Linking

Contents

 Static Linking
 Object Files
 Static Libraries
 Loading
 Dynamic Linking of Shared Libraries (DLL: dynamic
linking libraries)

2
 Linker Puzzles

int x;
p1() {} p1() {}

int x; int x;
p1() {} p2() {}

int x; double x;
int y; p2() {}
p1() {}

int x=7; double x;

int y=5; p2() {}
p1() {}

int x=7; int x;

p1() {} p2() {}

3
A Simplistic Program Translation Scheme

m.c ASCII source file

Translator

Binary executable object file

p (memory image on disk)

Problems:
• Efficiency: small change requires complete recompilation
• Modularity: hard to share common functions (e.g. printf)
Solution:
• Static linker (or linker)

4
A Better Scheme Using a Linker

m.c a.c

Translators Translators

Separately compiled
m.o a.o
relocatable object files

Linker (ld)
Executable object file (contains code
p and data for all functions defined in m.c
and a.c)

5
 Translating the Example Program
 Compiler driver coordinates all steps in the translation
and linking process.
– Typically included with each compilation system (e.g., gcc)
– Invokes preprocessor (cpp), compiler (cc1), assembler (as),
and linker (ld).
– Passes command line arguments to appropriate phases
 Example: create executable p from m.c and a.c:

bass> gcc -O2 -v -o p m.c a.c

cpp [args] m.c /tmp/cca07630.i
cc1 /tmp/cca07630.i m.c -O2 [args] -o /tmp/cca07630.s
as [args] -o /tmp/cca076301.o /tmp/cca07630.s
<similar process for a.c>
ld -o p [system obj files] /tmp/cca076301.o /tmp/cca076302.o
bass>

6
 What Does a Linker Do?
 Merges object files
– Merges multiple relocatable (.o) object files into a single executable
object file that can loaded and executed by the loader.
 Resolves external references
– As part of the merging process, resolves external references.
• External reference: reference to a symbol defined in another object
file.
 Relocates symbols
– Relocates symbols from their relative locations in the .o files to
new absolute positions in the executable.
– Updates all references to these symbols to reflect their new
positions.
• References can be in either code or data
– code: a(); /* reference to symbol a */
– data: int *xp=&x; /* reference to symbol x */

7
 Why Linkers?
 Modularity
– Program can be written as a collection of smaller source
files, rather than one monolithic mass.
– Can build libraries of common functions (more on this later)
• e.g., Math library, standard C library
 Efficiency
– Time:
• Change one source file, compile, and then relink.
• No need to recompile other source files.
– Space:
• Libraries of common functions can be aggregated into a single
file...
• Yet executable files and running memory images contain only
code for the functions they actually use.

8
 Executable and Linkable Format (ELF)
 Standard binary format for object files
 Derives from AT&T System V Unix
– Later adopted by BSD Unix variants and Linux
 One unified format for
– Relocatable object files (.o),
– Executable object files
– Shared object files (.so)
 Generic name: ELF binaries
 Better support for shared libraries than old a.out formats.

9
 ELF Object File Format
 Elf header
– Magic number, type (.o, exec, .so), 0
machine, byte ordering, etc. ELF header
 Program header table Program header table
– Page size, virtual addresses memory (required for executables)
segments (sections), segment sizes. .text section
 .text section .data section
– Code
.bss section
 .data section
– Initialized (static) data .symtab
 .bss section .rel.txt
– Uninitialized (static) data .rel.data
– “Block Started by Symbol”
.debug
– “Better Save Space”
– Has section header but occupies no Section header table
space (required for relocatables)

10
 ELF Object File Format (cont)
 .symtab section
– Symbol table 0
ELF header
– Procedure and static variable names
– Section names and locations Program header table
 .rel.text section (required for executables)

– Relocation info for .text section .text section

– Addresses of instructions that will need to .data section
be modified in the executable
.bss section
– Instructions for modifying.
 .rel.data section .symtab
– Relocation info for .data section .rel.text
– Addresses of pointer data that will need to .rel.data
be modified in the merged executable
.debug
 .debug section
– Info for symbolic debugging (gcc -g) Section header table
(required for relocatables)

11
 Example C Program

m.c a.c
int e=7; extern int e;

int main() { int *ep=&e;

int r = a(); int x=15;
exit(0); int y;
}
int a() {
return *ep+x+y;
}

12
 Merging Relocatable Object Files into
an Executable Object File
Relocatable Object Files Executable Object File

system code .text 0

headers
system data .data
system code
main() .text
a()
main() .text
m.o
int e = 7 .data more system code
system data
int e = 7 .data
a() .text int *ep = &e
int x = 15
a.o int *ep = &e .data uninitialized data .bss
int x = 15 .symtab
int y .bss
.debug
13
 Relocating Symbols and Resolving
External References
– Symbols are lexical entities that name functions and variables.
– Each symbol has a value (typically a memory address).
– Code consists of symbol definitions and references.
– References can be either local or external.

m.c a.c
int e=7; extern int e;
Def of local
symbol e int main() { int *ep=&e; Ref to
int r = a(); int x=15; external
exit(0); int y; symbol e
} Def of
local int a() { Defs of
symbol return *ep+x+y; local
Ref to external
}
Ref to external ep
symbol exit symbols
x and y
(defined in symbol a Def of
libc.so) Refs of local
local
symbols ep,x,y
symbol a
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 .text relative
m.o Relocation Info offset of the
position to be
modified
m.c
int e=7; Disassembly of section .text:

int main() { 00000000 <main>: 00000000 <main>:

0: 55 pushl %ebp
int r = a();
1: 89 e5 movl %esp,%ebp
exit(0); 3: e8 fc ff ff ff call 4 <main+0x4>
} 4: R_386_PC32 a
8: 6a 00 pushl $0x0
a: e8 fc ff ff ff call b <main+0xb>
b: R_386_PC32 exit
f: 90 nop
final
addresses are
unknown yet
Disassembly of section .data:

00000000 <e>:
0: 07 00 00 00

source: objdump
15
 .text relative

a.o Relocation Info offset of the

position to be
Disassembly of section .text: modified

a.c
00000000 <a>:
extern int e; 0: 55 pushl %ebp
1: 8b 15 00 00 00 00 movl 0x0,%edx
int *ep=&e; 3: R_386_32 ep
int x=15; 7: a1 00 00 00 00 movl 0x0,%eax
int y; 8: R_386_32 x
c: 89 e5 movl %esp,%ebp
int a() { e: 03 02 addl (%edx),%eax
10: 89 ec movl %ebp,%esp
return *ep+x+y;
12: 03 05 00 00 00 00 addl 0x0,%eax
} 14: R_386_32 y
18: 5d popl %ebp
19: c3 ret
final
addresses are
unknown yet Disassembly of section .data: .data relative
(Absolute offset of the
addressing 00000000 <ep>: position to be
mode) 0: 00 00 00 00 modified
0: R_386_32 e
00000004 <x>:
4: 0f 00 00 00 16
 Executable After Relocation and
External Reference Resolution (.text)
08048530 <main>:
8048530: 55 pushl %ebp
8048531: 89 e5 movl %esp,%ebp
8048533: e8 08 00 00 00 call 8048540 <a>
8048538: 6a 00 pushl $0x0
804853a: e8 35 ff ff ff call 8048474 <_init+0x94>
804853f: 90 nop

08048540 <a>:
8048540: 55 pushl %ebp
8048541: 8b 15 1c a0 04 movl 0x804a01c,%edx
8048546: 08
8048547: a1 20 a0 04 08 movl 0x804a020,%eax
804854c: 89 e5 movl %esp,%ebp
804854e: 03 02 addl (%edx),%eax
8048550: 89 ec movl %ebp,%esp
8048552: 03 05 d0 a3 04 addl 0x804a3d0,%eax
8048557: 08
8048558: 5d popl %ebp
8048559: c3 ret
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 Executable After Relocation and
External Reference Resolution(.data)
m.c
int e=7;
Disassembly of section .data:

int main() { 0804a018 <e>:

int r = a(); 804a018: 07 00 00 00
exit(0);
} 0804a01c <ep>:
804a01c: 18 a0 04 08
a.c
extern int e; 0804a020 <x>:
804a020: 0f 00 00 00
int *ep=&e;
int x=15;
int y;

int a() {
return *ep+x+y;
}
18
 Strong and Weak Symbols
 Program symbols are either strong or weak
– strong: procedures and initialized globals
– weak: uninitialized globals

p1.c p2.c
strong int foo=5; int foo; weak

strong p1() { p2() { strong

} }

19
 Linker’s Symbol Rules
 Rule 1. A strong symbol can only appear once.

 Rule 2. A weak symbol can be overridden by a

strong symbol of the same name.
– references to the weak symbol resolve to the strong symbol.

 Rule 3. If there are multiple weak symbols, the linker

can pick an arbitrary one.

20
 Linker Puzzles
int x;
Link time error: two strong symbols (p1)
p1() {} p1() {}

int x; int x; References to x will refer to the same

p1() {} p2() {} uninitialized int. Is this what you really want?

int x; double x;
Writes to x in p2 might overwrite y!
int y; p2() {}
Evil!
p1() {}

int x=7; double x; Writes to x in p2 will overwrite y!

int y=5; p2() {} Nasty!
p1() {}

int x=7; int x; References to x will refer to the same initialized

p1() {} p2() {} variable.

Nightmare scenario: two identical weak structs, compiled by different compilers

with different alignment rules.
21
 Packaging Commonly Used Functions
 How to package functions commonly used by programmers?
– Math, I/O, memory management, string manipulation, etc.
 Awkward, given the linker framework so far:
– Option 1: Put all functions in a single source file
• Programmers link big object file into their programs
• Space and time inefficient
– Option 2: Put each function in a separate source file
• Programmers explicitly link appropriate binaries into their programs
• More efficient, but burdensome on the programmer
 Solution: static libraries (.a archive files)
– Concatenate related relocatable object files into a single file with an
index (called an archive).
– Enhance linker so that it tries to resolve unresolved external
references by looking for the symbols in one or more archives.
– If an archive member file resolves reference, link into executable.

22
 Static Libraries (archives)
p1.c p2.c

Translator Translator
static library (archive) of
p1.o p2.o libc.a relocatable object files
concatenated into one file.
Linker (ld)
executable object file (only contains code
p and data for libc functions that are called
from p1.c and p2.c)

Further improves modularity and efficiency by packaging

commonly used functions [e.g., C standard library (libc),
math library (libm)]

Linker selectively only the .o files in the archive that are

actually needed by the program.
23
 Creating Static Libraries

atoi.c printf.c random.c

Translator Translator ... Translator

atoi.o printf.o random.o

ar rs libc.a \
Archiver (ar)
atoi.o printf.o … random.o

libc.a C standard library

Archiver allows incremental updates:

• Recompile function that changes and replace .o file in
archive.

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 Commonly Used Libraries
 libc.a (the C standard library)
– 8 MB archive of 900 object files.
– I/O, memory allocation, signal handling, string handling, data and
time, random numbers, integer math
 libm.a (the C math library)
– 1 MB archive of 226 object files.
– floating point math (sin, cos, tan, log, exp, sqrt, …)

% ar -t /usr/lib/libc.a | sort % ar -t /usr/lib/libm.a | sort

… …
fork.o e_acos.o
… e_acosf.o
fprintf.o e_acosh.o
fpu_control.o e_acoshf.o
fputc.o e_acoshl.o
freopen.o e_acosl.o
fscanf.o e_asin.o
fseek.o e_asinf.o
fstab.o e_asinl.o
… …
25
 Using Static Libraries
 Linker’s algorithm for resolving external references:
– Scan .o files and .a files in the command line order.
– During the scan, keep a list of the current unresolved
references.
– As each new .o or .a file obj is encountered, try to resolve
each unresolved reference in the list against the symbols in
obj.
– If any entries in the unresolved list at end of scan, then error.
 Problem:
– Command line order matters!
– Moral: put libraries at the end of the command line.

bass> gcc -L. libtest.o -lmine

bass> gcc -L. -lmine libtest.o
libtest.o: In function `main':
libtest.o(.text+0x4): undefined reference to `libfun'
26
 Loading Executable Binaries
Executable object file for
example program p
0
ELF header
Virtual addr
Program header table Process image
(required for executables) 0x080483e0
init and shared lib
.text section segments

.data section
0x08048494
.bss section .text segment
(r/o)
.symtab
.rel.text 0x0804a010
.data segment
.rel.data (initialized r/w)
.debug
0x0804a3b0
Section header table .bss segment
(required for relocatables) (uninitialized r/w)

27
Linux run-time
memory image Process-specific data
structures
Different for (e.g., page tables,
each process task and mm structs, kernel
stack) Kernel
virtual
Physical memory memory
Identical for
each process
Kernel code and data
0xc0000000
%esp User stack

Memory mapped region

0x40000000 for shared libraries
Process
virtual
brk memory
Runtime heap (via malloc)
Uninitialized data (.bss)
Initialized data (.data)
0x08048000 Program text (.text)
Forbidden
0

28
 Shared Libraries
 Static libraries have the following disadvantages:
– Potential for duplicating lots of common code in the executable
files on a file system.
• e.g., every C program needs the standard C library
– Potential for duplicating lots of code in the virtual memory space of
many processes.
– Minor bug fixes of system libraries require each application to
explicitly relink
 Solution:
– Shared libraries (dynamic link libraries, DLLs) whose members are
dynamically loaded into memory and linked into an application at
run-time.
• Dynamic linking can occur when executable is first loaded and run.
– Common case for Linux, handled automatically by ld-linux.so.
• Dynamic linking can also occur after program has begun.
– In Linux, this is done explicitly by user with dlopen().
– Basis for High-Performance Web Servers.
• Shared library routines can be shared by multiple processes.

29
 Dynamically Linked Shared Libraries
m.c a.c

Translators Translators
(cc1, as) (cc1,as)

m.o a.o

Linker (ld)

Partially linked executable p libc.so Shared library of dynamically

p
(on disk) relocatable object files

Loader/Dynamic Linker
libc.so functions called by m.c
(ld-linux.so)
and a.c are loaded, linked, and
(potentially) shared among
Fully linked executable processes.
p’ (in memory) P’
30
 The Complete Picture
m.c a.c

Translator Translator

m.o a.o libwhatever.a

Static Linker (ld)

p libc.so libm.so

Loader/Dynamic Linker
(ld-linux.so)

p’

31