Re: objcopy --add-section doubt

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Kartikeyan,

Thanks for the test case.  Using it I was able to reproduce the problem.

> so NULL is being returned as newsect->name is not NULL

Yes - this is the heart of the matter.  What is happening is that you 
are attempting to add a section that already exists.  The old (RH9) 
binutils silently allowed this, which was incorrect.  The current 
binutils sources does not allow the existing section to be re-added, but 
it does produce a very unhelpful warning message.

The attached patch (which I will be checking into the sources shortly) 
changes the warning to:

   can't add section '.skdata' - it already exists!

which I think is much better.

> I AM NOT A EXPERT IN BINUTILS.

It's OK there is no need to shout.

If you want to achieve the old behaviour of RH9 then you can just amend 
your objcopy command line to include "--remove-section .skdata" before 
the "--add-section .skdata=a" switch.

Cheers
  Nick

binutils/ChangeLog
2006-01-30  Nick Clifton  <address@hidden>

        * objcopy.c (copy_object): Catch the case where an attempt is made
        to add a section that already exists and produce a more helpful
        warning message.

Index: binutils/objcopy.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/binutils/objcopy.c,v
retrieving revision 1.93
diff -c -3 -p -r1.93 objcopy.c
*** binutils/objcopy.c  18 Jan 2006 11:01:09 -0000      1.93
--- binutils/objcopy.c  30 Jan 2006 12:58:45 -0000
*************** copy_object (bfd *ibfd, bfd *obfd)
*** 1313,1325 ****
          if (pset != NULL && pset->set_flags)
            flags = pset->flags | SEC_HAS_CONTENTS;
  
!         padd->section = bfd_make_section_with_flags (obfd, padd->name, flags);
!         if (padd->section == NULL)
            {
!             non_fatal (_("can't create section `%s': %s"),
!                      padd->name, bfd_errmsg (bfd_get_error ()));
              return FALSE;
            }
  
          if (! bfd_set_section_size (obfd, padd->section, padd->size))
            {
--- 1313,1335 ----
          if (pset != NULL && pset->set_flags)
            flags = pset->flags | SEC_HAS_CONTENTS;
  
!         /* bfd_make_section_with_flags() does not return very helpful
!            error codes, so check for the most likely user error first.  */
!         if (bfd_get_section_by_name (obfd, padd->name))
            {
!             non_fatal (_("can't add section '%s' - it already exists!"), 
padd->name);
              return FALSE;
            }
+         else
+           {
+             padd->section = bfd_make_section_with_flags (obfd, padd->name, 
flags);
+             if (padd->section == NULL)
+               {
+                 non_fatal (_("can't create section `%s': %s"),
+                            padd->name, bfd_errmsg (bfd_get_error ()));
+                 return FALSE;
+               }
+           }
  
          if (! bfd_set_section_size (obfd, padd->section, padd->size))
            {