Enabling Symbol Resolution of Private Symbols in Legacy Programs and Optimizing Access to the Private Symbols

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing one or more sequences of instructions for generating an executable binary of a program in which private symbols are externally accessible, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• generating an intermediate representation (IR) of the program by compiling the program, wherein the program contains at least one module that includes one or more private symbols, and wherein each private symbol is accessible only within the at least one module;
• discovering the private symbols in the program by scanning the IR;
• generating a wrapper function for each of the discovered private symbols, such that calling the wrapper function provides access to the private symbol from another module;
• combining the program with the wrapper functions to create a combined program;
• and
• generating the executable binary by recompiling the combined program, so that the other module in the executable binary has access to each of the private symbols of the at least one module by calling the wrapper function for the private symbol.

A method for generating an executable binary of a program in which private symbols are externally accessible, the method comprising:

• generating an intermediate representation (IR) of the program by compiling the program,
• wherein the program contains at least one module that includes one or more private symbols,
• wherein the IR contains a wrapper function for each private symbol, and
• wherein the wrapper function, when called, provides an address for each private symbol so that a function in another module has access to the private symbol via the address;
• and
• generating the executable binary by recompiling the program, wherein recompiling includes, for each private symbol:
• identifying a pointer to the wrapper function by scanning the IR;
• obtaining a direct address of the private symbol by using the pointer to the wrapper function to execute the wrapper function;
• creating an optimized function that contains the direct address for the private symbol;
• and
• patching the function in the other module so that the function executes the optimized function to access the private symbol.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing one or more sequences of instructions for generating an executable binary of a program in which private symbols are externally accessible, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• generating an intermediate representation (IR) of the program by compiling the program,
• wherein the program contains at least one module that includes one or more private symbols,
• wherein the IR contains a wrapper function for each private symbol, and
• wherein the wrapper function, when called, provides an address for each private symbol so that a function in another module has access to the private symbol via the address;
• and
• generating the executable binary by recompiling the program, wherein recompiling includes, for each private symbol:
• identifying a pointer to the wrapper function by scanning the IR;
• obtaining a direct address of the private symbol by using the pointer to the wrapper function to execute the wrapper function;
• creating an optimized function that contains the direct address for the private symbol;
• and
• patching the function in the other module so that the function executes the optimized function to access the private symbol.