Hacker News Reader

Comment by bonzini | Hacker News Reader

Would you consider adding something like "file-sections" support to -r, preserving file boundaries as separate subsections? I have no idea how hard it would be.

View on HN

Correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't "file-sections" be identical to generating a static bundle object per original object file, and wrapping them all inside a .a archive?

If I didn't misread your proposal, file-sections would handle visibilities and resolve symbols across the entire sbo, not per-file.

OK, now I understood the gap. There is a technical limitation for relocation resolution when the relocation is against a different section. This means that for function sections we de-facto have no relocation finalization, only conversion of symbols from "global" to "local".

Hence, for a "file-sections" flag, we would only resolve relocations within a given file, but will leave intact relocations that cross the file boundary. Accordingly, this means that "function-sections" is identical to generating a static bundle object per original object file, and bundling them all together inside a .a archive.

> Accordingly, this means that "function-sections" is identical to generating a static bundle object per original object file, and bundling them all together inside a .a archive.

Ah, how are local symbols resolved within the whole .a file? I thought it would be only within the individual object file.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com