using void variables as linker-script symbol refs

From: David Howells
Date: Fri Oct 10 2003 - 12:50:52 EST



I've got a situation in which I'd like to use something like the following to
refer to constants defined in the linker script:

extern const void _stext, _etext;

#define __kernel_size ((unsigned long)&_etext - (unsigned long)&_stext)

Rather than:

extern int _stext, _etext;

Or:

extern int _stext[], _etext[];

Or:

struct __not_really_a_struct;
struct __not_really_a_struct _stext, _etext;

This has a couple of advantages:

(1) You can't accidentally read/set such variables directly.

(2) GCC doesn't assume they can be referenced by register-relative means, if
the CPU has a special data pointer (such as a small-data pointer).

Any thoughts? Or is this just a straight forward shooting offence?

David
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