Q44928: Linker Options /PADDATA and /PADCODE

Article: Q44928
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 4.06
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | S_QuickC docerr | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 18-SEP-1989

Question:

I ran the linker Version 4.06 that comes with the Microsoft QuickC
Compiler Version 2.00 with the /help option as follows:

   LINK /HELP

I noticed two switches for which I couldn't find documentation:
/PADDATA and /PADCODE. What are these options for?

Response:

The /PADC[ODE]:padsize option causes LINK to add filler bytes to the
end of each code module. The option is followed by a colon and the
number of bytes to add. (Decimal radix is assumed, but you can specify
special octal or hexadecimal numbers by using a C-language prefix.)
Thus, the following adds an additional 256 bytes to each code module:

   /PADCODE:256

The default size for code-module padding is 0 bytes.

The /PADD[ATA]:padsize option performs a function similar to
/PADCODE, except that it specifies padding for data segments (or data
modules, if the program uses small or medium-memory models). Thus,
the following adds an additional 32 bytes to each data module:

   /PADDATA:32

The default size for data-segment padding is 16 bytes. Note that if
you specify too large a value for padsize, you may exceed the 64K
limitation on the size of the default data segment.

These two options are quite useful when used in conjunction with
QuickC Version 2.00's incremental linking option. Using them correctly
increases the incremental linking speed of a program.

These two options are documented on Page 64 in the update section of
the Microsoft C Optimizing Compiler Version 5.10 "CodeView and
Utilities, Microsoft Editor, Mixed-Language Programming Guide" manual.

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