From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 29596 invoked by alias); 28 Apr 2008 18:34:33 -0000 Received: (qmail 29587 invoked by uid 22791); 28 Apr 2008 18:34:32 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from bluesmobile.specifix.com (HELO bluesmobile.specifix.com) (216.129.118.140) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:34:15 +0000 Received: from [127.0.0.1] (bluesmobile.specifix.com [216.129.118.140]) by bluesmobile.specifix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB26F3B9FC; Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:34:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: the "load" command and the .bss section From: Michael Snyder To: Eli Zaretskii Cc: Mike Frysinger , drow@false.org, gdb-patches@sourceware.org In-Reply-To: References: <200804270509.34308.vapier@gentoo.org> <20080427135600.GA9356@caradoc.them.org> <200804271745.37849.vapier@gentoo.org> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:08:00 -0000 Message-Id: <1209407653.4615.303.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.3 (2.10.3-7.fc7) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gdb-patches-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-patches-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2008-04/txt/msg00638.txt.bz2 On Mon, 2008-04-28 at 06:26 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > > From: Mike Frysinger > > Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:45:37 -0400 > > Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org > > > > ah, now that i know the intentions, may i suggest the following to the > > documentation. > > Thanks, but I'm afraid the text you suggested is not clear enough. > > > +The file is loaded according to the load addresses (rather than virtual) as > > How is "load address" opposed to "virtual address"? This requires > explanation. > > > +is specified in the executable. It is expected that the target system will > > +do the actual relocation, and in the process, handle such things as setup of > > +allocated sections (e.g. the bss). > > This is also too cryptic to be useful. Can you (or someone else) > suggest a more elaborate description? E.g., what is ``relocation'' in > this context? and what other things besides .bss are expected to be > set up by loading? I extend a cautionary rejoinder -- "load" means different things in different contexts. I have not looked at this recently, but the last time I did, there were several different implementations of the "load" command, and they did not all behave identically, particularly with regard to the concept of VMA vs. LMA. That's one reason it hasn't been well documented -- it is not particularly well defined.