Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 24 Feb 2020 13:28:28 -0800 | From | Fangrui Song <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86/boot/compressed: Remove unnecessary sections from bzImage |
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On 2020-02-24, Nick Desaulniers wrote: >On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 5:28 AM Michael Matz <matz@suse.de> wrote: >> >> Hello, >> >> On Sat, 22 Feb 2020, Nick Desaulniers wrote: >> >> > > > > In GNU ld, it seems that .shstrtab .symtab and .strtab are special >> > > > > cased. Neither the input section description *(.shstrtab) nor *(*) >> > > > > discards .shstrtab . I feel that this is a weird case (probably even a bug) >> > > > > that lld should not implement. >> > > > >> > > > Ok, forget what the tools do for a second: why is .shstrtab special and >> > > > why would one want to keep it? >> > > > >> > > > Because one still wants to know what the section names of an object are >> > > > or other tools need it or why? >> > > > >> > > > Thx. >> > > > >> > > > -- >> > > > Regards/Gruss, >> > > > Boris. >> > > > >> > > > https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette >> > > >> > > .shstrtab is required by the ELF specification. The e_shstrndx field in >> > > the ELF header is the index of .shstrtab, and each section in the >> > > section table is required to have an sh_name that points into the >> > > .shstrtab. >> > >> > Yeah, I can see it both ways. That `*` doesn't glob all remaining >> > sections is surprising to me, but bfd seems to be "extra helpful" in >> > not discarding sections that are required via ELF spec. >> >> In a way the /DISCARD/ assignment should be thought of as applying to >> _input_ sections (as all such section references on the RHS), not >> necessarily to output sections. What this then means for sections that >> are synthesized by the link editor is less clear. Some of them are >> generated regardless (as you noted, e.g. the symbol table and associated >> string sections, including section name string table), some of them are >> suppressed, and either lead to an followup error (e.g. with .gnu.hash), or >> to invalid output (e.g. missing .dynsym for executables simply lead to >> segfaults when running them).
Hi Michael, please see my other reply on this thread: https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/2/24/47
Synthesized sections can be matched as well. For example, SECTIONS { .pltfoo : { *(.plt) }} can rename the output section .plt to .pltfoo It seems that in GNU ld, the synthesized section is associated with the original object file, so it can be written as:
SECTIONS { .pltfoo : { a.o(.plt) }}
In lld, you need a wildcard to match the synthesized section *(.plt)
.rela.dyn is another example.
>> That's the reason for the perceived inconsistency with behaviour on '*': >> it's application to synthesized sections. Arguably bfd should be fixed to >> also not discard the other essential sections (or alternatively to give an >> error when an essential section is discarded). The lld behaviour of e.g. >> discarding .shstrtab (or other synthesized sections necessary for valid >> ELF output) doesn't make much sense either, though.
I think most input section descriptions *(*) are misuse. They really should be INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS(SHF_ALLOC) *(*)
>Hi Michael, thank you for the precise feedback. Do you have a list of >"synthesized sections necessary for valid ELF output?" Also, could you >point me to the documentation about `*` and its relation to >"synthesized sections necessary for valid ELF output?" This will help >me file a precise bug against LLD.
https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/ld/Output-Section-Discarding.html#Output-Section-Discarding
has a few words on this topic. A large part is implementation defined. In GNU ld, the implementation is mostly in ld/ldlang.c and ld/ldexp.c (very long).
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