[PATCH v3] gas: add --reloc-section-sym={all, internal, none} option for ELF

[Jan Beulich]

On 28.02.2026 07:19, Fangrui Song wrote:
> From: Fangrui Song <maskray@sourceware.org>
> 
> When generating relocations for non-ifunc local symbols that satisfies
> several conditions, GAS converts them to reference the section symbol
> (STT_SECTION) instead, folding the original symbol's offset into the
> addend.  This allows the original local symbol to be omitted from
> .symtab, but the STT_SECTION symbol itself must be present, so the
> conversion saves .symtab entries only when a section has more than one
> local symbol referenced by relocations.
> 
> Add --reloc-section-sym to control this conversion:
> 
> - all (default): convert all eligible local symbols
> - internal: only convert compiler-generated locals (.L prefix)
> - none: never convert; keep all symbols as-is in relocations
> 
> This is useful for debugging and for tools that benefit from preserved
> symbol names.
> 
> PR gas/33885

Okay, provided you checked the new tests pass for a wide range of targets.
In particular ...

> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/gas/testsuite/gas/elf/reloc-section-sym-all.d
> @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
> +#source: reloc-section-sym.s
> +#as: --reloc-section-sym=all
> +#objdump: -rsj .data
> +#name: reloc-section-sym=all
> +
> +.*: +file format .*
> +
> +RELOCATION RECORDS FOR \[\.data\]:
> +OFFSET +TYPE +VALUE
> +0*0 [^ ]+ +\.text.*
> +0*4 [^ ]+ +\.text.*
> +#pass
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/gas/testsuite/gas/elf/reloc-section-sym-internal.d
> @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
> +#source: reloc-section-sym.s
> +#as: --reloc-section-sym=internal
> +#objdump: -rsj .data
> +#name: reloc-section-sym=internal
> +
> +.*: +file format .*
> +
> +RELOCATION RECORDS FOR \[\.data\]:
> +OFFSET +TYPE +VALUE
> +0*0 [^ ]+ +local.*
> +0*4 [^ ]+ +\.text.*
> +#pass
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/gas/testsuite/gas/elf/reloc-section-sym-none.d
> @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
> +#source: reloc-section-sym.s
> +#as: --reloc-section-sym=none
> +#objdump: -rsj .data
> +#name: reloc-section-sym=none
> +
> +.*: +file format .*
> +
> +RELOCATION RECORDS FOR \[\.data\]:
> +OFFSET +TYPE +VALUE
> +0*0 [^ ]+ +local.*
> +0*4 [^ ]+ +\.Ltemp.*
> +#pass
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/gas/testsuite/gas/elf/reloc-section-sym.s
> @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
> +	.text
> +local:
> +	.byte 0
> +.Ltemp:
> +	.byte 0
> +
> +	.data
> +	.long local + 16
> +	.long .Ltemp + 16

... here I wonder whether .dc.a wouldn't be the more portable directive to
use when it comes to relocations.

> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/gas/testsuite/gas/i386/reloc-section-sym.s
> @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
> +	.text
> +	nop
> +local:
> +	.byte 0

Better "nop" here as well, just like ...

> +.Ltemp:
> +	nop

... you have it here?

Which further reminds me to ask why in the generic test you don't use .nop
in favor of .byte.

Jan