In an LD linker script I have the following fragment in the SECTIONS section:
. = (__BUFFER_LOCATION_);
BUFFER . : { } > EXTERNAL_MEM
where __BUFFER_LOCATION_ is defined to some address and EXTERNAL_MEM is defined in the MEMORY section.
In the C program, I have a global buffer declared as:
char outbuf[4096] __attribute__((section("BUFFER")));
It can be seen that the linker script does not mention any input section named BUFFER, but the output section is named as such.
When compiling the program I see that the linker placed the buffer in the supposed address (BUFFER_LOCATION), although the input section was not defined in the LDF. When I remove the attribute from the source, the buffer is placed in a completely different address.
So, I assume that by default, an output-section-command of type "input section description" adds the output section's name to the input sections list implicitly, unless defined somewhere else. However, reading the manual, I could not find a description of such behaviour.
Did I miss something, or is it an "undocumented feature"?
