Charles Manning wrote:
3) Pull out special tables etc (eg. flash image headers) and put them in assembler files where you have a lot more control over what is going on. Then use a custom ld section to place this.
Good suggestion. I agree that controlling layout via assembly files (or inline assembly) is an option. You can still access the variables from C by using an "extern" directive.
GCC should probably be augmented with an explicit placement directive of some kind, or a pragma to disable reordering around a block of variables. We do add features like this for our customers when their needs are sufficiently general-purpose.Added features could work, so long as this does not lead to forking which does nobody any good. However adding features then adds more testing etc down the road.
CodeSourcery contributes all of its changes to the FSF; it's in our best interest to ensure that all of our modifications are part of the official version of GCC. You're right about the testing load; we do develop automated tests for features as we implement them.
-- Mark Mitchell CodeSourcery, LLC mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (916) 791-8304