Re: RFC: Objcopy: Section alignment

[Nick Clifton <nickc@redhat.com>]

Hi Jan,

>> Plus, as it turns out, I was
>> assuming that calling bfd_set_section_alignment() was enough to set
>> the alignment for a PE section.
> 
> Which also shouldn't be necessary? Isn't section alignment relevant for
> COFF objects only?

I am not sure.  But if it is not relevant for PE sections then shouldn't
changing the SectionAlignment field in the PE header generate an error if
any section's VMA does not match that alignment ?

> And didn't Alan, not so long ago, remove its
> propagation into PE binaries?

I must admit that I do not remember this, but it certainly could have happened.

> (This then also being a reason why the
> alignment values weren't dumped for PE.)

I think that we should not hide the alignment values from the user, even if
they are not going to be honoured.  We do not dictate the policy for the how
PE binaries are going to be treated by the OS, and there could be good
reasons for why a user needs to know them.

Cheers
   Nick