Re: Question regarding dynamic loader

[Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org>]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 09:25:50AM -0500, Rich Felker wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 02:55:19PM +0100, Gernot Reisinger wrote:
> > I wonder if calling constructor functions from crt code is an intended musl
> > libc behavior. My personal - non expert - gut feeling considers glibc
> > behavior "more correct". Is there a chance that musl will change this
> > behavior?
> 
> The musl behavior here is intentional. For FDPIC targets, it's
> impossible to run *any* application code, in the main application or
> shared libraries, before the main application's crt1 has executed,
> because there are (essentially -- the equivalent of) self-relocations
> performed at that stage that the dynamic linker can't see. If any
> ctors were invoked directly by the dynamic linker before passing
> control the the main application's entry point, they would run without
> these relocations in the main application having been performed,
> possibly resulting in runaway-wrong execution.

For reference, this was initially done in commit
c87a52103399135d2f57a91a8bcc749d8cb2ca83. Of course these code paths
have changed significantly since then, but it gives some historical
context.

Rich