[PATCH] ld: Align the PDB DBI source-info substream

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Project / Subsystem

binutils / ld

Date

2026-09-13

Proposer

Oleg Tolmatcev <oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com>

Source type

public_inbox

Consensus

Proposed

Sentiment

—/10

Technical tradeoffs

• Ensuring proper alignment can prevent subtle bugs and improve compatibility with debuggers and other tools that rely on PDB format.
• Adding padding increases file size slightly, but this is generally negligible compared to the benefits of correct alignment.
• Modifying the PDB generation process requires careful testing to avoid regressions in debug information accuracy.

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All attributes

project: binutils
subsystem: ld
patch_id: —
discussion_id: 20260913175609.1590-2-oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com
source_type: public_inbox
title: [PATCH] ld: Align the PDB DBI source-info substream
headline: ld: Align PDB DBI source-info substream
tldr: Patch aligns the PDB DBI source-info substream to 4-byte boundaries and adds a test case.
proposer: Oleg Tolmatcev <oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com>
consensus: Proposed
outcome: proposed
sentiment_score: —
technical_tradeoffs: • Ensuring proper alignment can prevent subtle bugs and improve compatibility with debuggers and other tools that rely on PDB format.
• Adding padding increases file size slightly, but this is generally negligible compared to the benefits of correct alignment.
• Modifying the PDB generation process requires careful testing to avoid regressions in debug information accuracy.
series_id: —
series_role: standalone
series_parts: []
tags: • binutils
• linker
• PDB
• debugging
• patch
url: https://inbox.sourceware.org/binutils/20260913175609.1590-2-oleg.tolmatcev@gmail.com
bugzilla_url: —
date: 2026-09-13T00:00:00.000Z

[PATCH] ld: Align the PDB DBI source-info substream

Oleg Tolmatcev proposes a patch for the GNU linker (ld) that ensures the PDB (Program Database) Debug Information (DBI) source-info substream is properly aligned to 4-byte boundaries. This involves rounding up the substream size and zeroing out any padding. A corresponding test case is also added to verify this behavior.