GAS: changing name of default sections .text/.data/.rodata

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Etienne,

>  As I said at end of my E-mail, the Linux Makefile is a bit
> complex and just has a list of file to compile:

Sorry, I am still not quite getting this.

>  For instance, part of the Linux patch (WEB link I gave) in
> arch/i386/kernel/Makefile:
>  obj-y	:= process.o semaphore.o signal.o entry.o traps.o irq.o \
>      ptrace.o time.o ioport.o ldt.o setup.o i8259.o sys_i386.o \
>      pci-dma.o i386_ksyms.o i387.o dmi_scan.o bootflag.o \
> -    quirks.o i8237.o i8253.o tsc.o
> +    quirks.o i8237.o i8253.o tsc.o realmode.o
> 
>  Sometimes, you also want to compile all the files with the
> same compiler options, even if they just share typedef's
> and structures (aligment and packed problems).

Right that is fine.

>  Moreover, in this case, the file realmode.o is pre-linked
> in "arch/i386/kernel/built-in.o" so the Makefile rule to obtain
> realmode.o from realmode.c has to be special involving an added
> objcopy, and so another file extension for the intermediate file.

Are you saying that the Makefile already has an intermediate step that 
runs objcopy as part of the process to create realmode.o ?  If so, what 
is hard about adding a second objcopy step (or an augmented first 
objcopy step) to rename the sections in the manner you desire ?

>  And the process to obtain built-in.o is common to all
> subdirectory so I cannot add a test for just a file.

But you can add a special rule to the Makefile to handle it.

So for example you could change the objects list in the Makefile to 
rename built-in.o to mangled-built-in.o and then make a make rule like this:

   mangled-built-in.o: builtin.o
    objcopy --rename-section .text=.text16 built-in.o mangled-built-in.o

Wouldn't this work ?

Cheers
   Nick