opensolaris man page for _etext

end(3C) 						   Standard C Library Functions 						   end(3C)

NAME
       end, _end, etext, _etext, edata, _edata - last locations in program

SYNOPSIS
       extern int _etext;

       extern int _edata;

       extern int _end;

DESCRIPTION
       These names refer neither to routines nor to locations with interesting contents; only their addresses are meaningful.

       _etext	 The address of _etext is the first location after the last read-only loadable segment.

       _edata	 The address of _edata is the first location after the last read-write loadable segement.

       _end	 If the address of _edata is greater than the address of _etext, the address of _end is same as the address of _edata.

		 If the address of _etext is greater than the address of _edata, the address of _end is set to the page boundary after the address
		 pointed to by _etext.

USAGE
       When execution begins, the program break (the first location beyond the data) coincides with _end, but the program break can  be  reset	by
       the  brk(2), malloc(3C), and the standard input/output library (see stdio(3C)), functions by the profile (-p) option of	cc(1B), and so on.
       Thus, the current value of the program break should be determined by sbrk ((char *)0).

       References to end, etext, and edata, without a preceding underscore will be aliased to the associated symbol that begins  with  the  under-
       score.

SEE ALSO
       cc(1B), brk(2), malloc(3C), stdio(3C)

SunOS 5.11							    31 Mar 2006 							   end(3C)