Explaining readelf -S output

Question

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

Answer 1

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