LLD currently does not allow non-contiguous SHF_LINK_ORDER components in an
output section. This makes it infeasible to add SHF_LINK_ORDER to an existing
metadata section if backward compatibility with older object files are
concerned.
We did not allow mixed components (like GNU ld) and D77007 relaxed to allow
non-contiguous SHF_LINK_ORDER components. This patch allows arbitrary mix, with
sorting performed within an InputSectionDescription. For example,
`.rodata : {*(.rodata.foo) *(.rodata.bar)}`, has two InputSectionDescription's.
If there is at least one SHF_LINK_ORDER and at least one non-SHF_LINK_ORDER in
.rodata.foo, they are ordered within `*(.rodata.foo)`: we arbitrarily place
SHF_LINK_ORDER components before non-SHF_LINK_ORDER components (like Solaris ld).
`*(.rodata.bar)` is ordered similarly, but the two InputSectionDescription's
don't interact. It can be argued that this is more reasonable than the previous
behavior where written order was not respected.
It would be nice if the two different semantics (ordering requirement & garbage
collection) were not overloaded on one section flag, however, it is probably
difficult to obtain a generic flag at this point
(https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/generic-abi/hgx_m1aXqUo
"SHF_LINK_ORDER's original semantics make upgrade difficult").
(Actually, without the GC semantics, SHF_LINK_ORDER would still have the
sh_link!=0 & sh_link=0 issue. It is just that people find the GC semantics more
useful and tend to use the feature more often.)
GNU ld feature request: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16833
Differential Revision: https://reviews.llvm.org/D84001
Part of https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41734
The semantics of SHF_LINK_ORDER have been extended to represent metadata
sections associated with some other sections (usually text).
The associated text section may be discarded (e.g. LTO) and we want the
metadata section to have sh_link=0 (D72899, D76802).
Normally the metadata section is only referenced by the associated text
section. sh_link=0 means the associated text section is discarded, and
the metadata section will be garbage collected. If there is another
section (.gc_root) referencing the metadata section, the metadata
section will be retained. It's the .gc_root consumer's job to validate
the metadata sections.
# This creates a SHF_LINK_ORDER .meta with sh_link=0
.section .meta,"awo",@progbits,0
1:
.section .meta,"awo",@progbits,foo
2:
.section .gc_root,"a",@progbits
.quad 1b
.quad 2b
Reviewed By: pcc, jhenderson
Differential Revision: https://reviews.llvm.org/D72904
Fangrui Song