What are the sections in a DLL executable/binary?

Every DLLs are regular PE executable in windows or ELF binary in Linux. Thus it has sections like CODE/.TEXT, .DATA,.BSS etc.

• CODE/.TEXT - section contains executable hex code.
• .DATA - section contains global/static data values.
• .BSS - section is for un-initialized global/static values

There are also two major section of a DLL executable. They are import section and export section.

• Import section(.idata): Defines the list of symbols/functions it imports from an external executables/modules.
• Export Section(.edata): Defines the list of symbols/functions that DLL itself exposes to external world to use.

Any executable in windows follows PE/COFF portable executable and common object format. These formats defines how code area, data area and other areas will be arranged.
There are several tools available to see the various sections of a PE executable. Some of the well known tools are PE Viewer, PE Explorer etc.

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