[PATCH] Clean up ARM compressed loader

[Nicolas Pitre]

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:

> And here's the patch - not run tested yet, but compile-tested for
> gzip and LZO in both ROM=y and ROM=n modes.
> 
>     ARM: Eliminate decompressor -Dstatic= PIC hack
> 
>     We used to build decompressors with -Dstatic= to avoid any local data
>     being generated.  The problem is that local data generates GOTOFF
>     relocations, which means we can't relocate the data relative to the
>     text segment.
> 
>     Global data, on the other hand, goes through the GOT, and can be
>     relocated anywhere.
> 
>     Unfortunately, with the new decompressors, this presents a problem
>     since they declare static data within functions, and this leads to
>     stack overflow.
> 
>     Fix this by separating out the decompressor code into a separate file,
>     and removing 'static' from BSS data in misc.c.
> 
>     Also, discard the .data section - this means that should we end up
>     with read/write initialized data, the decompressor will fail to link
>     and the problem will be obvious.
> 
>     Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel at arm.linux.org.uk>

Acked-by: Nicolas Pitre <nico at fluxnic.net>

However...

> @@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ SECTIONS
>    /DISCARD/ : {
>      *(.ARM.exidx*)
>      *(.ARM.extab*)
> +    *(.data)
>    }

I'd put a comment there, otherwise lots of people will go WTF when 
coming across this.


Nicolas