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diff docs/manual/x938.html @ 565:fc072f6cde09
Update documentation to reflect includebin offset/length feature
| author | William Astle <lost@l-w.ca> |
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| date | Thu, 21 Dec 2023 22:16:12 -0700 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/docs/manual/x938.html Thu Dec 21 22:16:12 2023 -0700 @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<HTML +><HEAD +><TITLE +>Linker Operation</TITLE +><META +NAME="GENERATOR" +CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK +REL="HOME" +TITLE="LW Tool Chain" +HREF="index.html"><LINK +REL="UP" +TITLE="LWLINK" +HREF="c838.html"><LINK +REL="PREVIOUS" +TITLE="LWLINK" +HREF="c838.html"><LINK +REL="NEXT" +TITLE="Linking Scripts" +HREF="x952.html"></HEAD +><BODY +CLASS="SECTION" +BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" +TEXT="#000000" +LINK="#0000FF" +VLINK="#840084" +ALINK="#0000FF" +><DIV +CLASS="NAVHEADER" +><TABLE +SUMMARY="Header navigation table" +WIDTH="100%" +BORDER="0" +CELLPADDING="0" +CELLSPACING="0" +><TR +><TH +COLSPAN="3" +ALIGN="center" +>LW Tool Chain</TH +></TR +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="10%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="bottom" +><A +HREF="c838.html" +ACCESSKEY="P" +>Prev</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="80%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="bottom" +>Chapter 4. LWLINK</TD +><TD +WIDTH="10%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="bottom" +><A +HREF="x952.html" +ACCESSKEY="N" +>Next</A +></TD +></TR +></TABLE +><HR +ALIGN="LEFT" +WIDTH="100%"></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="SECTION" +><H1 +CLASS="SECTION" +><A +NAME="AEN938" +>4.2. Linker Operation</A +></H1 +><P +> LWLINK takes one or more files in supported input formats and links them +into a single binary. Currently supported formats are the LWTOOLS object +file format and the archive format used by LWAR. While the precise method is +slightly different, linking can be conceptualized as the following steps. </P +><P +></P +><OL +TYPE="1" +><LI +><P +>First, the linker loads a linking script. If no script is specified, it +loads a built-in default script based on the output format selected. This +script tells the linker how to lay out the various sections in the final +binary.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Next, the linker reads all the input files into memory. At this time, it +flags any format errors in those files. It constructs a table of symbols +for each object at this time.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>The linker then proceeds with organizing the sections loaded from each file +according to the linking script. As it does so, it is able to assign addresses +to each symbol defined in each object file. At this time, the linker may +also collapse different instances of the same section name into a single +section by appending the data from each subsequent instance of the section +to the first instance of the section.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>Next, the linker looks through every object file for every incomplete reference. +It then attempts to fully resolve that reference. If it cannot do so, it +throws an error. Once a reference is resolved, the value is placed into +the binary code at the specified section. It should be noted that an +incomplete reference can reference either a symbol internal to the object +file or an external symbol which is in the export list of another object +file.</P +></LI +><LI +><P +>If all of the above steps are successful, the linker opens the output file +and actually constructs the binary.</P +></LI +></OL +></DIV +><DIV +CLASS="NAVFOOTER" +><HR +ALIGN="LEFT" +WIDTH="100%"><TABLE +SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" +WIDTH="100%" +BORDER="0" +CELLPADDING="0" +CELLSPACING="0" +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="c838.html" +ACCESSKEY="P" +>Prev</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="34%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="index.html" +ACCESSKEY="H" +>Home</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="x952.html" +ACCESSKEY="N" +>Next</A +></TD +></TR +><TR +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="left" +VALIGN="top" +>LWLINK</TD +><TD +WIDTH="34%" +ALIGN="center" +VALIGN="top" +><A +HREF="c838.html" +ACCESSKEY="U" +>Up</A +></TD +><TD +WIDTH="33%" +ALIGN="right" +VALIGN="top" +>Linking Scripts</TD +></TR +></TABLE +></DIV +></BODY +></HTML +> \ No newline at end of file