REL File Format – Sections

Introduction

The header gives the section count and the offset of the section table. The table has one 8-byte entry per section, and the sections are numbered by their place in it: the relocations, the prolog and the other entry points all name a section by this number. The layout follows the Mario Kart Wii wiki “REL (File Format)”, read through a page summary (our words).

Table entries

The first entry (section 0) is always empty. A section number of 0 in the header’s prolog, epilog and unresolved fields therefore means “none”.

The sections

A toolchain writes the code of the module into one or more code sections and its initialised data into data sections; the BSS has no bytes in the file. Which sections a given toolchain writes, and in what order, is not described here: the only modules checked are ones built for the tests (section 0 empty, then code, data and a BSS). The code sections are what the explorer disassembles; the relocations say which words in them are patched when the module is linked.

Not described

Known, not yet covered

• Reference: the alignment the loader gives each section (the header’s alignment fields are described but their use is not), and the order of the sections in modules built by Nintendo’s tools.
• Viewer: data sections are shown as bytes; no real module was available.

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