Old: PT_LOAD(.data | PT_GNU_RELRO(.data.rel.ro .bss.rel.ro) | .bss)
New: PT_LOAD(PT_GNU_RELRO(.data.rel.ro .bss.rel.ro) | .data .bss)
The placement of | indicates page alignment caused by PT_GNU_RELRO. The
new layout has simler rules and saves space for many cases.
Old size: roundup(.data) + roundup(.data.rel.ro)
New size: roundup(.data.rel.ro + .bss.rel.ro) + .data
Other advantages:
- At runtime the 3 memory mappings decrease to 2.
- start(PT_TLS) = start(PT_GNU_RELRO) = start(RW PT_LOAD). This simplifies binary manipulation tools. GNU strip before 2.31 discards PT_GNU_RELRO if its address is not equal to the start of its associated PT_LOAD. This has been fixed by https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;h=f2731e0c374e5323ce4cdae2bcc7b7fe22da1a6f But with this change, we will be compatible with GNU strip before 2.31
- Before, .got.plt (non-relro by default) was placed before .got (relro by default), which made it impossible to have _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ (start of .got.plt on x86-64) equal to the end of .got (R_GOT*_FROM_END) (https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36555). With the new ordering, we can improve on this regard if we'd like to.
I don't feel this comment explains the intention of the change clearly. IIUC, the intention of the change is to separate relro sections (e.g. .data.rel.ro and .bss.rel.ro) from non-relro sections (e.g. .data and .bss), so that we don't waste space for page alignment. An alternative ordering, e.g., .data, .data.rel.ro, .bss, .bss.rel.ro, wastes on average address space of 2 pages because each section would be page-aligned.