Re: hppa(parisc) elf shlib abi doc?

["John David Anglin" <dave at hiauly1 dot hia dot nrc dot ca>]

The short answer is that there isn't any.  The shared library implementation
used on hppa-linux was developed in the finest hacker tradition :)

Basically, parisc-linux follows the sysv i386 model but the treatment
of function descriptors is similar to that used under hpux.  The hppa
stubs under linux are simpler than those under hpux because arguments are
not relocated and the memory model is flat.  There is some discussion of
the design in the parisc-linux mail archives.  You can look at the glibc
implementation to see what was needed there.  Mostly you need to look
at the code.

There is some ELF documentation on the HP site but it doesn't explicitly.
deal with the shared library implementation.  There is some some info
in the hpux 64-bit runtime document and supplement.  The parisc-linux
mail archives and links to the HP documentation can be found at

http://www.parisc-linux.org/index.html

The worst decision in the process was using the hpux style of function
descriptors.  This requires function pointer canonicalization.  It
would have been better to use unique function descriptors.  Of course
changing this now would require rebuilding everything.  There are
some of us that would like to see the 32-bit linux and 64-bit hpux
elf support merged.  This would help with implementing a 64-bit linux
runtime.

> PA binutils people may know.
> 
> H.J.
> On Wed, May 21, 2003 at 08:16:20AM -0500, Todd T. Fries wrote:
> > 
> > If there is such a document in existance, would you mind pointing us to it?
> > 
> > I'm getting started on shared libraries for OpenBSD/hppa and am told if it
> > did exist, or some form of overall picture of elf shared libs abi for parisc,
> > we would be much more productive.

Dave
-- 
J. David Anglin                                  dave.anglin@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
National Research Council of Canada              (613) 990-0752 (FAX: 952-6602)