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authorUlises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com>2026-09-04 15:07:09 +0000
committerJosh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>2026-09-13 18:15:43 -0700
commit7e61560628d17ea6b1d8ee370f6d42694cff8758 (patch)
treee6080164b2f4c4c419894bdb3ce4d956ca9a98c5 /Documentation/userspace-api/ELF.rst
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objtool: Validate disassembler headers in libopcodes probegrafted
commit 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") tested for libopcodes availability by linking a test snippet with a forward declaration of disassemble_init_for_target(). However, testing symbol linkage with an extern declaration only verifies the presence of the library (.so/.a) and bypasses checking for development headers (binutils-dev). On systems where libopcodes is present without development headers installed, the probe succeeds, enabling BUILD_DISAS. Subsequent compilation of objtool then fails: fatal error: 'bfd.h' file not found 113 | #include <bfd.h> Additionally, the probe invokes $(HOSTCC) without $(HOSTCFLAGS), ignoring any sysroot or include flags specified for the host compiler. Fix this by including <bfd.h> and <dis-asm.h> directly in the test snippet, passing $(HOSTCFLAGS) so host compiler options are respected, and defining PACKAGE="objtool" to satisfy the configuration check in <bfd.h>. Fixes: 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") Fixes: 436326bc525d ("objtool: fix build failure due to missing libopcodes check") Reported-by: Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@google.com> Assisted-by: Antigravity:Gemini-Next Signed-off-by: Ulises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260904150710.2997558-1-umendez@google.com Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=================================
+Linux-specific ELF idiosyncrasies
+=================================
+
+Definitions
+===========
+
+"First" program header is the one with the smallest offset in the file:
+e_phoff.
+
+"Last" program header is the one with the biggest offset in the file:
+e_phoff + (e_phnum - 1) * sizeof(Elf_Phdr).
+
+PT_INTERP
+=========
+
+First PT_INTERP program header is used to locate the filename of ELF
+interpreter. Other PT_INTERP headers are ignored (since Linux 2.4.11).
+
+PT_GNU_STACK
+============
+
+Last PT_GNU_STACK program header defines userspace stack executability
+(since Linux 2.6.6). Other PT_GNU_STACK headers are ignored.
+
+PT_GNU_PROPERTY
+===============
+
+ELF interpreter's last PT_GNU_PROPERTY program header is used (since
+Linux 5.8). If interpreter doesn't have one, then the last PT_GNU_PROPERTY
+program header of an executable is used. Other PT_GNU_PROPERTY headers
+are ignored.