diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'bfd')
| -rwxr-xr-x | bfd/bfd.texinfo | 25 |
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/bfd/bfd.texinfo b/bfd/bfd.texinfo index 66bc071..69ffa68 100755 --- a/bfd/bfd.texinfo +++ b/bfd/bfd.texinfo @@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ This file documents the binary file descriptor library libbfd. * Index:: Index BFD body: +* Memory usage:: * Sections:: * Symbols:: * Archives:: @@ -349,7 +350,29 @@ What is a backend @chapter BFD front end @include doc/bfd.doc @page -@node Sections, Symbols , bfd, Top +@node Memory Usage, Sections, bfd, Top +@section Memory Usage +BFD keeps all its internal structures in obstacks. There is one obstack +per open bfd file, into which the current state is stored. When a bfd is +closed, the obstack is deleted, and so everything which has been +allocated by libbfd for the closing file will be thrown away. + +BFD will not free anything created by an application, but pointers into +bfd structures will be invalidated on a @code{bfd_close}; for example, +after a @code{bfd_close} the vector passed to +@code{bfd_canonicalize_symtab} will still be around, since it has been +allocated by the application, but the data that it pointed to will be +lost. + +The general rule is not to close a bfd until all operations dependent +upon data from the bfd have been completed, or all the data from within +the file has been copied. To help with the management of memory, there is a function +(@code{bfd_alloc_size}) which returns the number of bytes in obstacks +associated with the supplied bfd. This could be used to select the +greediest open bfd, close it to reclaim the memory, perform some +operation and reopen the bfd again, to get a fresh copy of the data structures. + +@node Sections,Symbols ,Memory Usage, Top @include doc/section.doc @page @node Symbols, Archives ,Sections, To |