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Re: PATCH: readelf: Print sh_flags in hex


On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 10:27:28AM +0100, Nick Clifton wrote:
> Hi H. J.
> 
> >When sh_flags has processor/OS specific bits, there is no way to see
> >what they really are. This patch adds a -f switch to dump sh_flags in
> >hex.
> 
> There are a couple of problems with this patch:
> 
> >+  if (do_full_section_flags)
> >+    {
> >+      sprintf (buff, "%08x", (int) sh_flags);
> >+      return buff;
> >+    }
> 
> This means that the decoded values of the flags will not be shown.  If 
> this is the intended purpose then the description displayed by --help 
> ought to explicitly say that.  ie change:
> 
>      "Display the full section flags"
> to:
>      "Display the section flags as a hexadecimal value"

I can do that.

> 
> Presumably the --section-flags switch implies the --section switch, so 
> the code in parse_args() to handle case 'f' ought to include a 
> "do_sections++".  The other, minor problem with the value displayed by 

Sure.

> this new switch is that it is not prefixed by "0x" so that the reader 
> knows that it is a hexadecimal value.

None of the hex values are displayed with 0x prefix. But I don't mind
to add one to section flag.

> 
> In my opinion however I think that it would be more useful if the 
> --section-flags switch not only displayed the hex value of the flags 
> field, but it also provided a more verbose decoding of these flags.  ie 
> "Write" instead of "W", "TLS instead of "T", and so on.  It could also 
> specifically show which bits of the OS and PROC specific flags are set. 
>  (This could be deduced from the full hex display, but it makes it 
> easier for the user).  This would however probably require displaying 
> the flags on a line of their own.  eg:
> 
>   [Nr] Name    Type            Addr     Off    Size   ES Lk Inf Al
>   [ 0] .text   PROGBITS        00001010 001010 000011 00  0   0  4
>        Flags [0x10000006]: Allocate, Executable, PROC Specific (1 << 28)

If a section flag has more than a few bits, like WAXPoILG, a line may
be too long. I add this flag because I want to see exactly what HP
linker puts there. 'o' and 'p' aren't tell me anything. May be

   [Nr] Name    Type            Addr     Off    Size   ES Lk Inf Al
        Flags
   [ 0] .text   PROGBITS        00001010 001010 000011 00  0   0  4
	[0x10000006]: ALLOC, EXEC, PROC (0x1000000)

will work since most, if not all, of OS/PROC SHF_XXX are defined as
0xXXXXXXXX.

> 
> 
> The other problem with the patch is that you did not include 
> documentation for the
> -f/--section-flags switch in the binutils.texi file.

I can add it.


H.J.


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