Default entry point for ELF shared objects

[Paul Koning]

> On Sep 16, 2021, at 12:54 PM, Hans-Peter Nilsson <hp@bitrange.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 16 Sep 2021, Paul Koning wrote:
>> ...
>> A default entry point really doesn't make any sense for any
>> target, bare metal or otherwise.  Yes, it's possible such a
>> random guess is the right answer some of the time, but clearly
>> any build can always supply an explicit start address -- and in
>> my view that should be required.
>> 
>> As an example, the DEC object format has a special code point
>> meaning "no start address", and that is the default.
> 
> Let me rephrase: since we *can't* say "no start address", a
> guess that is much more likely to be correct, is "the address of
> the first byte of the text *segment*" (for formats where that
> term applies) than the that of the .text *section*.  This
> because code for embedded targets is likely linked into one blob
> with the .text section being located only after other named
> sections in the text segment and the start address being the
> first address of that blob.

I see the problem.  Yes, if there is no encoding for "no address" (not even zero) then your suggestion is the best available option.

	paul