Home Original page

Can ELF file contain more than one symbol table?

Dennis Yurichev dennis@conus.info
Sat Jul 17 16:38:00 GMT 2010 
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 17-Jul-10 19:29, John Reiser wrote:
>> Okay, but it is there any compiler/linker which is able to produce
>> multiple SYMTAB sections?
> 
> I have several in my back pocket.  At this moment nobody else has any copies :-)
> 
> Because most consuming programs pay attention to only one Elf32_Shdr
> section with SHT_SYMTAB==.sh_type [and usually with .sh_name ==> ".symtab"]
> then the only point of an ET_REL file with more than one such section
> would be to occupy space or to "pass through" a private conversation.
> Similarly for DT_SYMTAB in the Dynamic section.
> 
> Please tell the purpose for multiple SYMTAB sections.

I'm writing utility for ELF files processing.
And if I planing to handle only one SYMTAB, things are simpler.
But just want to be sure.
I found here http://www.sco.com/developers/gabi/latest/ch4.sheader.html
... that in case of SHT_REL section, sh_link contain "The section header
index of the associated symbol table."
That disappointing me. Is it rudiment?

- -- 
My PGP public key: http://yurichev.com/dennis.yurichev.asc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAkxB3HAACgkQ1YPmFmJG++M++ACcCWWAs4lcv7iyy0i5HYXyya08
zHsAn3qk7mTH668+sFt7uqGBlc4g89eg
=EkjW
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
More information about the Binutils mailing list