[Bug ld/27452] New: ld: Support compressing arbitrary sections (generalized --compress-debug-sections=)

[i at maskray dot me]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27452

            Bug ID: 27452
           Summary: ld: Support compressing arbitrary sections
                    (generalized --compress-debug-sections=)
           Product: binutils
           Version: unspecified
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: ld
          Assignee: unassigned at sourceware dot org
          Reporter: i at maskray dot me
  Target Milestone: ---

ld --compress-debug-sections=zlib compresses the .debug_* output sections
(usually non-SHF_ALLOC, but I've seen rustc SHF_ALLOC .debug_gdb_scripts -
which could be a rustc bug).

There are needs compressing other sections, even SHF_ALLOC ones, e.g.
__llvm_covstr for potential future clang coverage mapping formats
(https://bugs.llvm.org//show_bug.cgi?id=49155). For SHF_ALLOC sections, there
will be additional requirement on the runtime side as the runtime needs to
figure out whether the section is compressed or not (perhaps just checking the
Elf*_Chdr header (section header table is optional in executable/shared object
files))

If we don't distinguish SHF_ALLOC and non-SHF_ALLOC sections, the new option
can be '--compress-sections=.debug_*=zlib' . If we just need non-SHF_ALLOC
sections, the new option can be '--compress-nonalloc-sections=.debug_*=zlib' .
The exact requirements may need fleshing out.

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