SGI gABI Proposal 7x: Section Indices

[Jim Dehnert]

Attached is a proposal for eliminating the 16-bit limit on section
indices in ELF.  It is really a base generic ABI proposal, but as
it is motivated largely by the COMDAT proposal, I thought I'd pass
it by this group before submitting it there.  Please send me your
comments, or bring them up in the meeting.

Note that the gABI requires very little change for this purpose --
the ELF header needs two new fields and the symbol table needs a
new parallel table, both only for objects with >64K sections.  I
don't believe there is any further change required for the IA-64
psABI.  SGI has extensions which will require modifications for
this purpose, and I imagine some of the rest of you will too.

Also note that this is a totally compatible extension, and need
not be implemented by anyone until it is convenient and/or the
potential limitation becomes real.  Even if that doesn't occur
for a while, we think it is worth defining a common solution so
that it doesn't cause incompatible extensions later.
-- 
-	    Jim Dehnert		dehnert at sgi.com
				(650)933-4272
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