These are the code and data items from which both objects and images are built. An area contains code or initialized data, or describes a fragment of memory that is not initialized or that must be set to zero before the image can execute. The attributes of an area describe whether it is read-only, read-write, executable, initialized, zero-initialized or non-initialized. Areas are further grouped into bigger building blocks called sections and regions, that are used to build images.

These are sequences of areas that are contiguous in the address space and have the same attributes. A section has the same attributes as those of its constituent areas. A section containing read-only, executable areas is a read-only, executable section.

These are sequences of sections contiguous in the address space. The constituent sections need not have the same attributes. A region may consist of a read-write section followed by a zero-initialized section.

This consists of one or more areas.

This consists of one or more regions. The image types supported by armlink are detailed in Image file formats.