diff --git a/include/coff/ChangeLog b/include/coff/ChangeLog
index 31ce1c4de..969299b0f 100644
--- a/include/coff/ChangeLog
+++ b/include/coff/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2001-12-17  Tom Rix  <trix@redhat.com>
+
+	* xcoff.h :  Add .except and .typchk section string.  
+	Fix xcoff_big_format_p macro.  
+
 2001-12-16  Tom Rix  <trix@redhat.com>
 
 	* xcoff.h : Clean up formatting. 
diff --git a/include/coff/xcoff.h b/include/coff/xcoff.h
index 3e82f02cd..b8fc378a0 100644
--- a/include/coff/xcoff.h
+++ b/include/coff/xcoff.h
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
 #define _BSS	".bss"
 #define _PAD	".pad"
 #define _LOADER	".loader"
+#define _EXCEPT ".except"
+#define _TYPCHK ".typchk"
 
 /* XCOFF uses a special .loader section with type STYP_LOADER.  */
 #define STYP_LOADER 0x1000
@@ -591,7 +593,9 @@ struct xcoff_ar_hdr_big
    Make it a bit cleaner.  We can use `xcoff_ardata' here because the
    `hdr' member has the same size and position in both formats.  */
 #define xcoff_big_format_p(abfd) \
-  (xcoff_ardata (abfd)->magic[1] == 'b')
+  ((NULL != bfd_ardata(abfd)) && \
+   (NULL != xcoff_ardata(abfd)) && \
+   (xcoff_ardata (abfd)->magic[1] == 'b'))
 
 /* We store a copy of the xcoff_ar_file_hdr in the tdata field of the
    artdata structure.  Similar for the big archive.  */