trouble with Dynamic load application

[Chris Johns]

On 03/08/2017 13:22, jameszxj wrote:
>>
>> On 03/08/2017 11:48, jameszxj wrote:
>> > Hi
>> >   I run RTEMS on my xilinx z7k board and dynamic load application from shell.
>> > when the app just has 1 source file,
>> > dynamic is ok. when the app have more than 1 files, for example a.c b.c,
>> > function a() in file a.c function b() in b.c
>> > and function a() call b(), dynamic failed.
>> >
>> > compiler command line
>> > 1 file: a.c
>> >    arm-rtems4.12-gcc -c -march=armv7-a -mthumb -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard
>> > -mtune=cortex-a9 -mlong-calls a.c
>> >
>> > more than 1 file: a.c b.c
>> >    arm-rtems4.12-gcc -r -nostdlib -march=armv7-a -mthumb -mfpu=neon
>> > -mfloat-abi=hard -mtune=cortex-a9 -mlong-calls a.c b.c -o app.elf
>> >
>>
>> I have never tested the loading of incrementally linked ELF files. This is new
>> ground.
> 
>   my previous project, we work in this way. OS is vxworks, complier is gcc.
>  

Ah ok. It would be nice to have incremental linking supported.

>   I just notice that tornado link every .o file with a linkscript file. so i
> analyzed the
>   object file use objdump, i found that link with a linkscript has the uniform
> text section,
>   for example *.text *.bss ...  But my app.elf has many sections, *.text.a
> *.text.b ...
>   every function has a text section.
>  
>   I am trying to write a linkscript file to test if it is the problem.
>  

We use a section per function options so we eliminate functions that are not needed.

>>
>> Did you build RTEMS with '-mlong-calls'? I am not sure if adding this option
>> changes the ABI and if it safe with just the dynamically loaded object files. It
>> would be nice if it was.
> 
> if no '-mlong-call' option, function call only in +-24M address range, my board
> have 512M ram, dynamic do not work.
> I reduce ram to 32M in linkscript file, '-mlong-call' is not need.

Understood. I have an outstanding task to implement veneers on ARM and void this
but it is not a simple couple of hours change.

> 
>>
>> Why not do:
>>
>>  arm-rtems4.12-gcc -march=armv7-a -mthumb -mfpu=neon \
>>      -mfloat-abi=hard -mtune=cortex-a9 a.c -o a.o
>>  arm-rtems4.12-gcc -march=armv7-a -mthumb -mfpu=neon \
>>      -mfloat-abi=hard -mtune=cortex-a9 b.c -o b.o
>>
>> And then load both files?
> 
> application has many c files, load every file is troublesome.

Agreed. Incremental linking is the solution here.

> 
>>
>> The RTEMS dynamic loader can load from archives using 'archive:file' so you only
>> need to manage a single file on the target, for example 'my.a:a.o' and 'my.a:b.o'.
> 
> It is a way to solve my problem, thanks.
> 

It would but there is a trade off here which incremental linking avoids and that
is the internal symbols and relocs are resolved and so lowers the overhead on
the target.

Chris