Information abt .REL files

Hi Ppl,
I am working on a windows CE project and want to understand the " .rel "
file in detail, as in : what are they, what is the format, why are they
formed.. etc.

I did also try to google on that but somehow didnot get the Initial basic
info one needs to know, to be able to understand them.

Can some1 plz give me a pointer on that ..
Plz excuse me if this is not the rgt grp for this post, but then do update
me abt the correct post as well.

Thanks in Advance.

Bruce
Fri Jun 08 07:48:08 CDT 2007

rel files contain relocation information needed to move dlls from loading in
slot 0 to loading in slot 1. They are used as input to makimg\romimg.

--
Bruce Eitman (eMVP)
Senior Engineer
beitman AT applieddata DOT net

Applied Data Systems
www.applieddata.net
An ISO 9001:2000 Registered Company
Microsoft WEP Gold-level Member

"prayas MOHANTY" <prayas MOHANTY@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E2BB421F-7629-47F1-AB23-08DF9AEB1CC7@microsoft.com...
> Hi Ppl,
> I am working on a windows CE project and want to understand the " .rel "
> file in detail, as in : what are they, what is the format, why are
> they
> formed.. etc.
>
> I did also try to google on that but somehow didnot get the Initial basic
> info one needs to know, to be able to understand them.
>
> Can some1 plz give me a pointer on that ..
> Plz excuse me if this is not the rgt grp for this post, but then do update
> me abt the correct post as well.
>
> Thanks in Advance.
>
>

Sue
Fri Jun 08 12:03:00 CDT 2007

.rel files are used by makeimg (specifically the romimage part of makeimg)
to "fix up" the DLLs in the "MODULES" section of ROM to run from addresses
inside slot 1. "Fixing up" is the process of modifying jumps and references
inside the executable so that they refer to the places where the executable
code is loaded. Romimage fixes up the "MODULES" section executables when
you make your image. All the rest of the executables are fixed up at run
time when they load.

You should not need to know what the format of a .rel file is. If you need
to parse it or even look at it, then you're probably doing something the
hard way. I personally have never had to look at the contents of one.

If you don't have a .rel file then you can't put your executable into the
"MODULES" section of ROM.

Sue
sloh@microsoft.com (remove "online" from reply-to address)
http://blogs.msdn.com/ce_base/
_____________________________________________________________
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
_____________________________________________________________

K
Fri Jun 08 20:13:18 CDT 2007

As Bruce and Sue said, the .REL file is for relocation info and as the input
for ROMIMAGE.EXE utiltiy.
While the ROMIMAGE utility could be found in the Shared Source, take a look
at
$(_WINCEROOT)\PRIVATE\WINCEOS\COREOS\NK\TOOLS\ROMIMAGE\ROMIMAGE\module.cpp

You may get some idea there, you could try to start from search the key word
".rel", fixup and apply_fixup function.
The .REL is just a plain text file you could open it by any text editor.

The first line is a timestamp fox examing the timestamp of .REL if matching
with the excutable file.
The following is the relocation records, one for each line.
The format is quite simple, only for filed in every record, they are
1) type
2) section
3) offset
4) lowaddr

I think you could start from these and start to dig into more.

"prayas MOHANTY" <prayas MOHANTY@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E2BB421F-7629-47F1-AB23-08DF9AEB1CC7@microsoft.com...
> Hi Ppl,
> I am working on a windows CE project and want to understand the " .rel "
> file in detail, as in : what are they, what is the format, why are
> they
> formed.. etc.
>
> I did also try to google on that but somehow didnot get the Initial basic
> info one needs to know, to be able to understand them.
>
> Can some1 plz give me a pointer on that ..
> Plz excuse me if this is not the rgt grp for this post, but then do update
> me abt the correct post as well.
>
> Thanks in Advance.
>
>