Re: [PATCH 2/2] parisc: fix module loading failure of large modules

From: John David Anglin
Date: Mon Dec 29 2008 - 11:25:56 EST


Hi Helge,

> With this patch we now instead append individual PLT stub entries
> directly at the end of the code sections where the stubs are actually
> called. This reduces the distance between the PCREL location and the
> stub entry so that the relocations can be fulfilled.

GCC for PA-RISC assumes that the stubs will be placed before the code
section. This is what HP-UX does. It's also not possible to compute
the distance to the end of a function in GCC due to the way branch
shortening is done. If the distance to the start of the code section
is too large, GCC outputs a long call.

If you can insert them before the code section where the stubs are
called, this will minimize the chance that a pc-relative call will
not reach its stub.

It is possible to put the stubs after the code section if you can ensure
the distance for each call isn't too large. I believe GNU ld does some
consolidation of stub blocks.

Great patch!

Dave
--
J. David Anglin dave.anglin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
National Research Council of Canada (613) 990-0752 (FAX: 952-6602)
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