define a program section in C code (GCC)

Question

In assembly language, it's easy to define a section like:

.section foo

How can this be done in C code? I want to put a piece of C code in a special section rather than .text, so I will be able to put that section in a special location in the linker script.

I'm using GCC.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be compiler specific -- perhaps you can tell us which one you're using... — Mark Elliot
– Mark Elliot, Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 20:31

nneonneo · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-23 16:46:50Z

22

The C standard doesn't say anything about "sections" in the sense that you mean, so you'll need to use extensions specific to your compiler.

With GCC, you will want to use the section attribute:

extern void foobar(void) __attribute__((section("bar")));

There is some limited documentation here, including a warning:

Some file formats do not support arbitrary sections so the section attribute is not available on all platforms. If you need to map the entire contents of a module to a particular section, consider using the facilities of the linker instead.

edited Mar 23, 2013 at 16:46

nneonneo

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answered Aug 18, 2010 at 20:39

Stephen Canon

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1 Comment

richard Over a year ago

thanks men/women. extern void foobar(void) __attribute__((section("bar"))); works for me.

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