PE/COFF executables/DLLs usually contain data which is called
base relocations. Base relocations are a list of addresses that
need to be fixed by the loader if load-time relocation is needed.
Base relocations are in .reloc section.
We emit one base relocation entry for each IMAGE_REL_AMD64_ADDR64
relocation.
In order to save disk space, base relocations are grouped by page.
Each group is called a block. A block starts with a 32-bit page
address followed by 16-bit offsets in the page. That is more
efficient representation of addresses than just an array of 32-bit
addresses.
llvm-svn: 239710
Avoid saying this is based on sections because it's not very accurate.
That we don't split section into smaller chunks of data does not mean
that the linker is built on top of that.
In reality, most part of the code do not care about underlying data,
so they are neither based on "atoms" nor sections.
The symbol table only cares about symbol names and their types.
The writer handles list of chunks, which look like just blobs,
and the writer doesn't care what those chunks are backed by.
The only thing that interact with sections is SectionChunk, which is
abstracted away as one type of Chunk.
llvm-svn: 238902
This is an initial patch for a section-based COFF linker.
The patch has 2300 lines of code including comments and blank lines.
Before diving into details, you want to start from reading README
because it should give you an overview of the design.
All important things are written in the README file, so I write
summary here.
- The linker is already able to self-link on Windows.
- It's significantly faster than the existing implementation.
The existing one takes 5 seconds to link LLD on my machine,
while the new one only takes 1.2 seconds, even though the new
one is not multi-threaded yet. (And a proof-of-concept multi-
threaded version was able to link it in 0.5 seconds.)
- It uses much less memory (250MB vs. 2GB virtual memory space
to self-host).
- IMHO the new code is much simpler and easier to read than
the existing PE/COFF port.
http://reviews.llvm.org/D10036
llvm-svn: 238458
Rui Ueyama