<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Expression Section - 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="Expressions.html#Expressions" title="Expressions"> <link rel="prev" href="Evaluation.html#Evaluation" title="Evaluation"> <link rel="next" href="Builtin-Functions.html#Builtin-Functions" title="Builtin Functions"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- This file documents the GNU linker LD (GNU Binutils) version 2.26. Copyright (C) 1991-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 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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> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Expression-Section"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Builtin-Functions.html#Builtin-Functions">Builtin Functions</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Evaluation.html#Evaluation">Evaluation</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Expressions.html#Expressions">Expressions</a> <hr> </div> <h4 class="subsection">3.10.8 The Section of an Expression</h4> <p><a name="index-expression-sections-551"></a><a name="index-absolute-expressions-552"></a><a name="index-relative-expressions-553"></a><a name="index-absolute-and-relocatable-symbols-554"></a><a name="index-relocatable-and-absolute-symbols-555"></a><a name="index-symbols_002c-relocatable-and-absolute-556"></a>Addresses and symbols may be section relative, or absolute. A section relative symbol is relocatable. If you request relocatable output using the ‘<samp><span class="samp">-r</span></samp>’ option, a further link operation may change the value of a section relative symbol. On the other hand, an absolute symbol will retain the same value throughout any further link operations. <p>Some terms in linker expressions are addresses. This is true of section relative symbols and for builtin functions that return an address, such as <code>ADDR</code>, <code>LOADADDR</code>, <code>ORIGIN</code> and <code>SEGMENT_START</code>. Other terms are simply numbers, or are builtin functions that return a non-address value, such as <code>LENGTH</code>. One complication is that unless you set <code>LD_FEATURE ("SANE_EXPR")</code> (see <a href="Miscellaneous-Commands.html#Miscellaneous-Commands">Miscellaneous Commands</a>), numbers and absolute symbols are treated differently depending on their location, for compatibility with older versions of <code>ld</code>. Expressions appearing outside an output section definition treat all numbers as absolute addresses. Expressions appearing inside an output section definition treat absolute symbols as numbers. If <code>LD_FEATURE ("SANE_EXPR")</code> is given, then absolute symbols and numbers are simply treated as numbers everywhere. <p>In the following simple example, <pre class="smallexample"> SECTIONS { . = 0x100; __executable_start = 0x100; .data : { . = 0x10; __data_start = 0x10; *(.data) } ... } </pre> <p>both <code>.</code> and <code>__executable_start</code> are set to the absolute address 0x100 in the first two assignments, then both <code>.</code> and <code>__data_start</code> are set to 0x10 relative to the <code>.data</code> section in the second two assignments. <p>For expressions involving numbers, relative addresses and absolute addresses, ld follows these rules to evaluate terms: <ul> <li>Unary operations on an absolute address or number, and binary operations on two absolute addresses or two numbers, or between one absolute address and a number, apply the operator to the value(s). <li>Unary operations on a relative address, and binary operations on two relative addresses in the same section or between one relative address and a number, apply the operator to the offset part of the address(es). <li>Other binary operations, that is, between two relative addresses not in the same section, or between a relative address and an absolute address, first convert any non-absolute term to an absolute address before applying the operator. </ul> <p>The result section of each sub-expression is as follows: <ul> <li>An operation involving only numbers results in a number. <li>The result of comparisons, ‘<samp><span class="samp">&&</span></samp>’ and ‘<samp><span class="samp">||</span></samp>’ is also a number. <li>The result of other binary arithmetic and logical operations on two relative addresses in the same section or two absolute addresses (after above conversions) is also a number. <li>The result of other operations on relative addresses or one relative address and a number, is a relative address in the same section as the relative operand(s). <li>The result of other operations on absolute addresses (after above conversions) is an absolute address. </ul> <p>You can use the builtin function <code>ABSOLUTE</code> to force an expression to be absolute when it would otherwise be relative. For example, to create an absolute symbol set to the address of the end of the output section ‘<samp><span class="samp">.data</span></samp>’: <pre class="smallexample"> SECTIONS { .data : { *(.data) _edata = ABSOLUTE(.); } } </pre> <p class="noindent">If ‘<samp><span class="samp">ABSOLUTE</span></samp>’ were not used, ‘<samp><span class="samp">_edata</span></samp>’ would be relative to the ‘<samp><span class="samp">.data</span></samp>’ section. <p>Using <code>LOADADDR</code> also forces an expression absolute, since this particular builtin function returns an absolute address. </body></html>