Printable information in executables

Printable information in executables

[Alex Vinokur]

Executable files contain various printable information.
For instance, list of  used DLLs.

However those files contain neither compiler name nor compiler version.
It seems to be worth including something like "gcc version 3.3.1 (cygming special)" in executables.

Next question. Is it possible to add 'user related printable information' to executables (through compilation option or something
else)?

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   Alex Vinokur
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Re: Printable information in executables

[Shankar Unni]

Alex Vinokur wrote:

> However those files contain neither compiler name nor compiler version.
> It seems to be worth including something like "gcc version 3.3.1 (cygming special)" in executables.

There's no standard place in the PE header (in the object files) for
this sort of information.

Besides, the compiler information would have to be per-".o", not
per-".exe", since you can generally mix and match .o's from different
compilers (provided they generate code with the same calling conventions
and structure layouts) when linking a .exe.

Even if there were a convention for inserting this kind of information
(say, a special .info or .compiler section in the .o file), the
executable would end up with hundreds of these strings for any
moderately-sized program, and the information would be, at best,
confusing and only mildly interesting..



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RE: Printable information in executables

[Hannu E K Nevalainen]

> From: Alex Vinokur
> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 6:05 AM

> Executable files contain various printable information.
> For instance, list of  used DLLs.
>
> However those files contain neither compiler name nor compiler version.
> It seems to be worth including something like "gcc version 3.3.1
> (cygming special)" in executables.
>
> Next question. Is it possible to add 'user related printable
> information' to executables (through compilation option or something
> else)?

 The answer depends on how you plan to use that information.

The simplest form is just to declare a static string (char array), making
sure that the compiler doesn't remove it at optimization. (Hmm...? Is it
enough to do some dummy reference to it?)

This gives a simplified image of the true heuristics but anyway;
on the old AmigaOS they use(d) something like:

$ cat chk.c
int main() {
  char versionstring[]="$VER: name major.minor (date) extended_info";
  return 0;
}

$ for (( n=0; n<4; n++ )) do
  gcc -O$n chk.c;
  echo -n $n:;
  strings a.exe | grep '$VER: ';
done
0:$VER: name major.minor (date) extended_info
1:$VER: name major.minor (date) extended_info
2:$VER: name major.minor (date) extended_info
3:$VER: name major.minor (date) extended_info

Hmm... :-} it doesn't get removed by plain optimization... :-)

/Hannu E K Nevalainen, B.Sc. EE - 59?16.37'N, 17?12.60'E
-- printf("LocalTime: UTC+%02d\n",(DST)? 2:1); --
--END OF MESSAGE--


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Re: Printable information in executables

[Gerrit P. Haase]

Hello Alex,

Monday, November 3, 2003, 6:04:41 AM, you wrote:

> Executable files contain various printable information.
> For instance, list of  used DLLs.

> However those files contain neither compiler name nor compiler version.
> It seems to be worth including something like "gcc version 3.3.1 (cygming
> special)" in executables. 

> Next question. Is it possible to add 'user related printable
> information' to executables (through compilation option or something
> else)?

You could use resource files.

-- 
Best regards,
 Gerrit 


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