MIPS relocation is REL?

[Ralf Baechle]

On Tue, May 25, 2004 at 12:07:56PM -0400, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:

> "K. Ahmed Feroz" <feroz@acmet.com> writes:
> 
> > I think all MIPS processor using "REL" relocations instead of RELA.
> 
> Actually some versions of MIPS ELF support both.  Search for RELA in
> bfd/elf64-mips.c.

NABI which is the binary format used for N32 32-bit and N64 64-bit ELF
binaries.

> > Can anyone provide me the reason why it is "REL" instead "RELA"?
> 
> The original MIPS ELF Processor Supplement required REL relocs, not
> RELA relocs.  That was probably a mistake, but it was one made a long
> time ago.

Indeed - but it was painful at times.

To keep the number of design mistakes at any time constant NABI uses a
relocation format that's entirely unusual and overdesigned and NABI
allows mixing of REL and RELA ...

  Ralf