.eh_frame section on alpha

[Simon Burge]

Hi folks,

http://sources.redhat.com/ml/binutils/2003-05/msg00863.html added the
generation of a .eh_frame section to all objects that otherwise didn't
have them.

On NetBSD, we have some tight code size constraints for our first stage
boot loader - it needs to fit in 7.5k of space at the start of the disk.
With binutils 2.14, our boot loader was 6880 bytes.  With binutils 2.15,
the boot loader is 7848.  The only difference in size between the two is
the .eh_frame section:

  3 .eh_frame     000003c4  0000000020001990  0000000020001990  00001a40  2**3
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, READONLY, DATA

What exactly is this section used for?  A bit of googling seems to
indicate it's for exception handling, which isn't a C issue.

More importantly, how can I disable the generation of this section?  It
seems that only alpha generates an .eh_frame section unconditionally.

Cheers,
Simon.
--
Simon Burge                                   <simonb@wasabisystems.com>
NetBSD Development, Support and Service:   http://www.wasabisystems.com/