3.6.1 Output Section Description ¶

The full description of an output section looks like this:

section [address] [(type)] :
  [AT(lma)]
  [ALIGN(section_align) | ALIGN_WITH_INPUT]
  [SUBALIGN(subsection_align)]
  [constraint]
  {
    output-section-command
    output-section-command
    ...
  } [>region] [AT>lma_region] [:phdr :phdr ...] [=fillexp] [,]

Most output sections do not use most of the optional section attributes.

The whitespace around section is required, so that the section name is unambiguous. The colon and the curly braces are also required. The comma at the end may be required if a fillexp is used and the next sections-command looks like a continuation of the expression. The line breaks and other white space are optional.

Each output-section-command may be one of the following:

• a symbol assignment (see Assigning Values to Symbols)
• an input section description (see Input Section Description)
• data values to include directly (see Output Section Data)
• a special output section keyword (see Output Section Keywords)