[PATCH] amend "ELF: give .note.GNU-stack proper section type"

[H.J. Lu]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 8:27 PM Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com> wrote:
>
> From: H.J. Lu <hjl.tools@gmail.com>
>
> PR ld/33780
> Correct the section's special_sections[] entry as well, and further
> constrain ld's setting of the section type.
> ---
> Requires either the patch at the bottom of
> https://sourceware.org/pipermail/binutils/2026-January/147115.html
> or (afaict, didn't check myself)
> https://sourceware.org/pipermail/binutils/2026-January/147275.html
> as a prereq.
>
> I can't help the impression that the table entry in bfd/elf.c can in fact
> simply be deleted, as the subsequent one would now take care of all of the
> .note.* sections.
>
> --- a/bfd/elf.c
> +++ b/bfd/elf.c
> @@ -3139,7 +3139,7 @@ static const struct bfd_elf_special_sect
>  static const struct bfd_elf_special_section special_sections_n[] =
>  {
>    { STRING_COMMA_LEN (".noinit"),       -2, SHT_NOBITS,   SHF_ALLOC + SHF_WRITE },
> -  { STRING_COMMA_LEN (".note.GNU-stack"), 0, SHT_PROGBITS, 0 },
> +  { STRING_COMMA_LEN (".note.GNU-stack"), 0, SHT_NOTE,     0 },
>    { STRING_COMMA_LEN (".note"),                 -1, SHT_NOTE,     0 },
>    { NULL,                   0,           0, 0,            0 }
>  };
> --- a/ld/ldelf.c
> +++ b/ld/ldelf.c
> @@ -1329,7 +1329,7 @@ ldelf_after_open (int use_libpath, int n
>           flagword flags = SEC_READONLY | (link_info.execstack ? SEC_CODE : 0);
>           s = bfd_make_section_with_flags (link_info.input_bfds,
>                                            ".note.GNU-stack", flags);
> -         if (s)
> +         if (s && bfd_get_flavour (s->owner) == bfd_target_elf_flavour)
>             elf_section_type (s) = SHT_NOTE;
>         }
>        return;

1.  Please coordinate with GCC developers to change .note.GNU-stack to SHT_NOTE.
2.  Please add a testcase to show why it should be changed to SHT_NOTE.
3.  Please add a testcase for PR ld/33780.

-- 
H.J.