[comp.unix.i386] Relocation of non-word-aligned pointers

lord@se-sd.NCR.COM (Dave Lord) (04/11/90)

I am working on a compiler which will ultimately run on V.4 but is now
running on Interactive V.3. It's not "C". One of the compiler
options is to produce data mapping compatable with a particular
propriatary system which I won't name, but it doesn't require
word alignment of pointers. According to my 386 manual, word
alignment is not required for the 386. (Don't tell me about 
efficiency.)

Here's my problem:

When doing relocation 'ld' seems to want to do the relocation
on a word boundary in spite of the fact the relocation entry
in my 'coff' file doesn't point to a word-aligned data item.
Question: Is this a bug? Does it work this way on all Unix's?
What about V.4 with Elf, Dwarf, and all that other good stuff?

I'd appreciate any light anyone could shed on this issue.

Dave Lord	lord@se-sd.sandiego.ncr.com	619 693-5588