Include binary file with GNU ld linker script

Question

I have a working linker script. I want to add another data section whose contents is pulled directly from a file (ld shouldn't parse it and extract the sections and so on). How can I do that?

OUTPUT_FORMAT("elf32-i386")
ENTRY(start)
SECTIONS
{
  .text 0x100000 : {
    *(.multiboot)
    *(.text)
    *(.code)
    *(.rodata*)
  }
  .data : {
    *(.data)
  }
  .bss : {
    *(.bss)
  }
  kernel_end = .;
  roottask_start = .;
  .data : {

    HERE I WANT TO INCLUDE THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF ANOTHER (BINARY) FILE

  }
  roottask_end = .;
}

Answer 1

You could try using objcopy to convert it to a normal object you can link in, and then reference its symbols in the linker script like you would do to a normal object. From the objcopy manual page:

-B bfdarch --binary-architecture=bfdarch Useful when transforming a raw binary input file into an object file. In this case the output architecture can be set to bfdarch. This option will be ignored if the input file has a known bfdarch. You can access this binary data inside a program by referencing the special symbols that are created by the conversion process. These symbols are called _binary_objfile_start, _binary_objfile_end and _binary_objfile_size. e.g. you can transform a picture file into an object file and then access it in your code using these symbols.

See also the --rename-section option.