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Load region attributes

The load region attributes are:


Absolute address. The load address of the region is specified by the base designator. This is the default, unless you use PI or RELOC.

ALIGN alignment

Increase the alignment constraint for the load region from 4 to alignment. alignment must be a positive power of 2. If the load region has a base_address then this must be alignment aligned. If the load region has a +offset then the linker aligns the calculated base address of the region to an alignment boundary.

This can also affect the offset in the ELF file. For example, the following causes the data for FOO to be written out at 4k offset into the ELF file:

FOO +4 ALIGN 4096


RW data compression is enabled by default. The NOCOMPRESS keyword enables you to specify that the contents of a load region must not be compressed in the final image.


The OVERLAY keyword enables you to have multiple load regions at the same address. ARM tools do not provide an overlay mechanism. To use multiple load regions at the same address, you must provide your own overlay manager.


This region is position independent.


The PROTECTED keyword prevents:

  • overlapping of load regions

  • veneer sharing

  • string sharing with the --merge option.


This region is relocatable.