linker script: location counter & memory interference

[Michael Weise <michael.weise@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I'm encountering unexpected behaviour with a custom linker script
for a coldfire embedded system. GCC is Version 4.7.3 targetting
m68k-elf.

In the script below I set the location counter to:

 . = 0x40040400;
 _data_ram = .;

and then insert the .data-section:

 .data : AT(_data_flash) { *(.data) }
 _edata_ram = .;

When examining the executable with "objdump -h", I can see that
the linker actually put the .data-Section at address 0x40000000.

The debugger tells me that:
_data_ram points to 0x40040400
_edata_ram points to 0x400008E4

Can somebody explain what's going on here?


I found two workarounds / solutions:
1. completely remove the memory command
2. add a dot to the .data-section line
 .data . : AT(_data_flash) { *(.data) }
       ^

This might point to the problem:
--citation--
.text . : { *(.text) }
and

.text : { *(.text) }
are subtly different. The first will set the address of the `.text'
output section to the current value of the location counter. The
second will set it to the current value of the location counter
aligned to the strictest alignment of a `.text' input section.
--/citation--
from
http://www.scoberlin.de/content/media/http/informatik/gcc_docs/ld_3.html

What is "strictest alignment"?
Is the memory command changing the "strictest alignment" of the
section?

Regards
Michael


--full linker script--
MEMORY
{
 flash_begin (rx) : ORIGIN = 0, LENGTH = 16k
 flash_bootloader (rx) : ORIGIN = 32k, LENGTH = 96K
 sdram (wx) : ORIGIN = 0x40000000, LENGTH = 0x02000000
 core_sram (wx) : ORIGIN = 0x80000000, LENGTH = 0x00008000
}
EXTERN(VECTOR_TABLE)
ENTRY(entry)
SECTIONS
{
 . = 0x00000000;
 .vector : { *(.vector) } >flash_begin
 .boot : { *(.boot) } >flash_begin
 .text : { *(.text) } >flash_bootloader
 .rodata : { *(.rodata) }
 . = ALIGN(4);
 _data_flash = .;
 . = 0x40040400;
 _data_ram = .;
 .data . : AT(_data_flash) { *(.data) }
 _edata_ram = .;
 _edata_flash = _data_flash + SIZEOF(.data);
 . = ALIGN(4);
 _bss = .;
 .bss : { *(.bss) } >sdram
 _ebss = .;
  _data2_flash = (_edata_flash + 4 - 1) & ~(4 - 1);
 . = 0x80000000;
 _data2_ram = .;
 .bss_sram : AT(_data2_flash) { *(.data2) } >core_sram
}