Strange flag in WIN32 PECOFF

Hanzac Chen hanzac@gmail.com
Mon Mar 14 23:35:00 GMT 2005


Hi, Guys

I found the latest version of binutils (GNU binutils 2.15.94
20050118) will produce a PECOFF object with IMAGE_FILE_32BIT_MACHINE
(aka: F_AR32WR) on, in the field Characteristics (aka: f_flags) of
the COFF File Header.

But in previous versions (like 2.14 if I remembered clear), this
flag will be turn off.

I think it's strange and inconsistent, I hope you can give me
some explanation. BTW: I'm writing a COFF object parser, and
want to support two kinds of COFF, one is from MingW and the
other from DJGPP. So I need to rely on the difference of the
file's format. I know that the two kinds of formats' absolute
relocation method are different. Does the F_AR32WR flag I mentioned
above has some relation with this relocation difference?

GOoD BYE,
Hanzac



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