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| Up: <a href="BFD.html#BFD" accesskey="u" rel="up">BFD</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> |
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| <a name="How-It-Works_003a-An-Outline-of-BFD"></a> |
| <h3 class="section">5.1 How It Works: An Outline of BFD</h3> |
| <a name="index-opening-object-files"></a> |
| |
| <p>When an object file is opened, BFD subroutines automatically determine |
| the format of the input object file. They then build a descriptor in |
| memory with pointers to routines that will be used to access elements of |
| the object file’s data structures. |
| </p> |
| <p>As different information from the object files is required, |
| BFD reads from different sections of the file and processes them. |
| For example, a very common operation for the linker is processing symbol |
| tables. Each BFD back end provides a routine for converting |
| between the object file’s representation of symbols and an internal |
| canonical format. When the linker asks for the symbol table of an object |
| file, it calls through a memory pointer to the routine from the |
| relevant BFD back end which reads and converts the table into a canonical |
| form. The linker then operates upon the canonical form. When the link is |
| finished and the linker writes the output file’s symbol table, |
| another BFD back end routine is called to take the newly |
| created symbol table and convert it into the chosen output format. |
| </p> |
| <table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0"> |
| <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="BFD-information-loss.html#BFD-information-loss" accesskey="1">BFD information loss</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">Information Loss |
| </td></tr> |
| <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="Canonical-format.html#Canonical-format" accesskey="2">Canonical format</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">The BFD canonical object-file format |
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