assembly - Show segment addresses in gdb

Question

This youtube video shows the layout of the virtual memory of a program, which includes the following segments from a high memory address to a low memory address.

• kernel
• stack (grows from high addresses to low addresses)
• heap (grows from low addresses to high addresses)
• data
• text

Is the arrangement of these segments always so? Are they independent of what computer architecture a computer uses?

To inspect the address of each segment in gdb, could anybody show me how to do it?
Take the following C program as an example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello World!
");
}

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65877953/show-segment-addresses-in-gdb

Answer 1

Is the arrangement of these segments always so?

No. For one thing, modern programs use multiple threads, which means there are multiple stacks. For another, modern malloc implementations use mmap, so "the heap" is not a single contiguous space, but a collection of disjoint arenas. Shared libraries' .text and .data are also sprinkled randomly, and may be between heap arenas.

Are they independent of what computer architecture a computer uses?

No. Certain architectures use stack which grows up (towards higher addresses), though these architectures are currently rare.

To inspect the address of each segment in gdb, could anybody show me how to do it?

GDB doesn't have any special support for examining segments. On Linux, /proc/$pid/maps will show you current mappings. Once you know the base address of any given segment, you can examine memory at that address using the "normal" GDB x command.