[ipxe-devel] [PATCH 1/1] elf2efi.c: provide more help information

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 09/24/2017 07:15 PM, Michael Brown wrote:
> On 10/09/17 07:37, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>> Indicate if the executable was compiled to create 32- or 64-bit EFI
>> files.
>> Enumerate EFI subsystems.
>> Treat -? like -h.
> 
> Any particular reason for this patch?  elf2efi.c is an internal utility
> that isn't intended for interactive usage anyway.
> 
> If it's potentially useful across multiple projects (besides iPXE and
> wimboot), then maybe it's worth spinning out into a separate utility.
> What do you think?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Michael
> 

I think this utility is quite useful also for other projects.

Currently both grub and U-Boot try to compile binaries without
relocations and use objcopy to create EFI binaries. But in some aspects
these do not comply to PE standard. And having to compile without
relocations poses a lot of challenges.

Future developments of elf2efi could include support for more relocation
types. This would allow building with way less restrictions.

Another direction of thought would be trying to bring the missing
functionality for EFI building that you provide with elf2efi into binutils.

Best regards

Heinrich