Acronym · Embedded Software & Tools
BSS (Block Started by Symbol)
The linker section holding statically allocated variables that are zero-initialised, which therefore occupy RAM but no space in the image. Startup code must clear the whole region before any C code runs.
- Also known as
- .bss
- Type
- Acronym
- Domain
- Embedded Software & Tools, Memory and execution
Notes
Comparing the .bss and .data sizes in the map file is the fastest way to see where a build's RAM has gone.
Related terms
Part of the Embedded Software & Tools glossary, with every term in the topic and the lifecycles, tools and standards that use them.
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