.gnu.linkonce COFF support

[Mark E.]

> I do have some vague memory of that now.  The code implemented by the
> binutils is the approach described in the Microsoft PE documentation--
> I just checked again.  But perhaps the Microsoft tools actually do
> something different.

My understanding comes from coffcode.h and coffgen.c in bfd.
COFF long section names are enabled by defining 
COFF_LONG_SECTION_NAMES. This feature is implemented by 
storing the long names in the string table and storing a pointer to the 
table entry in the section's name field. I assume this would have to 
done in a way compatible with Microsoft since its used with PE 
COMDAT. There also seems to be a long filename feature enabled by 
COFF_LONG_FILE_NAMES which does much the same thing for the 
.file directive.

PE targets define COFF_LONG_SECTION_NAMES because COMDAT 
sections need long section names.  PE COMDAT seems to do more 
than just be a overly complicated way of emulating .gnu.linkonce for 
g++, but isn't currently implemented in binutils (as DJ notes).

So it seems PE COMDAT is dependant on having long names, but 
long names aren't dependant on PE COMDAT. Therefore, DJGPP 
should be able to use long section names in implementing 
.gnu.linkonce support without tangling with PE COMDAT?

Mark

--- 
Mark Elbrecht, snowball3@bigfoot.com
http://snowball.frogspace.net/