Re: [Mingw-w64-public] Enable ld.exe --large-address-aware on Win 32bit toolchain binaries.

[PcX <xun...@gm...>]

? 2011/7/27 19:47, Darryl L. Miles ??:
> I have just opened an issue on this and it was request I discuss in ML.
>
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3379768&group_id=202880&atid=983357
>
>
>
> I do not believe this has any known side effect. I beleve this to be a
> flag in the PE header that says the executable is compatible with using
> above the 2Gb user space limit of the original Windows 32bit platform
> (Win2000 RTM/WinXP RTM). I believe the feature was added as a flag like
> this so that EXEs which made presumptions about address space
> size/layout would be 100% backward compatible with the original Windows
> 32bit system. I believe Win2000 SP4 and WinXP SP2&  SP3 all fully
> support this option. I believe older versions of Win2000/WinXP (like
> RTM) simply ignore this flag and still run the EXE.
>
> With the invention of 64bit concepts later Win2000 releases and WinXP
> 32bit Service Packes all supported increasing the user space limit upto
> 3Gb on 32bit hosts. Google for the /3GB switch. All versions of Windows
> 64bit using WoW64 to provide a 32bit user-space to a 32bit EXE increase
> this limit to almost the full 4Gb.
>
> GNU binutils/ld does not appear to have a mode to perform linking via
> disk I/O and working with large C++ libraries creating DLLs build with
> debug symbols can like to make use of the extra RAM. When without the
> RAM the realistic limit is 1.8Gb and then ld.exe crashes out.
>
>
You can build binutils with ldflags "-Wl,--large-address-aware" yourself.
Or you can use VC tools: "editbin /largeaddressaware ld.exe"

-- 
Best Regards,
PcX