Re: New flag --keep-section <section_name> to prevent certain sections from being linker garbage collected.

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>]

Sriraman Tallam <tmsriram@google.com> writes:

>   This patch adds a new flag, --keep-section to allow specifying
> section names that should not be gc'ed.
>
>   For use cases, as an example,  a statically linked executable with
> pthreads needs .rodata.nptl_version to be debuggable with gdb but
> --gc-sections simply discards it. With this option,
> --keep-section,.rodata.nptl_version will solve the problem. The
> -u,<symbolname> does not work if the symbol is local.

I don't mind the patch, but where does .rodata.nptl_version come from?
>From the name it seems like this is something that the linker should
handle automatically, rather than requiring a command line option.


> 	* options.h (--keep-section): New option.
> 	* object.cc (Relobj::is_section_name_included): Return true
> 	if section name matches any section specified with --keep-section.
> 	* testsuite/Makefile.am (gc_keep_section_test): New test.
> 	* testsuite/Makefile.in: Regenerate.
> 	* testsuite/gc_keep_section_test.cc: New file.
> 	* testsuite/gc_keep_section_test.sh: New file.


> +  // Keep all section names mentioned with option --keep-section.
> +  for (options::String_set::const_iterator p
> +	 = parameters->options().keep_section_begin();
> +       p != parameters->options().keep_section_end();
> +       ++p)
> +    {
> +      const char* section_name = p->c_str();
> +      if (strcmp (name, section_name) == 0)
> +	return true;		  
> +    }  

Just write
    if (*p == name)
      return true;

The patch is OK with that change, if you still want to commit it.

Thanks.

Ian