[LLVMdev] [MCJIT] Why does it produce non-PIC ELF code?

[Joerg Sonnenberger]

On Fri, Jul 08, 2011 at 02:28:44PM -0400, Rafael Ávila de Espíndola wrote:
> On 07/08/2011 01:25 PM, Yuri wrote:
> > ELF that MCJIT writes on x86_64 has relocations in it. Particularly,
> > R_X86_64_PC32 relocations are used for the sections .gcc_except_table
> > and .eh_frame related to exception processing.
> > I am not sure where is general documentation on relocation types,
> > including R_X86_64_PC32. Looks like it's nowhere to be found on the web.
> > But 32-bit relocation can't be used in 64-bit code since it causes
> > overflows in general case. And particularly in case of .gcc_except_table
> > and .eh_frame in MCJIT-printed ELF.
> 
> My guess is that it is just using the small code model, in which case 
> you need to produce 32 bit relocations since that is the size available 
> in the instruction (there is no call with a 64 bit immediate for example).

I don't think it is the instruction size, but essentially the assumption
that all code fits into a 2GB segment and therefore the exception tables
etc only need 32bit (signed) relocations too.

Yuri, keep in mind that R_X86_64_PC32 is relative to the instruction
pointer. It is not a fixed absolute value, so it doesn't overflow as
long as everything is mapped into one 2GB range.

Joerg