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Explaining readelf -S output

I'm trying to load an elf file into a MIPS simulator I made. The problem I'm having is that I don't quite understand the meaning behind the elf section header offset. When I do a segment dump, segments 25 - 31 and 33 - 35 "start" at 0x00000000 but the header states that the segment starts at an offset of some value (ex. 010190). Also at the beginning of the -S section readelf states that the headers start in memory at 0x107b4. But as can be seen in -S, the earliest memory allocation (because segment 0 is empty) is actually in segment 26 at offset 010210. Can someone explain what's going on here? I want to statically allocate all of this file into a memory array. Is there some assumption about offsets that's preventing me from doing this? And why does readelf say 0x107b4 is the header starting point?

Also, should I be running .init before I place the PC at the "entry point" specified by readelf?

EDIT: Okay, so, I did a hex dump of the executable file and I now realize that the offset is referring to the location in the actual elf file (contains elements at "addresses" 0 - 11d48.) So my question now is... how do I resolve the fact that many of the memory addresses reference address 0x00000000? They have different offsets of course but now that I know that is file specific, it means that several section alias. Do I actually use the offsets in memory addressing?

Segment 25:

  0x00000000 00474343 3a202847 4e552920 332e342e .GCC: (GNU) 3.4.
  0x00000010 35000047 43433a20 ...

Readelf -S output:

  There are 36 section headers, starting at offset 0x107b4:

Section Headers:

  [Nr] Name              Type            Addr     Off    Size   ES Flg Lk Inf Al
  [ 0]                   NULL            00000000 000000 000000 00      0   0  0
  [ 1] .interp           PROGBITS        00400134 000134 00000d 00   A  0   0  1
  [ 2] .note.ABI-tag     NOTE            00400144 000144 000020 00   A  0   0  4
  [ 3] .reginfo          MIPS_REGINFO    00400164 000164 000018 18   A  0   0  4
  [ 4] .dynamic          DYNAMIC         0040017c 00017c 000108 08   A  7   0  4
  [ 5] .hash             HASH            00400284 000284 0000bc 04   A  6   0  4
  [ 6] .dynsym           DYNSYM          00400340 000340 0001c0 10   A  7   1  4
  [ 7] .dynstr           STRTAB          00400500 000500 00023c 00   A  0   0  1
  [ 8] .gnu.version      VERSYM          0040073c 00073c 000038 02   A  6   0  2
  [ 9] .gnu.version_r    VERNEED         00400774 000774 000060 00   A  7   2  4
  [10] .init             PROGBITS        004007e4 0007e4 0000a8 00  AX  0   0  4
  [11] .text             PROGBITS        00400890 000890 000810 00  AX  0   0 16
  [12] .MIPS.stubs       PROGBITS        004010a0 0010a0 000090 00  AX  0   0  4
  [13] .fini             PROGBITS        00401130 001130 000058 00  AX  0   0  4
  [14] .rodata           PROGBITS        00401190 001190 000020 00   A  0   0 16
  [15] .eh_frame_hdr     PROGBITS        004011b0 0011b0 000034 00   A  0   0  4
  [16] .data             PROGBITS        10000000 010000 000030 00  WA  0   0 16
  [17] .rld_map          PROGBITS        10000030 010030 000004 00  WA  0   0  4
  [18] .eh_frame         PROGBITS        10000034 010034 0000bc 00  WA  0   0  4
  [19] .ctors            PROGBITS        100000f0 0100f0 00000c 00  WA  0   0  4
  [20] .dtors            PROGBITS        100000fc 0100fc 000008 00  WA  0   0  4
  [21] .jcr              PROGBITS        10000104 010104 000004 00  WA  0   0  4
  [22] .got              PROGBITS        10000110 010110 00007c 04 WAp  0   0 16
  [23] .sbss             NOBITS          1000018c 010190 000000 00 WAp  0   0  1
  [24] .bss              NOBITS          10000190 010190 000020 00  WA  0   0 16
  [25] .comment          PROGBITS        00000000 010190 00007e 00      0   0  1
  [26] .debug_aranges    MIPS_DWARF      00000000 010210 000058 00      0   0  8
  [27] .debug_info       MIPS_DWARF      00000000 010268 000146 00      0   0  1
  [28] .debug_abbrev     MIPS_DWARF      00000000 0103ae 000020 00      0   0  1
  [29] .debug_line       MIPS_DWARF      00000000 0103ce 0001a6 00      0   0  1
  [30] .pdr              PROGBITS        00000000 010574 000100 00      0   0  4
  [31] .mdebug.abi32     PROGBITS        00000000 010674 000000 00      0   0  1
  [32] .rel.dyn          REL             004007d4 0007d4 000010 08   A  6   0  4
  [33] .shstrtab         STRTAB          00000000 010674 00013f 00      0   0  1
  [34] .symtab           SYMTAB          00000000 010d54 000920 10     35 107  4
  [35] .strtab           STRTAB          00000000 011674 0006d4 00      0   0  1
like image 870
Dan Snyder Avatar asked Jul 19 '10 13:07

Dan Snyder


1 Answers

When you are loading an ELF object file, you should load the segments, not the sections. Load the segment if it is of type PT_LOAD.

The sections with address 0 are sections that should not be loaded. If you look at their names, you can probably guess why.

this document will help you understand the ELF format better

like image 132
Torleif Avatar answered Oct 01 '22 22:10

Torleif