Development of object file converter

Requirements

• To develop a utility that will convert IEEE695 format object file to ELF\DWARF2 object file
• Support for customer specific IEEE695 Extensions
• The converted object file should be compatible with GNU tools chain for the customer platform

Challenges

• The conversion was not straight forward. Information had to extracted from multiple places and using this the target information had to be formed. For example: Symbol size of a symbol was not a readily available information in IEEE695 format.
• Conversion of customer specific relocation to standard GNU relocation types. IEEE695 format uses expressions to represent relocation. This had to be decoded and equivalent GNU relocation type had to be identified.
• Cater for loss of information in the source object file. For example : Static variable information is not available in IEEE695 format.
• Support for conversion of object files without debug information.

Solution

• Environment

  OS	Windows Linux
  Language/Platform	MSVC 6.0 GCC 3.2
  Development model	Waterfall model

• Features

  • Macro pre-processed file with assembly instructions
  • Emit Debug information
  • List file information
  • Error and warning list file
  • Regression testing

• Description

  After receiving the requirement specification the team framed the specification document and got it approved from the customer. The doubts in the requirement were clarified by frequent exchange of mails with the customer.