README.TXT $Revision: 1.9 $

COFF2ELF
========


Overview

--------

The coff2elf utility converts (PE)COFF files to ELF.  The utility will also convert any debugging information to DWARF2.  As the ARM ADS debuggers require the use of ELF/DWARF2 files this provides a means of using these debuggers with PECOFF/STABS files that are generated by various other compilation tools (e.g. certain versions of GCC).


Supported Formats
-----------------
The Common Object File Format (COFF) varies slightly between various
implementations.   The coff2elf utility provides conversion for the
following formats:


1. PECOFF/STABS


   The STABS debugging information is used to generate DWARF2 debugging
   information.


2. TI COFF.


   The debugging information in the COFF symbol table is used to generate
   DWARF2 debugging information.


The (PE)COFF files to be converted must be fully linked files with no
relocation entries.


Using coff2elf
--------------
The coff2elf utility is simple to use.   In order to convert a file all
that is necessary is to specify the output and input files names, e.g.


        coff2elf -output outfile.elf infile.coff


The coff2elf utility can also be used to produce a textual dump of the
COFF symbol table, line number table, relocation table and string
table.  This is useful if it is necessary to compare the information
in the original COFF file with that produced in the output ELF file.


Command Line Options
--------------------


Conversion options:


-elf            Specifies that the output format is ELF (the default).
-output  Specifies the name of the output file.
-nodebug        Prevents the generation of DWARF2 sections in the output image.
-noinline       Prevents the generation of line numbers for inlined code.
-nozero         Prevents the output of sections which are zero bytes long.
-codeonly       Only code areas to be marked for loading in the output image.
-dosdrive       Rewrite pathname with a DOS drive letter
-producer string        Specify the contents of the DWARF2 producer string.
-producerfile filename  Read the DWARF2 producer string from the file.


Text options:
-text           Specifies that the output format is text.
-d              Print the contents of the data sections.
-l              Print the line number tables.
-r              Print the relocation tables.
-s              Print the COFF symbol table.
-t              Print the COFF string table.