We have a few sections that can be added implicitly to the output:
".dynsym", ".dynstr", ".symtab", ".strtab" and ".shstrtab".
Problem appears when such section is listed explicitly in YAML.
In that case it's content is written twice:
first time during writing of regular sections listed in the document
and second time during special handling.
Because of that their file offsets can become unexpectedly broken:
(yaml file for sample below lists .dynsym explicitly before .text.foo)
Before patch: [Nr] Name Type Address Offset Size EntSize Flags Link Info Align [ 0] NULL 0000000000000000 00000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0 0 0 [ 1] .dynsym DYNSYM 0000000000000100 00000250 0000000000000030 0000000000000018 A 6 0 8 [ 2] .text.foo PROGBITS 0000000000000200 00000200 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 AX 0 0 0 After patch: Section Headers: [Nr] Name Type Address Offset Size EntSize Flags Link Info Align [ 0] NULL 0000000000000000 00000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0 0 0 [ 1] .dynsym DYNSYM 0000000000000100 00000200 0000000000000030 0000000000000018 A 6 0 8 [ 2] .text.foo PROGBITS 0000000000000200 00000230 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 AX 0 0 0
This patch reorganizes our code and fixes the issue described.
Your comment says that you are checking the file offset of these sections, but the CHECK tests the other properties too. Should the comment be expanded to say something like "Check the section header properties of ..." or should the text being checked for be relaxed (e.g. by regexing out the Type and Address columns, and removing the Size and Nr columns?
FWIW, I think there is probably value in checking the Address, Size and Type output, if they aren't explicitly tested elsewhere, so I think the comment is the thing that needs changing.
Also, does the offset really need to be ascending? I don't think that's strictly required.