Veneers are small sections of code generated by the linker and inserted into your program. The BL instruction is PC-relative and has a limited branch range. Therefore, armlink must generate veneers when a branch involves a destination beyond the branching range of the BL instruction.

The range of a BL instruction is 32MB for ARM, 16MB for 32-bit Thumb, and 4MB for 16-bit Thumb. A veneer extends the range of the branch by becoming the intermediate target of the branch instruction. The veneer then sets the PC to the destination address. This enables the veneer to branch anywhere in the 4 GB address space. If ARM and Thumb are mixed, the veneer also handles processor state changes.

The linker can generate the following veneer types depending on what is required:

armlink creates one input section called Veneer$$Code for each veneer. A veneer is generated only if no other existing veneer can satisfy the requirements. If two input sections contain a long branch to the same destination, only one veneer is generated that is shared by both branch instructions. A veneer is only shared in this way if it can be reached by both sections.

If you are using ARMv4T, armlink generates veneers when a branch involves change of state between ARM and Thumb. You still get interworking veneers for ARMv5TE and later when using conditional branches, because there is no conditional BL instruction.Veneers for state changes are also required for B instructions in ARMv5 and later.