Re: Latest brk patchset

From: Jeremy Fitzhardinge
Date: Sat Mar 14 2009 - 20:32:56 EST


H. Peter Anvin wrote:
Hi guys,

I was reviewing the latest brk patchset, and I have a question:

Why is the brk merged into the .bss, instead of being left in its own
(nobits) segment:

.bss : AT(ADDR(.bss) - LOAD_OFFSET) {
__init_end = .;
__bss_start = .; /* BSS */
*(.bss.page_aligned)
*(.bss)
. = ALIGN(4);
__bss_stop = .;

. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);
__brk_base = . ;
. += 64 * 1024 ; /* 64k slop space */
*(.brk_reservation) /* areas brk users have reserved */
__brk_limit = . ;

_end = . ;
}

It really doesn't make much sense to me, and is more than a bit
confusing given the symbols.

Mostly because I knew that the bss would get mapped into the appropriate phdr segment correctly, but I wasn't sure that another bss-like section would be. Also because historically the brk segment was just an extension of the executable's bss, and its more or less the same too.

Is there any real benefit in putting it into another section?

J
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