Using section flags to indicate stripable or persistent sections

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Guys,

     We would like to suggest an extension the ELF section flags which can be
     used to indicate sections that should, or should not, be stripped when
     removing debug information.

     The problem we are trying to address is that different stripping tools
     (strip, eu-strip, llvm-strip) have different heuristics for deciding
     which sections should be removed when stripping debug information.  In
     order to fix this we are proposing two new section flags:

       GNU_SHF_CAN_BE_STRIPPED
       GNU_SHF_DO_NOT_STRIP

     These would be set by the assembler and/or linker to indicate sections
     that should be removed when stripping and sections which must not be
     removed when stripping.  It would be an error if both flags were present
     on a given section, and if neither flag is present then the stripping
     tool would fall back on its built in heuristics.

     In addition we need new flags for the assembler's .section directive
     (suggestion: 'D': can be stripped, 'K' do not strip).
     This email is to ask if you think that this idea has merit, and if so,
     are there any guidelines for writing and submitting a formal specification ?

  Cheers
     Nick