I file things like linkers, loaders, and debuggers into the same bucket as compilers, so all of the ELF extensions are interesting to me, even if compilers directly don't interact with them. I'm also interested in things like the loader-debugger rendezvous interface. Basically any document anyone who touches any project in llvm-project might need to read.
And then there are things like the layout of .gcc_except_table, which are undocumented except for random blog posts.
In case this is of interest, here's an attempt at gathering the references, including random blog posts (as well as articles, documentation, papers, software, and talks), on these topics:
> even if compilers directly don't interact with them
Essentially they do as they put directives into the asm files to put things in specific sections, to define certain symbol visibility etc all of which depend on the object file format (e.g. a classic BSD a.out file, using a format I called “a.out” in BFD, can’t represent most of that). So the compiler does need to know. And the assembler absolutely needs to know since it generates object files!
So yes an a.out file can be an ELF file (always is on Linux) or could be an “a.out” file. Sorry! In retrospect I should have called that format “bsd”.
> there are things like the layout of .gcc_except_table, which are undocumented except for random blog posts.
The way I dealt with it was write an ELF dumper for the tables, and then run various C++ code snippets through g++ and look at how the tables were constructed.
And then there are things like the layout of .gcc_except_table, which are undocumented except for random blog posts.