Re: [RFC] Passing MIPS debug hints between gcc and gdb

[Mark Mitchell <mark at codesourcery dot com>]

Fred Fish wrote:
> On Thursday 11 May 2006 02:57, Richard Sandiford wrote:
>> Using empty sections was always a hack, to be honest (modelled on the
>> old .gcc_compiled_v3 thing, whatever it was called).  I suppose we
>> should be using note sections really.
> 
> Wouldn't that be ELF specific, as well as requiring the linker to
> merge hint strings?  I'm a little unclear on just what capabilities
> the current linker has to merge section contents so that "hint
> strings" put into a note section wouldn't be duplicated in the final
> linked output, one for each compilation unit.

The ARM EABI contains a specification for object-file attributes,
including rules about how to merge them.  The specification is quite
general; there are mechanisms for compiler extension, etc.

It is indeed ELF-specific, but I would guess you could use the same
technique on other object formats that allow additional sections.

I'm not sure what the current state of support for this feature is in
Binutils, but I think we should consider using the ARM strategy on all
platforms without a previously defined mechanism of their own; we want
it anyhow (for ARM), and we can presumably avoid duplicate effort/code
by reusing the code.

-- 
Mark Mitchell
CodeSourcery
mark@codesourcery.com
(650) 331-3385 x713