| 
							- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
 - <html>
 - <!-- This file documents the GNU linker LD
 - (GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 10-2020-q4-major)
 - version 2.35.1.
 - 
 - Copyright (C) 1991-2020 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". -->
 - <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
 - <head>
 - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
 - <title>BFD outline (LD)</title>
 - 
 - <meta name="description" content="BFD outline (LD)">
 - <meta name="keywords" content="BFD outline (LD)">
 - <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
 - <meta name="distribution" content="global">
 - <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
 - <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top">
 - <link href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" rel="index" title="LD Index">
 - <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
 - <link href="BFD.html#BFD" rel="up" title="BFD">
 - <link href="BFD-information-loss.html#BFD-information-loss" rel="next" title="BFD information loss">
 - <link href="BFD.html#BFD" rel="prev" title="BFD">
 - <style type="text/css">
 - <!--
 - a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
 - blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em}
 - blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller}
 - blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller}
 - div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
 - kbd {font-style: oblique}
 - pre.display {font-family: inherit}
 - pre.format {font-family: inherit}
 - pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
 - pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
 - pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
 - pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller}
 - pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller}
 - pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller}
 - span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap}
 - span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal}
 - span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal}
 - ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
 - -->
 - </style>
 - 
 - 
 - </head>
 - 
 - <body lang="en">
 - <a name="BFD-outline"></a>
 - <div class="header">
 - <p>
 - Up: <a href="BFD.html#BFD" accesskey="u" rel="up">BFD</a>   [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
 - </div>
 - <hr>
 - <a name="How-It-Works_003a-An-Outline-of-BFD"></a>
 - <h3 class="section">5.1 How It Works: An Outline of BFD</h3>
 - <a name="index-opening-object-files"></a>
 - 
 - <p>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>
 - <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.
 - </p>
 - <table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0">
 - <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="BFD-information-loss.html#BFD-information-loss" accesskey="1">BFD information loss</a>:</td><td>  </td><td align="left" valign="top">Information Loss
 - </td></tr>
 - <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Canonical-format.html#Canonical-format" accesskey="2">Canonical format</a>:</td><td>  </td><td align="left" valign="top">The BFD	canonical object-file format 
 - </td></tr>
 - </table>
 - 
 - 
 - 
 - 
 - </body>
 - </html>
 
 
  |