RFC: Mark a section to be discarded for DSO and executable

[Rod Evans]

Rod Evans wrote:
> Lu, Hongjiu wrote:
> 
>> It looks like SHF_EXCLUDE is exactly what I am looking for. How useful
>> is it in your experiences?
> 
> As far as I can tell, this was introduced with the SYSTEM V APPLICATION
> BINARY INTERFACE for the PowerPC Processor Supplement back in
> September 1995 :-)
> 
> Then the Fortran folks got a hold of it for adding some specific sections
> that they didn't want added to the final output file.
> 
> Whether it's being used today by any of our compiler components I don't
> know.  I'll put some feelers out.

Our compiler folks tell me that they can create optimization (.annotate)
sections that are used during the compilation process, but are expected
to be excluded from the final executable or shared object, and that these
sections are being tagged SHF_EXCLUDE.


-- 

Rod.