Example of how to explicitly place a named section with scatter-loading

Consider the following source files:

init.c
------
int foo() __attribute__((section("INIT")));
int foo() {
  return 1;
}

int bar() {
  return 2;
}

data.c
------
const long padding=123;
int z=5;

The following scatter file shows how to place a named section explicitly:

LR1 0x0 0x10000
{
    ; Root Region, containing init code
    ER1 0x0 0x2000
    {
        init.o (INIT, +FIRST)   ; place init code at exactly 0x0
        *(+RO)                  ; rest of code and read-only data  
    }
    ; RW & ZI data to be placed at 0x400000
    RAM_RW 0x400000 (0x1FF00-0x2000)
    {
        *(+RW)
    }
    RAM_ZI +0
    {
        *(+ZI)
    }
    ; execution region at 0x1FF00
    ; maximum space available for table is 0xFF
    DATABLOCK 0x1FF00 0xFF
    {
        data.o(+RO-DATA)  ; place RO data between 0x1FF00 and 0x1FFFF
    }
}

In this example, the scatter-loading description places:

• The initialization code is placed in the INIT section in the init.o file. This example shows that the code from the INIT section is placed first, at address 0x0, followed by the remainder of the RO code and all of the RO data except for the RO data in the object data.o.

• All global RW variables in RAM at 0x400000.

• A table of RO-DATA from data.o at address 0x1FF00.

The resulting image memory map is as follows:

Memory Map of the image

  Image entry point : Not specified.

  Load Region LR1 (Base: 0x00000000, Size: 0x00000018, Max: 0x00010000, ABSOLUTE)

    Execution Region ER1 (Base: 0x00000000, Size: 0x00000010, Max: 0x00002000, ABSOLUTE)

    Base Addr    Size         Type   Attr      Idx    E Section Name        Object

    0x00000000   0x00000008   Code   RO            4    INIT                init.o
    0x00000008   0x00000008   Code   RO            1    .text               init.o
    0x00000010   0x00000000   Code   RO           16    .text               data.o


    Execution Region DATABLOCK (Base: 0x0001ff00, Size: 0x00000004, Max: 0x000000ff, ABSOLUTE)

    Base Addr    Size         Type   Attr      Idx    E Section Name        Object

    0x0001ff00   0x00000004   Data   RO           19    .rodata             data.o


    Execution Region RAM_RW (Base: 0x00400000, Size: 0x00000004, Max: 0x0001df00, ABSOLUTE)

    Base Addr    Size         Type   Attr      Idx    E Section Name        Object

    0x00400000   0x00000000   Data   RW            2    .data               init.o
    0x00400000   0x00000004   Data   RW           17    .data               data.o


    Execution Region RAM_ZI (Base: 0x00400004, Size: 0x00000000, Max: 0xffffffff, ABSOLUTE)

    Base Addr    Size         Type   Attr      Idx    E Section Name        Object

    0x00400004   0x00000000   Zero   RW            3    .bss                init.o
    0x00400004   0x00000000   Zero   RW           18    .bss                data.o