Re: [PATCH 1/33] i386: vmlinux.lds.S Distinguish absolute symbols

Sam Ravnborg
2006-08-01T19:07:30Z

On Tue, Aug 01, 2006 at 05:03:16AM -0600, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> Ld knows about 2 kinds of symbols, absolute and section
> relative. Section relative symbols symbols change value
> when a section is moved and absolute symbols do not.
>
> Currently in the linker script we have several labels
> marking the beginning and ending of sections that
> are outside of sections, making them absolute symbols.
> Having a mixture of absolute and section relative
> symbols refereing to the same data is currently harmless
> but it is confusing.
In the past we have seen problems when there was some padding between
the global symbol and the actual section start. The reason for the
padding was the alignment of the section which is aligned accordign to
the longest of the contained symbols. So no matter the
relocatable kernel this is an improvement.

Sam