Re: include
"Paul" <pchrist <nospam>or@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
I happen to know for a fact that .exe files are loaded with a dynamic
linker which performs relocation and rebasing operations as needed (using
the data in the .exe file for that exact purpose). The wikipedia article
also clearly tells you this.
Absolute rubbish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loader_(computing)
Please note the subsection on dynamic linkers:
"Dynamic linking loaders are another type of loader that load and link
shared libraries (like .dll files) to already loaded running programs."
Isn't it amusing that you see only what you want to see? You happily
skipped the section that talks about relocating (which goes totally against
your claim that executables are run as-is, without modification).
Executable files in most modern operating systems contain relocation and
rebasing data, and they always depend on shared libraries, and they are
always loaded with a dynamic linker that performs the relocations and
linking with the shared libraries (by changing function call addresses).
All Windows executables are in the PE format, which contains header and
reallocation data. The same is true for all unix executables in both the
COFF and ELF formats. They all require dynamic linking to run.
You didn't even bother to read the article about the PE format, did you?
It says, among other things:
"A PE file consists of a number of headers and sections that tell the
dynamic linker how to map the file into memory. An executable image
consists of several different regions, each of which require different
memory protection; so the start of each section must be aligned to a
page boundary. For instance, typically the .text section (which holds
program code) is mapped as execute/readonly, and the .data section
(holding global variables) is mapped as no-execute/readwrite. However,
to avoid wasting space, the different sections are not page aligned on
disk. Part of the job of the dynamic linker is to map each section to
memory individually and assign the correct permissions to the
resulting regions, according to the instructions found in the
headers."
You are still claiming that an exe file can be loaded and run as-is,
without any modification. No, they can't.