make.c usage

I was lazy to handle args properly, so it has to be recompiled each time.
It creates executable mach-o file a.out which bundles code from file __TEXT.__text.
Likely files larger than one page size are broken.

Supported options:

• Arch: MAKE_ARM64, MAKE_X86_32, MAKE_X86_64
• Entry point specifier: ENTRYP_CMD for LC_MAIN or THREAD_CMD for LC_UNIXTHREAD
• PAGEZERO -- to include a null mapping, needed everywhere except x86_32.
• LINKEDIT -- to include a __LINKEDIT segment
• FAKELINKEDIT -- same, but make it with vmsize=0 and filesize=0. Useful to get dyld working.
• DYLD -- include LC_LOAD_DYLINKER
• DYLDINO -- include LC_DYLD_INFO_ONLY
• SYMTAB -- include emtpy SYMTAB
• DYSYMTAB -- include empty DYSYMTAB
• DYLIB -- link to /usr/lib/system/libdyld.dylib, needed for dyld to get working.
• TEXT_SECT -- make a __TEXT.__text section.
• NOPAD -- don't add padding to make file at least of PAGE_SIZE. Useful for testing.
• NO_CMDSIZE_ROUND -- don't make cmdsize's divisible by 8 (for DYLD/DYLIB, where lc_str's are used).
• TEXT_ALIGN_END -- align code to the end -- useful for codesigning.
• FUNCTION_STARTS -- haven't really tested since it turened out to be useless
• VERSION -- macos version, not really tested

ENTRYP_CMD & THREAD_CMD

LC_MAIN is handled by dyld.
Therefore, DYLD is needed to make it work.

LC_UNIXTHREAD is handled by kernel itself, and can be used to set registers loaded when thread is started.

DYLD

dyld would refuse to work if DYLDINO/SYMTAB/DYSYMTAB are missing, or if there's no (fake) LINKEDIT segment.
And even with those dyld would fail with error libdyld.dylib support not present for LC_MAIN, because libdyld.dylib is simply not loaded.
So that's why it needs DYLIB.

SYMTAB

dyld doesn't like if symtab.symoff collides with mach-o header/commands, or if it's "under" LINKEDIT.

PAGEZERO

All binaries are required to have __PAGEZERO (any mapping with VM_PROT_NONE protection covering page at 0x0).
IIRC they (Apple) didn’t make it required on x86_32 mode only because some legacy softwaredidn’t have it and they’re afraid to break it.

LINKEDIT & FAKELINKEDIT

LINKEDIT creates another segment with size 0x80. FAKELINKEDIT creates another segment which is much like __PAGEZERO -- with 0 size. That's enough to get dyld happy.

NOPAD

File size has to be at least of page size, or kernel would say it's "Bad Mach-O". Because of that, padding might be necessary. This option disables it.

TEXT_ALIGN_END

Place actual code in the end of page instead of placing it right after the load commands. Needed for CodeSigning.

main.c/main.s

I've made a couple of files printing "Hi Frand" and exiting with exit status 42 for different archs. There's also a main.c for the reference.

Smallest runnable Mach-O

See post

License

MIT