diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'bfd/TODO')
| -rw-r--r-- | bfd/TODO | 60 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 38 deletions
@@ -1,41 +1,25 @@ -Things that still need to be handled: -*- Text -*- +Things that still need to be done: -*- Text -*- + + o - A source of space lossage is that all the target-dependent + code is in a single bfd_target structure. Hence all the code + for *writing* object files is still pulled into all the applications + that only care about *reading* (gdb, nm, objdump), while gas + has to carry along all the unneded baggage for reading objects. + And so one. This would be a much more substantial change, + and the payoff would be less (essentially none if bfd is + used as a shared library). + + o - The storage needed by BFD data structures is also larger than strictly + needed. This may be difficult to do much about. - o - change the memory usage to reflect the message which follows the - page break. o - implement bfd_abort, which should close the bfd but not alter the filesystem. - o - update the bfd doc; write a how-to-write-a-backend doc. - o - change reloc handling as per Steve's suggestion. - (more details please.....) - -Changing the way bfd uses memory. The new convention is simple: - - o - bfd will never write into user-supplied memory, nor attempt to - free it. - o - closing a bfd may reclaim all bfd-allocated memory associated - with that bfd. - - - bfd_target_list will be the one exception; you must reclaim the - returned vector yourself. - -Interface implications are minor (get_symcount_upper_bound will go -away; bfd_cannicalize_symtab will allocate its own memory, etc). - -Certain operations consume a lot of memory; for them manual -reclaimation is available: - - o - bfd_canonicalize_symtab will return a pointer to a - null-terminated vector of symbols. Subsequent calls may or may - not return the same pointer. - bfd_canonicalize_relocs will do the same; returning a pointer to - an array of arelocs. Calling this function will read symbols in - too. - - o - bfd_reclaim_relocs will free the memory used by these relocs. - the symbols will be untouched. - bfd_reclaim_symtab (ne bfd_reclaim_symbol_table) will free the - memory allocated by canonialize_symtab. - Since relocations point to symbols, any relocations obtained by a - call to bfd_canonicalize_relocs will be reclaimed as well. - - o - if you don't call the reclaim_ functions, the memory will be - reclaimed at bfd_close time. + + o - update the bfd doc; write a how-to-write-a-backend doc, take out + the stupid quips and fill in all the blanks. + + o - upgrade the reloc handling as per Steve's suggestion. + + + + |