GTIRB  v2.1.0
GrammaTech Intermediate Representation for Binaries
SymbolicExpression

SymbolicExpression

A SymbolicExpression represents a data value or instruction operand which should be interpreted as referring to a symbol.

Guaranteed Properties

  • A SymbolicExpression must be one of the following, implemented as either an inheritance hierarchy or a tagged union.

Symbolic Expression Attributes

Symbolic expressions have a set of assignable labels (SymAttribute) for architecture and ABI specific relocation types and reference modifiers.

SymAttribute labels are organized by architecture with common labels, stems, and suffixes grouped into a common base set.

For example, a symbol of the form symbol@GOT should be assigned the attribute gtirb::SymAttribute::GOT, and a symbol of the form symbol@GOTPAGE assigned both gtirb::SymAttribute::GOT and gtirb::SymAttribute::PAGE.

Note that we do not generalize or otherwise unify relocation attributes across architectures and instead prefer an explicit mapping of attribute names to relocation types as they appear in the assembly for each architecture. As a result, many labels have similar names (e.g. HI, HI16, H), but are duplicated to provide an intuitive mapping.

Attribute Description
ELF
GOT Expression value is the offset of the GOT entry for a symbol from the base of the GOT.
GOTPC Expression value is the PC relative offset to GOT. Used for values referencing an implicit _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ symbol.
GOTOFF Expression value is the offset to a symbol location from the base of the GOT.
GOTREL Expression value is relative to the GOT.
PLT Expression value is the offset to the PLT entry for a symbol from the current code location.
PLTOFF Expression value is the offset to the PLT entry for a symbol from the base of the GOT.
PCREL Expression value is relative to the current code location.
SECREL Expression value is relative to the beginning of the section.
TLS Expression value references Thead Local Storage.
TLSGD Expression value is the offset of the GOT entry for a tls_index structure. Used in Global Dynamic TLS access model (32 and 64-bit). See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
TLSLD Expression value is the offset of the GOT entry for a tls_index structure. Used in Local Dynamic TLS access model (64-bit). See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
TLSLDM Expression value is the offset of the GOT entry for a tls_index structure. Used in Local Dynamic TLS access model (32-bit). See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
TPREL Expression value is the offset of a symbol relative to the TLS block. Used in the Local Executable TLS access model. Note that TPREL and TPOFF are descriptors for the same TLS access models. Use the attribute name equivalent to the syntax compatible with the target assembler. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
TPOFF Expression value is the offset of a symbol relative to the TLS block. Used in the Local Executable TLS access model. Note that TPREL and TPOFF are descriptors for the same TLS access models. Use the attribute name equivalent to the syntax compatible with the target assembler. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
DTPREL Expression value is the offset of a symbol relative to the TLS block. Used in the Local Dynamic TLS access model. Note that DTPREL and DTPOFF are descriptors for the same TLS access models. Use the attribute name equivalent to the syntax compatible with the target assembler. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
DTPOFF Expression value is the offset of a symbol relative to the TLS block. Used in the Local Dynamic TLS access model. Note that DTPREL and DTPOFF are descriptors for the same TLS access models. Use the attribute name equivalent to the syntax compatible with the target assembler. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
DTPMOD Expression value is an object identifier for the object containing a TLS symbol. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
NTPOFF Expression value is a negative offset of a symbol relative to the TLS block. See ELF Handling for Thread-Local Storage for more details.
TLSDESC Expression value is a pointer to the tlsdesc structure. See RFC TLSDESC
TLSCALL Expression value is a call through the tlsdesc structure.
PAGE Expression value is a PC relative offset within a 4K page.
PAGEOFF Expression value is the offset within a 4K page, added to the page address to produce a complete address.
CALL Specifies the expression value can only be present in a call instruction.
LO Expression value is the low half word of an absolute symbol address; structured as [HI,LO] and [HIGHEST,HIGHER,HI,LO] for 32 and 64-bit addresses respectively.
HI Expression value is the high half word of an absolute symbol address; structured as [HI,LO] and [HIGHEST,HIGHER,HI,LO] for 32 and 64-bit addresses respectively.
HIGHER Expression value represents the higher half word of a symbol address; structured as [HI,LO] and [HIGHEST,HIGHER,HI,LO] for 32 and 64-bit addresses respectively.
HIGHEST Expression value represents the highest word of a symbol address; structured as [HI,LO] and [HIGHEST,HIGHER,HI,LO] for 32 and 64-bit addresses respectively.
X86
GOTNTPOFF Expression value references a GOT entry with the negative offset relative to the thread-pointer (TLS block).
INDNTPOFF Position dependent variant of GOTNTPOFF (absolute address of GOT entry).
ARM
G0 Expression value represents bits 0-15 of a 64-bit address.
G1 Expression value represents bits 16-31 of a 64-bit address.
G2 Expression value represents bits 32-47 of a 64-bit address.
G3 Expression value represents bits 48-63 of a 64-bit address.
UPPER16 Expression value represents upper 16 bits of an address.
LOWER16 Expression value represents lower 16 bits of an address.
LO12 Expression value represents bits 0-11 of an address.
LO14 Expression value represents bits 0-13 of an address.
LO15 Expression value represents bits 0-14 of an address.
HI12 Expression value represents bits 13-24 of a 64-bit address.
HI21 Expression value represents bits 11-31 of an address.
S Indicates the expression value is signed.
PG Functionally identical to PAGE, but should be used for ARM relocations such as :pg_hi21:symbol.
NC Indicates the linker should not check for overflow, "no check".
ABS Indicates the expression value is an absolute address.
PREL Indicates the expression value is PC relative.
PREL31 Expression value represents a 31-bit PC relative offset.
TARGET1 Target specific relocation interpreted as either R_ARM_ABS32 or R_ARM_REL32. Linker switches --target1-rel and --target1-abs switches override the default definition.
TARGET2 Target specific relocation interpreted as either R_ARM_ABS32 or R_ARM_REL32 or R_ARM_GOT_PREL. Linker switch --target2={rel,abs,got-rel} overrides the default definition.
SBREL Expression value is a static-base-relative offset.
TLSLDO Debug relocation for a TLS variable.
MIPS
HI16 Expression value represents the upper 16 bits of a symbol.
LO16 Expression value represents the lower 16 bits of a symbol.
GPREL Expression value represents the offset from the current GP value.
DISP Composes with GOT attribute for got_disp relocation. GOT entry as displacement into the global data section.
OFST Composes with GOT attribute for got_ofst relocation. GOT entry as offset from a page pointer.
PPC
H Expression value represents the high 16 bits of a symbol.
L Expression value represents the low 16 bits of a symbol.
HA Expression value represents the high 16 bits, adjusted for corresponding signed symbol@l relocation.
HIGH Expression value represents the high 16 bits of a symbol, with overflow check (PPC64).
HIGHA Expression value represents the hight 16 bits of a symbol, with overflow check (PPC64), adjusted for corresponding signed symbol@l relocation.
HIGHERA Expression value represents bits 32-47 of an address, adjusted for corresponding signed symbol@l relocation.
HIGHESTA Expression value represents 48-63 of an address, adjusted for corresponding signed symbol@l relocation.
TOCBASE Expression value represents the TOC base for the current object.
TOC Expression value is the offset of the TOC entry from the base of the TOC.
NOTOC Indicates callee clobbers the TOC register.

API Implementations

The guaranteed functionality is provided as follows.

Language SymbolicExpression Implementation
C++ gtirb::SymbolicExpression
Python gtirb.SymbolicExpression
Common Lisp symbolic-expression

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