question about linker scripts

[Jim Blandy <jimb at zwingli dot cygnus dot com>]

I've read the LD manual's description of the difference between

  .foo : {
    *(.foo)
    *(.bar)
  }

and

  .foo : { 
    *(.foo .bar)
  }

in a linker script's SECTIONS command, but the linker doesn't seem to
behave as I expect.

When I compile gcc/testsuite/g++.old-deja/g++.mike/eh53.C (shown at
bottom), I get a .o file with the following sections:

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA       LMA       File off  Algn
  0 .text         00000040  00000000  00000000  00000040  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, RELOC, READONLY, CODE
  1 .data         00000000  00000000  00000000  00000080  2**0
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, DATA
  2 .bss          00000000  00000000  00000000  00000080  2**0
                  ALLOC
  3 .debug_loc    00000000  00000000  00000000  00000080  2**0
                  CONTENTS, READONLY, DEBUGGING
  4 .debug_abbrev 000000f1  00000000  00000000  00000080  2**0
                  CONTENTS, READONLY, DEBUGGING
  5 .debug_info   000001b5  00000000  00000000  00000171  2**0
                  CONTENTS, RELOC, READONLY, DEBUGGING
  6 .debug_line   0000006f  00000000  00000000  00000326  2**0
                  CONTENTS, RELOC, READONLY, DEBUGGING
  7 .gnu.linkonce.t._ZN7zerosetD1Ev 00000030  00000000  00000000  000003a0  2**4
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, READONLY, CODE, LINK_ONCE_DISCARD
  8 .eh_frame     00000048  00000000  00000000  000003d0  2**2
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, RELOC, DATA
  9 .debug_pubnames 00000031  00000000  00000000  00000418  2**0
                  CONTENTS, RELOC, READONLY, DEBUGGING
 10 .debug_aranges 00000028  00000000  00000000  00000449  2**0
                  CONTENTS, RELOC, READONLY, DEBUGGING
 11 .comment      0000001b  00000000  00000000  00000471  2**0
                  CONTENTS, READONLY

The text here is divided between several sections: `.text' holds the
code for `main', and `.gnu.linkonce.t._ZN7zerosetD1Ev' holds the code
for the destructor for `class zeroset'.

My linker script is generated from the generic ld/scripttempl/elf.sc,
whose relevant section reads as follows:

  .text    ${RELOCATING-0} :
  {
    ${RELOCATING+${TEXT_START_SYMBOLS}}
    *(.text)
    ${RELOCATING+*(.text.*)}
    *(.stub)
    /* .gnu.warning sections are handled specially by elf32.em.  */
    *(.gnu.warning)
    ${RELOCATING+*(.gnu.linkonce.t.*)}
    ${RELOCATING+${OTHER_TEXT_SECTIONS}}
  } =${NOP-0}

When I link in the usual way, I get an executable where main appears
at one address, followed by a lot of stuff from libraries, and finally
the stuff from eh53.o's .gnu.linkonce.* section.

When I change ld/scripttempl/elf.sc to read as follows:

  .text    ${RELOCATING-0} :
  {
    ${RELOCATING+${TEXT_START_SYMBOLS}}
    *(.text ${RELOCATING+.gnu.linkonce.t.*})
    ${RELOCATING+*(.text.*)}
    *(.stub)
    /* .gnu.warning sections are handled specially by elf32.em.  */
    *(.gnu.warning)
    ${RELOCATING+${OTHER_TEXT_SECTIONS}}
  } =${NOP-0}

I expect to see eh53.o's .text and .gnu.linkonce.t.* sections appear
contiguously in the executable file.  However, this doesn't happen; I
still get the machine code for `main', followed by various library
routines, and finally the code for `class zeroset''s destructor, from
.gnu.linkonce.t._ZN7zerosetD1Ev.

I've verified that the linker scripts installed in lib/ldscripts read
as intended:

  .text      :
  {
    *(.text .gnu.linkonce.t.*)
    *(.text.*)
    *(.stub)
    /* .gnu.warning sections are handled specially by elf32.em.  */
    *(.gnu.warning)
  } =0

and that the linker scripts incorporated in the `ld' executable are
also changed.

Is this an ld bug, or am I doing something wrong?


Here's the code of my test program:

// Special g++ Options: -fexceptions -g
// excess errors test - XFAIL a29k-*-* sparc64-*-elf arm-*-pe

class zeroset {
public:
  ~zeroset () { }
};

int main () {
  zeroset a;
  try {
    ;
  } catch( zeroset ) {
  }
}