Typical COFF sections contain code or data that linkers and Win32 loaders process without special knowledge of the sections’ contents. The contents are relevant only to the application being linked or executed.
However, some COFF sections have special meanings when found in object files and/or image files. Tools and loaders recognize these sections because they have special flags set in the section header, or because they are pointed to from special locations in the image optional header, or because the section name is “magic”: that is, the name indicates a special function of the section. (Even where the section name is not magic, the name is dictated by convention, so we will refer to a name.)
The reserved sections and their attributes are described in the table below, followed by detailed descriptions for a subset of them.
| Section Name | Content | Characteristics |
| .arch | Alpha architecture information | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_ALIGN_8BYTES | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_DISCARDABLE |
| .bss | Uninitialized data | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_UNINITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE |
| .data | Initialized data | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE |
| .edata | Export tables | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ |
| .idata | Import tables | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE |
| .pdata | Exception information | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ |
| .rdata | Read-only initialized data | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ |
| .reloc | Image relocations | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_DISCARDABLE |
| .rsrc | Resource directory | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE |
| .text | Executable code | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_CODE | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_EXECUTE | IIMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ |
| .tls | Thread-local storage | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_WRITE |
| .xdata | Exception information | IMAGE_SCN_CNT_INITIALIZED_DATA | IMAGE_SCN_MEM_READ |
Some of the sections listed here are marked “(object only)” or “(image only)” to indicate that their special semantics are relevant only for object files or image files, respectively. A section that says “(image only)” may still appear in an object file as a way of getting into the image file, but the section has no special meaning to the linker, only to the image file loader.