PRB: Data Section Names Limited to Eight Characters

• Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK) included with:

  - Windows NT versions 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

You can use #pragma data_seg to name data sections. This method is commonly used so that the named data sections can be shared using the SECTIONS statement in the DEF file or with a linker switch (/SECTION:name,RWS). However, if the length of the name specified in the pragma exceeds eight characters, then the section might not be properly shared.

CAUSE

The linker does not support sections with longer names. The longer names require use of the COFF strings table, so the rewrite is not trivial.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that the first character of a section name may be a period so that it is consistent with compiler and linker defaults. (The period is not required.) If used, the section name (as specified in both the pragma and the DEF file) can be a maximum of a period followed by seven characters.

For more information on the shared named-data section, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q89817
   TITLE     : How to Specify Shared and Nonshared Data in a DLL

Keywords          : TlsMisc
Version           : WINNT:3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0;
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbprb