[PATCH] PE/COFF: raise normal PE section limit safely

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Project / Subsystem

binutils / pe/coff

Date

2026-06-30

Proposer

Oleg Tolmatcev <oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com>

Source type

public_inbox

Consensus

Proposed

Sentiment

8/10

Technical tradeoffs

• Improves compatibility with modern toolchains and allows for larger PE/COFF files.
• Introduces more complex handling of section number encoding/decoding.
• Adds new test cases to ensure the increased limit is handled correctly.

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All attributes

project: binutils
subsystem: pe/coff
patch_id: —
discussion_id: 20260630205916.1179-3-oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com
source_type: public_inbox
title: [PATCH] PE/COFF: raise normal PE section limit safely
headline: PE/COFF: raise normal PE section limit safely
tldr: Safely increases the maximum number of sections allowed in PE/COFF files processed by binutils.
proposer: Oleg Tolmatcev <oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com>
consensus: Proposed
outcome: proposed
sentiment_score: 8
technical_tradeoffs: • Improves compatibility with modern toolchains and allows for larger PE/COFF files.
• Introduces more complex handling of section number encoding/decoding.
• Adds new test cases to ensure the increased limit is handled correctly.
series_id: —
series_role: standalone
series_parts: []
tags: • pe/coff
• windows
• linker
• symbols
• bugfix
url: https://inbox.sourceware.org/binutils/20260630205916.1179-3-oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com
bugzilla_url: —
date: 2026-06-30T00:00:00.000Z

[PATCH] PE/COFF: raise normal PE section limit safely

This patch increases the limit for the number of sections in PE/COFF files handled by binutils from 32,767 to 65,279. It achieves this by correctly treating symbol section numbers as unsigned 16-bit values, aligning with modern compiler practices, while preserving special reserved section number constants. Additionally, it introduces a new gas test to verify the handling of objects with a high section count and improves input validation for reserved section numbers.