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Date:      Mon, 5 Feb 2007 13:55:53 +0200
From:      Kostik Belousov <kostikbel@gmail.com>
To:        Luigi Rizzo <rizzo@icir.org>
Cc:        current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: link_elf.c vs link_elf_obj.c ?
Message-ID:  <20070205115553.GA3304@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua>
In-Reply-To: <20070202172756.A2649@xorpc.icir.org>
References:  <20070202172756.A2649@xorpc.icir.org>

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On Fri, Feb 02, 2007 at 05:27:56PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> does anyone know what is the difference between these two files ?
> They seem to do two similar but slightly different things related
> to elf file loading.
>=20
> But diff shows large pieces of common code, and there is even
> more commonality if you factor out whitespace changes and
> variable renaming.

ELF specification defines 3 kinds of objects (putting core files aside);
- executables
- shared objects (AKA .so)
- relocatable objects (AKA .o, created by assembler).
Executables and .so are usually created by linker, while relocatables are t=
he
assembler output (although ld -r can glue several .o files into one).
Executables and .so are in some sense finalized, and they contain a tables
that are useful for dynamic linker. Also, they usually carry different kind
of relocations then relocatables.

Now, in-kernel dynamic linker used for linking newly-loaded kld, shall deal
with either .so-kind of modules (on FreeBSD, all arches except amd64), or
relocatables (amd64). Two linkers you found deal with .so-kind (link_elf.c)
or relocatables (link_elf_obj.c).

Reasons why amd64 cannot use shared objects for kld mostly caused by
toolchains limitations and CPU architecture (it is impossible to create
working non-PIC .so there).

Note that Solaris uses relocatables for modules.

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