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Re: The Extension to ELF


On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:38 PM, Fumiaki Isoya <isoyaf@gmail.com> wrote:

>> I suspect we should make decision of solving all symbols by the
>> calculation.  That is, all symbols should be solved by the
>> calculation of the information that stored in Reverse Polish which
>> consists of constants, other symbols, and their arithmetic.  It
>> also contains the information of shared libraries possibly.  I
>> suppose this decision gives unified implementation of object
>> files, static libraries, and shared libraries.  In fact it will be
>> the extended ELF.

The details matter.

ELF is designed to permit fast program loading at runtime, and to
permit fast linking.  Changing symbol and relocation values to take
general expressions works against that goal.

> I imagine the goal of this infrastructure
> is to provide seamless linking of OO language's object files, C's
> object files, and Asm's object files.

We can already link all these object files together.

I'm sure it is possible to improve on ELF in various ways.  However,
ELF is pretty good.  I very strongly recommend that you understand how
the format works before you attempt to extend it.

Ian


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