| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <title>BFD outline - Untitled</title> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> |
| <meta name="description" content="Untitled"> |
| <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> |
| <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> |
| <link rel="up" href="BFD.html#BFD" title="BFD"> |
| <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> |
| <!-- |
| This file documents the GNU linker LD |
| (Sourcery G++ Lite 2011.03-41) |
| version 2.20.51. |
| |
| Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, |
| 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| |
| Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
| under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 |
| or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; |
| with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no |
| Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the |
| section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.--> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> |
| <style type="text/css"><!-- |
| pre.display { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.format { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } |
| span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } |
| span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| --></style> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> |
| </head> |
| <body> |
| <div class="node"> |
| <a name="BFD-outline"></a> |
| <p> |
| Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="BFD.html#BFD">BFD</a> |
| <hr> |
| </div> |
| |
| <h3 class="section">5.1 How It Works: An Outline of BFD</h3> |
| |
| <p><a name="index-opening-object-files-682"></a><!-- This summary of BFD is shared by the BFD and LD docs. --> |
| When an object file is opened, BFD subroutines automatically determine |
| the format of the input object file. They then build a descriptor in |
| memory with pointers to routines that will be used to access elements of |
| the object file's data structures. |
| |
| <p>As different information from the object files is required, |
| BFD reads from different sections of the file and processes them. |
| For example, a very common operation for the linker is processing symbol |
| tables. Each BFD back end provides a routine for converting |
| between the object file's representation of symbols and an internal |
| canonical format. When the linker asks for the symbol table of an object |
| file, it calls through a memory pointer to the routine from the |
| relevant BFD back end which reads and converts the table into a canonical |
| form. The linker then operates upon the canonical form. When the link is |
| finished and the linker writes the output file's symbol table, |
| another BFD back end routine is called to take the newly |
| created symbol table and convert it into the chosen output format. |
| |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li><a accesskey="1" href="BFD-information-loss.html#BFD-information-loss">BFD information loss</a>: Information Loss |
| <li><a accesskey="2" href="Canonical-format.html#Canonical-format">Canonical format</a>: The BFD canonical object-file format |
| </ul> |
| |
| </body></html> |
| |
