[PATCH] Fix IAT (Import Address Table) alignment on AArch64

[Jan Beulich]

On 07.04.2026 16:47, Evgeny Karpov wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 07, 2026, Jan Beulich wrote:
>> On 07.04.2026 11:48, Evgeny Karpov wrote:
>>> The IAT should be aligned to 8 bytes in aarch64-w64-mingw32, otherwise, it might
>>> result in relocation issues.
>>
>> What is it that makes this different on aarch64? IOW I wonder if this is
>> going too far or not far enough.
>>
>>> binutils/ChangeLog:
>>>
>>> 	* dlltool.c (make_head): Update.
>>
>> Please either omit the ChangeLog entry, or have it say something meaningful.
> 
> The updated decription:
> ---
> The IAT should be aligned to 8 bytes in aarch64-w64-mingw32, otherwise, it might
> result in relocation issues.
> 
> When a function is imported from DLL, it generates the following code:
> 
> adrp    x19, __imp_fn
> ldr     x19, [x19, #:lo12:__imp_fn]
> 
> 8 byte alignment is required for ldr relocation. Addresses are placed in IAT.
> The size of the chunk on AArch64 is 8 bytes.
> If IAT is not aligned to 8 bytes, the relocation issue appears.
> This patch fixes this issue.

Much better, thanks. This addresses part of my earlier remark then as well,
clarifying it's not "too much" that you do. The "too little" aspect remains,
though: Looking at a random ia64 archive, I see .idata$5 to have 8-byte
alignment there as well. Shouldn't .idata$5 always have machine-word
alignment?

> binutils/ChangeLog:
> 
>         * dlltool.c (make_head): Add 8 byte alignment.

This sadly still gives the impression of wider a change (all targets) than
there is.

Jan