Issue 250101.1: Initial Length

Author:	David Anderson
Champion:
Date submitted:	2025-01-01
Date revised:
Date closed:	2025-01-06
Type:	Editorial
Status:	Accepted with changes
DWARF version:	6

Referring to DWARF6 draft for the page/line numbers

Background

The text of the first paragraph of 7.2.2 is unchanged from DWARF5.

When new sections were added for DWARF5 they were left out of the Initial Length Values first paragraph.

Section 7.2.2 Initial Length Values page 192 line 26:

An initial length field is one of the fields that occur at the beginning of those DWARF sections that have a header (.debug_aranges, .debug_info, .debug_line, .debug_loclists, .debug_names and .debug_rnglists) or the length field that occurs at the beginning of the CIE and FDE structures in the .debug_frame section.

Observation

Most sections mention the initial length like this

1. unit_length (initial length)

Consistent.

One section has a header but has no Initial Length Value (.debug_macro) so the original sentence is not quite correct.

So:

I changed 'length field' to 'initial length field' here which perhaps addresses this issue and helps when searching the document content.

Observation 2

For a CIE, Sec 6.4.1 uses

1. length (initial length)

rather than calling it unit_length.

So does FDE.

I suggest this inconsistency is...not helpful.

Proposed Text

An initial length field is one of the fields that occur at the beginning of those DWARF sections that have a header (.debug_aranges, .debug_info, .debug_line, .debug_loclists, .debug_names, .debug_rnglists, .debug_addr, and .debug_str_offsets) or the initial length field that occurs at the beginning of the CIE and FDE structures in the .debug_frame section.

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2025-01-06: Accepted with changes: Just add .debug_frame to list of sections (and re-alphabetize the list) and strike "or the initial length field that occurs at the beginning of CIE and FDE structures...."