bfd/elf.c assertion for multiple relocations to same section

[Joe Lawrence <joe dot lawrence at redhat dot com>]

I was wondering if anyone could explain the assertion in bfd/elf.c :: 
bfd_section_from_shdr() where it is processing a SHT_REL/SHT_RELA 
section and decides to return failure if *p_hdr is already set non-NULL:

	/* PR 17512: file: 0b4f81b7.  */
	if (*p_hdr != NULL)
	  goto fail;

I opened bz-24456 [1] with some more details and links to sample ELF 
objects that trip this assertion.

As far as I understand what is happening, bfd_section_from_shdr() isn't 
prepared to process a (second) relocation section that targets a section 
that another relocation section does, too.

ie,

  Relocation section [ 4] '.rela.text' for section [ 3] '.text' ...
  Relocation section [34] '.klp.rela.vmlinux..text' for section [ 3] 
'.text' ...

in my case the assertion hits when we're processing section 34.

Anyone have context behind this check and whether or not binutils should 
be able to handle such ELF objects?


[1] https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24456

Thanks,

-- Joe