ldemul_set_output_arch 841.It 842.Li ldemul_create_output_section_statements 843.It 844read objects, create input bfds - all symbols exist, but have no values 845.It 846may call 847.Li ldemul_unrecognized_file 848.It 849will call 850.Li ldemul_recognized_file 851.It 852.Li ldemul_after_open 853.It 854map input sections to output sections 855.It 856may call 857.Li ldemul_place_orphan 858for remaining sections 859.It 860.Li ldemul_before_allocation 861.It 862gives input sections offsets into output sections, places output sections 863.It 864.Li ldemul_after_allocation 865- section addresses valid 866.It 867assigns values to symbols 868.It 869.Li ldemul_finish 870- symbol values valid 871.El 872.Pp 873.It 874output bfd is written to disk 875.Pp 876.El 877.Sh Some Architecture Specific Notes 878This is the place for notes on the behavior of 879.Li ld 880on specific platforms. Currently, only Intel x86 is documented (and of that, 881only the auto-import behavior for DLLs). 882.Pp 883.Ss Intel x86 884.Bl -tag -width Ds 885.Li ld 886can create DLLs that operate with various runtimes available on a common x86 887operating system. These runtimes include native (using the mingw "platform"), 888cygwin, and pw. 889.Pp 890.It auto-import from DLLs 891.Bl -enum 892.It 893With this feature on, DLL clients can import variables from DLL without any 894concern from their side (for example, without any source code modifications). 895Auto-import can be enabled using the 896.Li --enable-auto-import 897flag, or disabled via the 898.Li --disable-auto-import 899flag. Auto-import is disabled by default. 900.Pp 901.It 902This is done completely in bounds of the PE specification (to be fair, there's 903a minor violation of the spec at one point, but in practice auto-import works 904on all known variants of that common x86 operating system) So, the resulting 905DLL can be used with any other PE compiler/linker. 906.Pp 907.It 908Auto-import is fully compatible with standard import method, in which variables 909are decorated using attribute modifiers. Libraries of either type may be mixed 910together. 911.Pp 912.It 913Overhead (space): 8 bytes per imported symbol, plus 20 for each reference 914to it; Overhead (load time): negligible; Overhead (virtual/physical memory): 915should be less than effect of DLL relocation. 916.El 917.Pp 918Motivation 919.Pp 920The obvious and only way to get rid of dllimport insanity is to make client 921access variable directly in the DLL, bypassing the extra dereference imposed 922by ordinary DLL runtime linking. I.e., whenever client contains something 923like 924.Pp 925.Li mov dll_var,%eax, 926.Pp 927address of dll_var in the command should be relocated to point into loaded 928DLL. The aim is to make OS loader do so, and than make ld help with that. 929Import section of PE made following way: there's a vector of structures each 930describing imports from particular DLL. Each such structure points to two 931other parallel vectors: one holding imported names, and one which will hold 932address of corresponding imported name. So, the solution is de-vectorize these 933structures, making import locations be sparse and pointing directly into code. 934.Pp 935Implementation 936.Pp 937For each reference of data symbol to be imported from DLL (to set of which 938belong symbols with name <sym>, if __imp_<sym> is found in implib), the import 939fixup entry is generated. That entry is of type IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTOR and 940stored in .idata$3 subsection. Each fixup entry contains pointer to symbol's 941address within .text section (marked with __fuN_<sym> symbol, where N is integer), 942pointer to DLL name (so, DLL name is referenced by multiple entries), and 943pointer to symbol name thunk. Symbol name thunk is singleton vector (__nm_th_<symbol>) 944pointing to IMAGE_IMPORT_BY_NAME structure (__nm_<symbol>) directly containing 945imported name. Here comes that "om the edge" problem mentioned above: PE specification 946rambles that name vector (OriginalFirstThunk) should run in parallel with 947addresses vector (FirstThunk), i.e. that they should have same number of elements 948and terminated with zero. We violate this, since FirstThunk points directly 949into machine code. But in practice, OS loader implemented the sane way: it 950goes thru OriginalFirstThunk and puts addresses to FirstThunk, not something 951else. It once again should be noted that dll and symbol name structures are 952reused across fixup entries and should be there anyway to support standard 953import stuff, so sustained overhead is 20 bytes per reference. Other question 954is whether having several IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTORS for the same DLL is possible. 955Answer is yes, it is done even by native compiler/linker (libth32's functions 956are in fact resident in windows9x kernel32.dll, so if you use it, you have 957two IMAGE_IMPORT_DESCRIPTORS for kernel32.dll). Yet other question is whether 958referencing the same PE structures several times is valid. The answer is why 959not, prohibiting that (detecting violation) would require more work on behalf 960of loader than not doing it. 961.Pp 962.El 963.Sh GNU Free Documentation License 964GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.1, March 2000 965.Pp 966Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth 967Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute 968verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. 969.Pp 9700. PREAMBLE 971.Pp 972The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other written 973document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective 974freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either 975commercially or noncommercially. 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