SPRAB89A September 2011 – March 2014
As described in Section 19.3, there is a mechanism to annotate segments with additional properties. The mechanism is used to represent properties that apply to ROM-based segments.
A segment marked with the attribute PHA_BOUND is bound to its specified address and cannot change during downstream re-linking, dynamic linking, or dynamic loading steps. This property applies to segments that are either themselves located in ROM, or referred to using absolute addresses from code in ROM.
A segment marked with the attribute PHA_READONLY indicates that its contents are locked and not subject to any relocations or other downstream changes. This property applies to sections that are located in ROM. A dynamic loader can use this as a hint to avoid relocation processing for such segments.
The difference between a PHA_READONLY segment and one with a segment permission of PF_R (read only) in its program header is that a PF_R segment is usually modifiable by the loader but not by the program itself, whereas a PHA_READONLY segment is not modifiable by either.