Table of Contents
The elf64 object format is the 64-bit version of the
Executable and Linkable Object Format. As it shares many similarities with elf32, only differences between elf32
and elf64 will be described in this chapter. For details on
elf32, see Chapter 7.
Yasm defaults to BITS 64 mode when outputting to the
elf64 object format.
elf64 supports the same debug formats as elf32, however, the stabs debug
format is limited to 32-bit addresses, so dwarf2 (see Chapter 16) is the recommended
debugging format.
elf64 also supports the exact same sections, section
attributes, and directives as elf32. See Section 7.2 for more
details on section attributes, and Section 7.3 for details on the additional directives
ELF provides.
The primary difference between elf32 and elf64 (other than 64-bit support in general) is the differences in
shared library handling and position-independent code. As BITS
64 enables the use of RIP-relative addressing, most
variable accesses can be relative to RIP, allowing easy relocation of the shared library
to a different memory address.
While RIP-relative addressing is available, it does not handle all possible variable
access modes, so special symbols are still required, as in elf32. And as with elf32, the elf64 output format makes use of WRT
for utilizing the PIC-specific relocation types.
elf64 defines four special symbols which you can use as
the right-hand side of the WRT operator to obtain PIC
relocation types. They are ..gotpcrel, ..got, ..plt and ..sym. Their functions are summarized here:
..gotpcrelWhile RIP-relative addressing allows you to encode an instruction pointer relative
data reference to foo with [rel
foo], it's sometimes necessary to encode a RIP-relative reference to a
linker-generated symbol pointer for symbol foo; this is done using wrt ..gotpcrel, e.g. [rel foo wrt
..gotpcrel]. Unlike in elf32, this relocation,
combined with RIP-relative addressing, makes it possible to load an address from the GOT
using a single instruction. Note that since RIP-relative references are limited to a
signed 32-bit displacement, the GOT size accessible through this method is limited to 2
GB.
..gotAs in elf32, referring to an external or global symbol
using wrt ..got causes the linker to build an entry in the GOT containing the address of the symbol, and the
reference gives the distance from the beginning of the GOT to the entry; so you can add
on the address of the GOT, load from the resulting address, and end up with the address
of the symbol.
..pltAs in elf32, referring to a procedure name using wrt ..plt causes the linker to build a procedure linkage table
entry for the symbol, and the reference gives the address of the PLT entry. You can only
use this in contexts which would generate a PC-relative relocation normally (i.e. as the
destination for CALL or JMP),
since ELF contains no relocation type to refer to PLT entries absolutely.
..symAs in elf32, referring to a symbol name using wrt ..sym causes Yasm to write an ordinary relocation, but instead
of making the relocation relative to the start of the section and then adding on the
offset to the symbol, it will write a relocation record aimed directly at the symbol in
question. The distinction is a necessary one due to a peculiarity of the dynamic
linker.