Filename extension .obj | Type of format Object file | |
Developed by Tool Interface Standards Committee | ||
The Relocatable Object Module Format (OMF) is an object file format used primarily for software intended to run on Intel 80x86 microprocessors. It was originally developed by Intel under the name Object Module Format, and is perhaps best known to DOS users as an .OBJ file. It has since been standardised by the Tool Interface Standards Committee.
Contents
File format
Many object file formats consist of a set of tables, such as the relocation table, which are either stored on fixed positions in the file, like the a.out format, or are pointed to by the header, like the ELF format. The "sections", code, data area, etc., are stored as contiguous area of bytes within such files.
The Relocatable Object Module Format, however, was designed to require minimal memory when linking, and consists of a series of records that have the following format:
There is a wide variety of record types because of consolidation of OMF variants from several vendors, and adding such features as 32-bit code and dynamic linking, Important record types are:
There is no header containing file offsets, such as a pointer to a symbol table, in the file; a linker must completely parse the object file to extract all the information.
In the OMF format the data of one section is not necessarily stored as contiguous bytes in the file, instead it can be represented by multiple records. The file format specification (version 1.1) says that this must be done for sections larger than 1 KiB. Records containing relocation information (fixups) must be stored immediately following the data records of the section they apply to, so the section data and the relocation information is "mixed" in the file.
The file format provides special records (LIDATA) that allow compression of repeating data sequences in an object file. It also provides the possibility to store the symbol name of the entry point of the later executable file in one object file.
The file format can also be used as library file format.
Use
The file format is the most important object file format under MS-DOS, 16-bit Windows and 16-bit and 32-bit OS/2.
Only few tool chains use the 32-bit version of the OMF format. For example, the Watcom C tool chain allows generating code for targets that use 32-bit segmented memory layouts; Iron Spring PL/I can generate code for OS/2 32-bit flat memory layouts.
The Embarcadero Delphi Compiler uses this format when generating obj files for C++.