x32 psABI draft version 0.2

Roland McGrath roland@redhat.com
Wed Feb 16 20:29:00 GMT 2011


> I'm wondering if we should define a section header flag (sh_flags)
> and/or an ELF header flag (e_flags) for x32 for the people unhappy about
> keying it to the ELF class...

I don't see what's wrong with paying attention to the class.  IMHO sh_flags
only makes sense if you might ever mix x32 and normal x86_64 code together
in one link, in which case indeed neither class alone nor anything else
file-global is sufficient.  If you don't do that, e_flags seems redundant
when it's already unambiguous from the class, but I suppose it doesn't hurt.

The only other complaint I imagine is the weirdo case of 32-bit systems
that deliver ELFCLASS64 core dump files so they can have a full 4GB of
memory as well as the thread state notes, where perhaps you'd want
something in the core file's headers (e.g. e_flags) to distinguish x32 from
x86_64.  But it seems to me the actual core note layouts for x32 ought to
just be the x86_64 ones anyway, so it's hard to see really caring.


Thanks,
Roland



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