Re: [Bug ld/518] New: Documentation error for MEMORY command

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Dave,

> but this is incorrect: in fact, neither ORIGIN nor LENGTH will accept anything 
> except a numeric constant (expression?), and certainly not any kind of symbol 
> at all.

How about this patch for rewording this part of the manual ?  I was not 
sure whether I ought to remove the part about "must evaluate to a 
constant" since this is now redundant.  (Numerical only expressions have 
to evaluate to a constant).  But there did not seem to be any harm in 
leaving it in.

I do not think that we need to say "support for expressions might be 
implemented in the future" in order to encourage someone to do that.  If 
someone wants it badly enough they will write the code and submit it.

Cheers
  Nick

ld/ChangeLog
2004-11-18  Nick Clifton  <address@hidden>

        * ld.texinfo (MEMORY): Update documentation to specify that the
        ORIGIN and LENGTH attributes can only accept numerical
        expressions.

Index: ld/ld.texinfo
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/ld/ld.texinfo,v
retrieving revision 1.130
diff -c -3 -p -r1.130 ld.texinfo
*** ld/ld.texinfo       15 Nov 2004 23:21:27 -0000      1.130
--- ld/ld.texinfo       18 Nov 2004 17:36:55 -0000
*************** attributes.
*** 3843,3861 ****
  @kindex ORIGIN =
  @kindex o =
  @kindex org =
! The @var{origin} is an expression for the start address of the memory
! region.  The expression must evaluate to a constant before memory
! allocation is performed, which means that you may not use any section
! relative symbols.  The keyword @code{ORIGIN} may be abbreviated to
! @code{org} or @code{o} (but not, for example, @code{ORG}).
  
  @kindex LENGTH =
  @kindex len =
  @kindex l =
  The @var{len} is an expression for the size in bytes of the memory
  region.  As with the @var{origin} expression, the expression must
! evaluate to a constant before memory allocation is performed.  The
! keyword @code{LENGTH} may be abbreviated to @code{len} or @code{l}.
  
  In the following example, we specify that there are two memory regions
  available for allocation: one starting at @samp{0} for 256 kilobytes,
--- 3843,3862 ----
  @kindex ORIGIN =
  @kindex o =
  @kindex org =
! The @var{origin} is an nurmical expression for the start address of
! the memory region.  The expression must evaluate to a constant before
! memory allocation is performed and it cannot involve any symbols.  The
! keyword @code{ORIGIN} may be abbreviated to @code{org} or @code{o}
! (but not, for example, @code{ORG}).
  
  @kindex LENGTH =
  @kindex len =
  @kindex l =
  The @var{len} is an expression for the size in bytes of the memory
  region.  As with the @var{origin} expression, the expression must
! be numerical only and must evaluate to a constant before memory
! allocation is performed.  The keyword @code{LENGTH} may be abbreviated
! to @code{len} or @code{l}.
  
  In the following example, we specify that there are two memory regions
  available for allocation: one starting at @samp{0} for 256 kilobytes,