Assume next code (1.s): .section .text,"axG",@progbits,foo,comdat .quad bar ./as-new 1.s -o out readelf -a out [ 5] .text PROGBITS 0000000000000000 00000048 0000000000000008 0000000000000000 AXG 0 0 1 [ 6] .rela.text RELA 0000000000000000 00000120 0000000000000018 0000000000000018 I 7 5 8 As shown, .rela.text is present for .text, it has 5 as sh_info field, but gas does not include it into group: COMDAT group section [ 1] `.group' [foo] contains 1 sections: [Index] Name [ 5] .text During the "regular" part of the link, the linker includes or discards groups as a unit. ELF spec that says: "There may *not* be non-symbol references to the sections comprising a group from outside the group, for example, use of a group member's section header index in an sh_link or sh_info member." So it looks to be violation of spec.
The master branch has been updated by Alan Modra <amodra@sourceware.org>: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=db4677b8bd90b49f826807352c6c3c7eb0d57814 commit db4677b8bd90b49f826807352c6c3c7eb0d57814 Author: Alan Modra <amodra@gmail.com> Date: Wed Oct 4 09:53:53 2017 +1030 PR21167, relocation sections not included in groups This fixes a wart I've known about for years, but haven't done anything about because BFD treats relocation sections as an adjunct to the section they relocate. SHF_GROUP on the section thus implicitly applies to its relocation section(s), but it is an error that the reloc sections aren't part of the group. Like many patches to gas, this wasn't as straightforward as it could be due to a number of backends, i386, cr16 and others, removing relocs in tc_get_reloc rather than marking them as "done" earlier in md_apply_reloc. So it isn't possible for the group support to reliably detect the presence of relocs by looking at fixups earlier than write_relocs. However the group support needs to create signature symbols, and that must be done before the symbol table is frozen, before write_relocs. So split off the group sizing from elf_adjust_symtab and put it in elf_frob_file_after_relocs. bfd/ PR 21167 * elf.c (_bfd_elf_setup_sections): Don't trim reloc sections from groups. (_bfd_elf_init_reloc_shdr): Pass sec_hdr, use it to copy SHF_GROUP flag from section. (elf_fake_sections): Adjust calls. Exit immediately on failure. (bfd_elf_set_group_contents): Add associated reloc section indices to group contents gas/ PR 21167 * config/obj-elf.c (struct group_list): Delete elt_count. (groups): New static. (build_group_lists): Don't count elements. (elf_adjust_symtab): Use groups rather than auto list. Set up pointer from group member to SHT_GROUP section. Don't size SHT_GROUP section or clean up here.. (elf_frob_file_after_relocs): ..do so here instead. * testsuite/gas/arc/jli-1.d, * testsuite/gas/elf/groupautob.d, * testsuite/gas/mips/compact-eh-eb-2.d, * testsuite/gas/mips/compact-eh-eb-5.d, * testsuite/gas/mips/compact-eh-el-2.d, * testsuite/gas/mips/compact-eh-el-5.d: Adjust. ld/ PR 21167 * testsuite/ld-elf/group9b.d: Adjust for relocs included in group.
Fixed master, and in my opinion the risk/benefit makes this patch not suitable for backporting to 2.29.
The master branch has been updated by H.J. Lu <hjl@sourceware.org>: https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=7d36e2799141d206651410c68080f40b88809a3b commit 7d36e2799141d206651410c68080f40b88809a3b Author: H.J. Lu <hjl.tools@gmail.com> Date: Wed Oct 4 18:01:47 2017 -0700 Add an assembler test for PR gas/21167 PR gas/21167 * testsuite/gas/elf/elf.exp: Run group3. * testsuite/gas/elf/group3.d: New file. * testsuite/gas/elf/group3.s: Likewise.