ld combines a number of object and archive files, relocates their data
  and ties up symbol references. Usually the last step in compiling a program is
  to run ld.
ld accepts Linker Command Language files written in a
    superset of AT&T's Link Editor Command Language syntax, to provide
    explicit and total control over the linking process.
This man page does not describe the command language; see the
    ld entry in "info" for full details
    on the command language and on other aspects of the GNU linker.
This version of ld uses the general purpose BFD libraries
    to operate on object files. This allows ld to read, combine, and
    write object files in many different formats---for example, COFF or
    "a.out". Different formats may be linked
    together to produce any available kind of object file.
Aside from its flexibility, the GNU linker is more helpful than
    other linkers in providing diagnostic information. Many linkers abandon
    execution immediately upon encountering an error; whenever possible,
    ld continues executing, allowing you to identify other errors (or, in
    some cases, to get an output file in spite of the error).
The GNU linker ld is meant to cover a broad range of
    situations, and to be as compatible as possible with other linkers. As a
    result, you have many choices to control its behavior.
The linker supports a plethora of command-line options, but in actual practice
  few of them are used in any particular context. For instance, a frequent use
  of ld is to link standard Unix object files on a standard, supported
  Unix system. On such a system, to link a file
  "hello.o":
        ld -o <output> /lib/crt0.o hello.o -lc
This tells ld to produce a file called output as the
    result of linking the file "/lib/crt0.o"
    with "hello.o" and the library
    "libc.a", which will come from the
    standard search directories. (See the discussion of the -l option
    below.)
Some of the command-line options to ld may be specified at
    any point in the command line. However, options which refer to files, such
    as -l or -T, cause the file to be read at the point at which
    the option appears in the command line, relative to the object files and
    other file options. Repeating non-file options with a different argument
    will either have no further effect, or override prior occurrences (those
    further to the left on the command line) of that option. Options which may
    be meaningfully specified more than once are noted in the descriptions
    below.
Non-option arguments are object files or archives which are to be
    linked together. They may follow, precede, or be mixed in with command-line
    options, except that an object file argument may not be placed between an
    option and its argument.
Usually the linker is invoked with at least one object file, but
    you can specify other forms of binary input files using -l,
    -R, and the script command language. If no binary input files
    at all are specified, the linker does not produce any output, and issues the
    message No input files.
If the linker cannot recognize the format of an object file, it
    will assume that it is a linker script. A script specified in this way
    augments the main linker script used for the link (either the default linker
    script or the one specified by using -T). This feature permits the
    linker to link against a file which appears to be an object or an archive,
    but actually merely defines some symbol values, or uses
    "INPUT" or
    "GROUP" to load other objects. Specifying
    a script in this way merely augments the main linker script, with the extra
    commands placed after the main script; use the -T option to replace
    the default linker script entirely, but note the effect of the
    "INSERT" command.
For options whose names are a single letter, option arguments must
    either follow the option letter without intervening whitespace, or be given
    as separate arguments immediately following the option that requires
  them.
For options whose names are multiple letters, either one dash or
    two can precede the option name; for example, -trace-symbol and
    --trace-symbol are equivalent. Note---there is one exception to this
    rule. Multiple letter options that start with a lower case 'o' can only be
    preceded by two dashes. This is to reduce confusion with the -o
    option. So for example -omagic sets the output file name to
    magic whereas --omagic sets the NMAGIC flag on the output.
Arguments to multiple-letter options must either be separated from
    the option name by an equals sign, or be given as separate arguments
    immediately following the option that requires them. For example,
    --trace-symbol foo and --trace-symbol=foo are equivalent.
    Unique abbreviations of the names of multiple-letter options are
  accepted.
Note---if the linker is being invoked indirectly, via a compiler
    driver (e.g. gcc) then all the linker command line options should be
    prefixed by -Wl, (or whatever is appropriate for the particular
    compiler driver) like this:
          gcc -Wl,--start-group foo.o bar.o -Wl,--end-group
This is important, because otherwise the compiler driver program
    may silently drop the linker options, resulting in a bad link. Confusion may
    also arise when passing options that require values through a driver, as the
    use of a space between option and argument acts as a separator, and causes
    the driver to pass only the option to the linker and the argument to the
    compiler. In this case, it is simplest to use the joined forms of both
    single- and multiple-letter options, such as:
          gcc foo.o bar.o -Wl,-eENTRY -Wl,-Map=a.map
Here is a table of the generic command line switches accepted by
    the GNU linker:
  - @file
- Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
      in place of the original @file option. If file does not
      exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and
      not removed.
    Options in file are separated by whitespace. A
        whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the
        entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character
        (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
        included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
        @file options; any such options will be processed
      recursively. 
- -a keyword
- This option is supported for HP/UX compatibility. The keyword
      argument must be one of the strings archive, shared, or
      default. -aarchive is functionally equivalent to
      -Bstatic, and the other two keywords are functionally equivalent to
      -Bdynamic. This option may be used any number of times.
- --audit AUDITLIB
- Adds AUDITLIB to the "DT_AUDIT"
      entry of the dynamic section. AUDITLIB is not checked for
      existence, nor will it use the DT_SONAME specified in the library. If
      specified multiple times "DT_AUDIT" will
      contain a colon separated list of audit interfaces to use. If the linker
      finds an object with an audit entry while searching for shared libraries,
      it will add a corresponding
      "DT_DEPAUDIT" entry in the output file.
      This option is only meaningful on ELF platforms supporting the rtld-audit
      interface.
- -b input-format
- --format=input-format
- ld may be configured to support more than one kind of object file.
      If your ld is configured this way, you can use the -b option
      to specify the binary format for input object files that follow this
      option on the command line. Even when ld is configured to support
      alternative object formats, you don't usually need to specify this, as
      ld should be configured to expect as a default input format the
      most usual format on each machine. input-format is a text string,
      the name of a particular format supported by the BFD libraries. (You can
      list the available binary formats with objdump -i.)
    You may want to use this option if you are linking files with
        an unusual binary format. You can also use -b to switch formats
        explicitly (when linking object files of different formats), by
        including -b input-format before each group of object
        files in a particular format. The default format is taken from the environment variable
        "GNUTARGET". You can also define the input format from a script, using the
        command "TARGET"; 
- -c MRI-commandfile
- --mri-script=MRI-commandfile
- For compatibility with linkers produced by MRI, ld accepts script
      files written in an alternate, restricted command language, described in
      the MRI Compatible Script Files section of GNU ld documentation. Introduce
      MRI script files with the option -c; use the -T option to
      run linker scripts written in the general-purpose ld scripting
      language. If MRI-cmdfile does not exist, ld looks for it in
      the directories specified by any -L options.
- -d
- -dc
- -dp
- These three options are equivalent; multiple forms are supported for
      compatibility with other linkers. They assign space to common symbols even
      if a relocatable output file is specified (with -r). The script
      command "FORCE_COMMON_ALLOCATION" has
      the same effect.
- --depaudit AUDITLIB
- -P AUDITLIB
- Adds AUDITLIB to the
      "DT_DEPAUDIT" entry of the dynamic
      section. AUDITLIB is not checked for existence, nor will it use the
      DT_SONAME specified in the library. If specified multiple times
      "DT_DEPAUDIT" will contain a colon
      separated list of audit interfaces to use. This option is only meaningful
      on ELF platforms supporting the rtld-audit interface. The -P option is
      provided for Solaris compatibility.
- -e entry
- --entry=entry
- Use entry as the explicit symbol for beginning execution of your
      program, rather than the default entry point. If there is no symbol named
      entry, the linker will try to parse entry as a number, and
      use that as the entry address (the number will be interpreted in base 10;
      you may use a leading 0x for base 16, or a leading 0 for
      base 8).
- --exclude-libs lib,lib,...
- Specifies a list of archive libraries from which symbols should not be
      automatically exported. The library names may be delimited by commas or
      colons. Specifying "--exclude-libs ALL"
      excludes symbols in all archive libraries from automatic export. This
      option is available only for the i386 PE targeted port of the linker and
      for ELF targeted ports. For i386 PE, symbols explicitly listed in a .def
      file are still exported, regardless of this option. For ELF targeted
      ports, symbols affected by this option will be treated as hidden.
- --exclude-modules-for-implib
    module,module,...
- Specifies a list of object files or archive members, from which symbols
      should not be automatically exported, but which should be copied wholesale
      into the import library being generated during the link. The module names
      may be delimited by commas or colons, and must match exactly the filenames
      used by ld to open the files; for archive members, this is simply
      the member name, but for object files the name listed must include and
      match precisely any path used to specify the input file on the linker's
      command-line. This option is available only for the i386 PE targeted port
      of the linker. Symbols explicitly listed in a .def file are still
      exported, regardless of this option.
- -E
- --export-dynamic
- --no-export-dynamic
- When creating a dynamically linked executable, using the -E option
      or the --export-dynamic option causes the linker to add all symbols
      to the dynamic symbol table. The dynamic symbol table is the set of
      symbols which are visible from dynamic objects at run time.
    If you do not use either of these options (or use the
        --no-export-dynamic option to restore the default behavior), the
        dynamic symbol table will normally contain only those symbols which are
        referenced by some dynamic object mentioned in the link. If you use "dlopen" to load
        a dynamic object which needs to refer back to the symbols defined by the
        program, rather than some other dynamic object, then you will probably
        need to use this option when linking the program itself. You can also use the dynamic list to control what symbols
        should be added to the dynamic symbol table if the output format
        supports it. See the description of --dynamic-list. Note that this option is specific to ELF targeted ports. PE
        targets support a similar function to export all symbols from a DLL or
        EXE; see the description of --export-all-symbols below. 
- -EB
- Link big-endian objects. This affects the default output format.
- -EL
- Link little-endian objects. This affects the default output format.
- -f name
- --auxiliary=name
- When creating an ELF shared object, set the internal DT_AUXILIARY field to
      the specified name. This tells the dynamic linker that the symbol table of
      the shared object should be used as an auxiliary filter on the symbol
      table of the shared object name.
    If you later link a program against this filter object, then,
        when you run the program, the dynamic linker will see the DT_AUXILIARY
        field. If the dynamic linker resolves any symbols from the filter
        object, it will first check whether there is a definition in the shared
        object name. If there is one, it will be used instead of the
        definition in the filter object. The shared object name need not
        exist. Thus the shared object name may be used to provide an
        alternative implementation of certain functions, perhaps for debugging
        or for machine specific performance. This option may be specified more than once. The DT_AUXILIARY
        entries will be created in the order in which they appear on the command
        line. 
- -F name
- --filter=name
- When creating an ELF shared object, set the internal DT_FILTER field to
      the specified name. This tells the dynamic linker that the symbol table of
      the shared object which is being created should be used as a filter on the
      symbol table of the shared object name.
    If you later link a program against this filter object, then,
        when you run the program, the dynamic linker will see the DT_FILTER
        field. The dynamic linker will resolve symbols according to the symbol
        table of the filter object as usual, but it will actually link to the
        definitions found in the shared object name. Thus the filter
        object can be used to select a subset of the symbols provided by the
        object name. Some older linkers used the -F option throughout a
        compilation toolchain for specifying object-file format for both input
        and output object files. The GNU linker uses other mechanisms for this
        purpose: the -b, --format, --oformat options, the
        "TARGET" command in linker scripts,
        and the "GNUTARGET" environment
        variable. The GNU linker will ignore the -F option when not
        creating an ELF shared object. 
- -fini=name
- When creating an ELF executable or shared object, call NAME when the
      executable or shared object is unloaded, by setting DT_FINI to the address
      of the function. By default, the linker uses
      "_fini" as the function to call.
- -g
- Ignored. Provided for compatibility with other tools.
- -G value
- --gpsize=value
- Set the maximum size of objects to be optimized using the GP register to
      size. This is only meaningful for object file formats such as MIPS
      ELF that support putting large and small objects into different sections.
      This is ignored for other object file formats.
- -h name
- -soname=name
- When creating an ELF shared object, set the internal DT_SONAME field to
      the specified name. When an executable is linked with a shared object
      which has a DT_SONAME field, then when the executable is run the dynamic
      linker will attempt to load the shared object specified by the DT_SONAME
      field rather than the using the file name given to the linker.
- -i
- Perform an incremental link (same as option -r).
- -init=name
- When creating an ELF executable or shared object, call NAME when the
      executable or shared object is loaded, by setting DT_INIT to the address
      of the function. By default, the linker uses
      "_init" as the function to call.
- -l namespec
- --library=namespec
- Add the archive or object file specified by namespec to the list of
      files to link. This option may be used any number of times. If
      namespec is of the form :filename, ld
      will search the library path for a file called filename, otherwise
      it will search the library path for a file called
      libnamespec .a.
    On systems which support shared libraries, ld may also
        search for files other than libnamespec.a.
        Specifically, on ELF and SunOS systems, ld will search a
        directory for a library called libnamespec.so
        before searching for one called libnamespec.a. (By
        convention, a ".so" extension
        indicates a shared library.) Note that this behavior does not apply to
        :filename, which always specifies a file called
        filename. The linker will search an archive only once, at the location
        where it is specified on the command line. If the archive defines a
        symbol which was undefined in some object which appeared before the
        archive on the command line, the linker will include the appropriate
        file(s) from the archive. However, an undefined symbol in an object
        appearing later on the command line will not cause the linker to search
        the archive again. See the -( option for a way to force the linker to
        search archives multiple times. You may list the same archive multiple times on the command
        line. This type of archive searching is standard for Unix linkers.
        However, if you are using ld on AIX, note that it is different
        from the behaviour of the AIX linker. 
- -L searchdir
- --library-path=searchdir
- Add path searchdir to the list of paths that ld will search
      for archive libraries and ld control scripts. You may use this
      option any number of times. The directories are searched in the order in
      which they are specified on the command line. Directories specified on the
      command line are searched before the default directories. All -L
      options apply to all -l options, regardless of the order in which
      the options appear. -L options do not affect how ld searches
      for a linker script unless -T option is specified.
    If searchdir begins with
        "=" or
        $SYSROOT, then this prefix will be replaced by
        the sysroot prefix, controlled by the --sysroot option, or
        specified when the linker is configured. The default set of paths searched (without being specified
        with -L) depends on which emulation mode ld is using, and
        in some cases also on how it was configured. The paths can also be specified in a link script with the
        "SEARCH_DIR" command. Directories
        specified this way are searched at the point in which the linker script
        appears in the command line. 
- -m emulation
- Emulate the emulation linker. You can list the available emulations
      with the --verbose or -V options.
    If the -m option is not used, the emulation is taken
        from the "LDEMULATION" environment
        variable, if that is defined. Otherwise, the default emulation depends upon how the linker
        was configured. 
- -M
- --print-map
- Print a link map to the standard output. A link map provides information
      about the link, including the following:
  - Where object files are mapped into memory.
- How common symbols are allocated.
- All archive members included in the link, with a mention of the symbol
      which caused the archive member to be brought in.
- The values assigned to symbols.
    Note - symbols whose values are computed by an expression
        which involves a reference to a previous value of the same symbol may
        not have correct result displayed in the link map. This is because the
        linker discards intermediate results and only retains the final value of
        an expression. Under such circumstances the linker will display the
        final value enclosed by square brackets. Thus for example a linker
        script containing: 
 
           foo = 1
           foo = foo * 4
           foo = foo + 8
    will produce the following output in the link map if the
        -M option is used: 
 
           0x00000001                foo = 0x1
           [0x0000000c]                foo = (foo * 0x4)
           [0x0000000c]                foo = (foo + 0x8)
    See Expressions for more information about expressions
        in linker scripts. 
 
  - -n
- --nmagic
- Turn off page alignment of sections, and disable linking against shared
      libraries. If the output format supports Unix style magic numbers, mark
      the output as "NMAGIC".
- -N
- --omagic
- Set the text and data sections to be readable and writable. Also, do not
      page-align the data segment, and disable linking against shared libraries.
      If the output format supports Unix style magic numbers, mark the output as
      "OMAGIC". Note: Although a writable text
      section is allowed for PE-COFF targets, it does not conform to the format
      specification published by Microsoft.
- --no-omagic
- This option negates most of the effects of the -N option. It sets
      the text section to be read-only, and forces the data segment to be
      page-aligned. Note - this option does not enable linking against shared
      libraries. Use -Bdynamic for this.
- -o output
- --output=output
- Use output as the name for the program produced by ld; if
      this option is not specified, the name a.out is used by default.
      The script command "OUTPUT" can also
      specify the output file name.
- -O level
- If level is a numeric values greater than zero ld optimizes
      the output. This might take significantly longer and therefore probably
      should only be enabled for the final binary. At the moment this option
      only affects ELF shared library generation. Future releases of the linker
      may make more use of this option. Also currently there is no difference in
      the linker's behaviour for different non-zero values of this option. Again
      this may change with future releases.
- -plugin name
- Involve a plugin in the linking process. The name parameter is the
      absolute filename of the plugin. Usually this parameter is automatically
      added by the complier, when using link time optimization, but users can
      also add their own plugins if they so wish.
    Note that the location of the compiler originated plugins is
        different from the place where the ar, nm and
        ranlib programs search for their plugins. In order for those
        commands to make use of a compiler based plugin it must first be copied
        into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. All gcc based linker
        plugins are backward compatible, so it is sufficient to just copy in the
        newest one. 
- --push-state
- The --push-state allows to preserve the current state of the flags
      which govern the input file handling so that they can all be restored with
      one corresponding --pop-state option.
    The option which are covered are: -Bdynamic,
        -Bstatic, -dn, -dy, -call_shared,
        -non_shared, -static, -N, -n,
        --whole-archive, --no-whole-archive, -r,
        -Ur, --copy-dt-needed-entries,
        --no-copy-dt-needed-entries, --as-needed,
        --no-as-needed, and -a. One target for this option are specifications for
        pkg-config. When used with the --libs option all possibly
        needed libraries are listed and then possibly linked with all the time.
        It is better to return something as follows: 
 
        -Wl,--push-state,--as-needed -libone -libtwo -Wl,--pop-state
    
- --pop-state
- Undoes the effect of --push-state, restores the previous values of the
      flags governing input file handling.
- -q
- --emit-relocs
- Leave relocation sections and contents in fully linked executables. Post
      link analysis and optimization tools may need this information in order to
      perform correct modifications of executables. This results in larger
      executables.
    This option is currently only supported on ELF platforms. 
- --force-dynamic
- Force the output file to have dynamic sections. This option is specific to
      VxWorks targets.
- -r
- --relocatable
- Generate relocatable output---i.e., generate an output file that can in
      turn serve as input to ld. This is often called partial
      linking. As a side effect, in environments that support standard
      Unix magic numbers, this option also sets the output file's magic number
      to "OMAGIC". If this option is not
      specified, an absolute file is produced. When linking C++ programs, this
      option will not resolve references to constructors; to do that, use
      -Ur.
    When an input file does not have the same format as the output
        file, partial linking is only supported if that input file does not
        contain any relocations. Different output formats can have further
        restrictions; for example some
        "a.out"-based formats do not support
        partial linking with input files in other formats at all. This option does the same thing as -i. 
- -R filename
- --just-symbols=filename
- Read symbol names and their addresses from filename, but do not
      relocate it or include it in the output. This allows your output file to
      refer symbolically to absolute locations of memory defined in other
      programs. You may use this option more than once.
    For compatibility with other ELF linkers, if the -R
        option is followed by a directory name, rather than a file name, it is
        treated as the -rpath option. 
- -s
- --strip-all
- Omit all symbol information from the output file.
- -S
- --strip-debug
- Omit debugger symbol information (but not all symbols) from the output
      file.
- --strip-discarded
- --no-strip-discarded
- Omit (or do not omit) global symbols defined in discarded sections.
      Enabled by default.
- -t
- --trace
- Print the names of the input files as ld processes them.
- -T scriptfile
- --script=scriptfile
- Use scriptfile as the linker script. This script replaces
      ld's default linker script (rather than adding to it), so
      commandfile must specify everything necessary to describe the
      output file. If scriptfile does not exist in the current directory,
      "ld" looks for it in the directories
      specified by any preceding -L options. Multiple -T options
      accumulate.
- -dT scriptfile
- --default-script=scriptfile
- Use scriptfile as the default linker script.
    This option is similar to the --script option except
        that processing of the script is delayed until after the rest of the
        command line has been processed. This allows options placed after the
        --default-script option on the command line to affect the
        behaviour of the linker script, which can be important when the linker
        command line cannot be directly controlled by the user. (eg because the
        command line is being constructed by another tool, such as
      gcc). 
- -u symbol
- --undefined=symbol
- Force symbol to be entered in the output file as an undefined
      symbol. Doing this may, for example, trigger linking of additional modules
      from standard libraries. -u may be repeated with different option
      arguments to enter additional undefined symbols. This option is equivalent
      to the "EXTERN" linker script command.
    If this option is being used to force additional modules to be
        pulled into the link, and if it is an error for the symbol to remain
        undefined, then the option --require-defined should be used
        instead. 
- --require-defined=symbol
- Require that symbol is defined in the output file. This option is
      the same as option --undefined except that if symbol is not
      defined in the output file then the linker will issue an error and exit.
      The same effect can be achieved in a linker script by using
      "EXTERN",
      "ASSERT" and
      "DEFINED" together. This option can be
      used multiple times to require additional symbols.
- -Ur
- For anything other than C++ programs, this option is equivalent to
      -r: it generates relocatable output---i.e., an output file that can
      in turn serve as input to ld. When linking C++ programs, -Ur
      does resolve references to constructors, unlike -r. It does
      not work to use -Ur on files that were themselves linked with
      -Ur; once the constructor table has been built, it cannot be added
      to. Use -Ur only for the last partial link, and -r for the
      others.
- --orphan-handling=MODE
- Control how orphan sections are handled. An orphan section is one not
      specifically mentioned in a linker script.
    MODE can have any of the following values: 
  - "place"
- Orphan sections are placed into a suitable output section following the
      strategy described in Orphan Sections. The option --unique
      also affects how sections are placed.
- "discard"
- All orphan sections are discarded, by placing them in the /DISCARD/
      section.
- "warn"
- The linker will place the orphan section as for
      "place" and also issue a warning.
- "error"
- The linker will exit with an error if any orphan section is found.
 
The default if --orphan-handling is not given is
    "place".
 
  - --unique[=SECTION]
- Creates a separate output section for every input section matching
      SECTION, or if the optional wildcard SECTION argument is
      missing, for every orphan input section. An orphan section is one not
      specifically mentioned in a linker script. You may use this option
      multiple times on the command line; It prevents the normal merging of
      input sections with the same name, overriding output section assignments
      in a linker script.
- -v
- --version
- -V
- Display the version number for ld. The -V option also lists
      the supported emulations.
- -x
- --discard-all
- Delete all local symbols.
- -X
- --discard-locals
- Delete all temporary local symbols. (These symbols start with
      system-specific local label prefixes, typically .L for ELF systems
      or L for traditional a.out systems.)
- -y symbol
- --trace-symbol=symbol
- Print the name of each linked file in which symbol appears. This
      option may be given any number of times. On many systems it is necessary
      to prepend an underscore.
    This option is useful when you have an undefined symbol in
        your link but don't know where the reference is coming from. 
- -Y path
- Add path to the default library search path. This option exists for
      Solaris compatibility.
- -z keyword
- The recognized keywords are:
  - bndplt
- Always generate BND prefix in PLT entries. Supported for
    Linux/x86_64.
- call-nop=prefix-addr
- call-nop=suffix-nop
- call-nop=prefix-byte
- call-nop=suffix-byte
- Specify the 1-byte "NOP" padding when
      transforming indirect call to a locally defined function, foo, via its GOT
      slot. call-nop=prefix-addr generates "0x67
      call foo". call-nop=suffix-nop generates
      "call foo 0x90".
      call-nop=prefix-byte generates
      " byte call
      foo". call-nop=suffix-byte generates
      "call foo
      byte". Supported for i386 and
      x86_64.
- combreloc
- nocombreloc
- Combine multiple dynamic relocation sections and sort to improve dynamic
      symbol lookup caching. Do not do this if nocombreloc.
- common
- nocommon
- Generate common symbols with STT_COMMON type during a relocatable link.
      Use STT_OBJECT type if nocommon.
- common-page-size=value
- Set the page size most commonly used to value. Memory image layout
      will be optimized to minimize memory pages if the system is using pages of
      this size.
- defs
- Report unresolved symbol references from regular object files. This is
      done even if the linker is creating a non-symbolic shared library. This
      option is the inverse of -z undefs.
- dynamic-undefined-weak
- nodynamic-undefined-weak
- Make undefined weak symbols dynamic when building a dynamic object, if
      they are referenced from a regular object file and not forced local by
      symbol visibility or versioning. Do not make them dynamic if
      nodynamic-undefined-weak. If neither option is given, a target may
      default to either option being in force, or make some other selection of
      undefined weak symbols dynamic. Not all targets support these
    options.
- execstack
- Marks the object as requiring executable stack.
- global
- This option is only meaningful when building a shared object. It makes the
      symbols defined by this shared object available for symbol resolution of
      subsequently loaded libraries.
- globalaudit
- This option is only meaningful when building a dynamic executable. This
      option marks the executable as requiring global auditing by setting the
      "DF_1_GLOBAUDIT" bit in the
      "DT_FLAGS_1" dynamic tag. Global
      auditing requires that any auditing library defined via the
      --depaudit or -P command line options be run for all dynamic
      objects loaded by the application.
- ibtplt
- Generate Intel Indirect Branch Tracking (IBT) enabled PLT entries.
      Supported for Linux/i386 and Linux/x86_64.
- ibt
- Generate GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_IBT in .note.gnu.property section to
      indicate compatibility with IBT. This also implies ibtplt.
      Supported for Linux/i386 and Linux/x86_64.
- initfirst
- This option is only meaningful when building a shared object. It marks the
      object so that its runtime initialization will occur before the runtime
      initialization of any other objects brought into the process at the same
      time. Similarly the runtime finalization of the object will occur after
      the runtime finalization of any other objects.
- interpose
- Specify that the dynamic loader should modify its symbol search order so
      that symbols in this shared library interpose all other shared libraries
      not so marked.
- lazy
- When generating an executable or shared library, mark it to tell the
      dynamic linker to defer function call resolution to the point when the
      function is called (lazy binding), rather than at load time. Lazy binding
      is the default.
- loadfltr
- Specify that the object's filters be processed immediately at
    runtime.
- max-page-size=value
- Set the maximum memory page size supported to value.
- muldefs
- Allow multiple definitions.
- nocopyreloc
- Disable linker generated .dynbss variables used in place of variables
      defined in shared libraries. May result in dynamic text relocations.
- nodefaultlib
- Specify that the dynamic loader search for dependencies of this object
      should ignore any default library search paths.
- nodelete
- Specify that the object shouldn't be unloaded at runtime.
- nodlopen
- Specify that the object is not available to
      "dlopen".
- nodump
- Specify that the object can not be dumped by
      "dldump".
- noexecstack
- Marks the object as not requiring executable stack.
- noextern-protected-data
- Don't treat protected data symbols as external when building a shared
      library. This option overrides the linker backend default. It can be used
      to work around incorrect relocations against protected data symbols
      generated by compiler. Updates on protected data symbols by another module
      aren't visible to the resulting shared library. Supported for i386 and
      x86-64.
- noreloc-overflow
- Disable relocation overflow check. This can be used to disable relocation
      overflow check if there will be no dynamic relocation overflow at
      run-time. Supported for x86_64.
- now
- When generating an executable or shared library, mark it to tell the
      dynamic linker to resolve all symbols when the program is started, or when
      the shared library is loaded by dlopen, instead of deferring function call
      resolution to the point when the function is first called.
- origin
- Specify that the object requires $ORIGIN handling in
      paths.
- relro
- norelro
- Create an ELF "PT_GNU_RELRO" segment
      header in the object. This specifies a memory segment that should be made
      read-only after relocation, if supported. Specifying
      common-page-size smaller than the system page size will render this
      protection ineffective. Don't create an ELF
      "PT_GNU_RELRO" segment if
      norelro.
- separate-code
- noseparate-code
- Create separate code "PT_LOAD" segment
      header in the object. This specifies a memory segment that should contain
      only instructions and must be in wholly disjoint pages from any other
      data. Don't create separate code
      "PT_LOAD" segment if
      noseparate-code is used.
- shstk
- Generate GNU_PROPERTY_X86_FEATURE_1_SHSTK in .note.gnu.property section to
      indicate compatibility with Intel Shadow Stack. Supported for Linux/i386
      and Linux/x86_64.
- stack-size=value
- Specify a stack size for an ELF
      "PT_GNU_STACK" segment. Specifying zero
      will override any default non-zero sized
      "PT_GNU_STACK" segment creation.
- text
- notext
- textoff
- Report an error if DT_TEXTREL is set, i.e., if the binary has dynamic
      relocations in read-only sections. Don't report an error if notext
      or textoff.
- undefs
- Do not report unresolved symbol references from regular object files,
      either when creating an executable, or when creating a shared library.
      This option is the inverse of -z defs.
 
Other keywords are ignored for Solaris compatibility.
 
  - -( archives -)
- --start-group archives --end-group
- The archives should be a list of archive files. They may be either
      explicit file names, or -l options.
    The specified archives are searched repeatedly until no new
        undefined references are created. Normally, an archive is searched only
        once in the order that it is specified on the command line. If a symbol
        in that archive is needed to resolve an undefined symbol referred to by
        an object in an archive that appears later on the command line, the
        linker would not be able to resolve that reference. By grouping the
        archives, they all be searched repeatedly until all possible references
        are resolved. Using this option has a significant performance cost. It is
        best to use it only when there are unavoidable circular references
        between two or more archives. 
- --accept-unknown-input-arch
- --no-accept-unknown-input-arch
- Tells the linker to accept input files whose architecture cannot be
      recognised. The assumption is that the user knows what they are doing and
      deliberately wants to link in these unknown input files. This was the
      default behaviour of the linker, before release 2.14. The default
      behaviour from release 2.14 onwards is to reject such input files, and so
      the --accept-unknown-input-arch option has been added to restore
      the old behaviour.
- --as-needed
- --no-as-needed
- This option affects ELF DT_NEEDED tags for dynamic libraries mentioned on
      the command line after the --as-needed option. Normally the linker
      will add a DT_NEEDED tag for each dynamic library mentioned on the command
      line, regardless of whether the library is actually needed or not.
      --as-needed causes a DT_NEEDED tag to only be emitted for a library
      that at that point in the link satisfies a non-weak undefined
      symbol reference from a regular object file or, if the library is not
      found in the DT_NEEDED lists of other needed libraries, a non-weak
      undefined symbol reference from another needed dynamic library. Object
      files or libraries appearing on the command line after the library
      in question do not affect whether the library is seen as needed. This is
      similar to the rules for extraction of object files from archives.
      --no-as-needed restores the default behaviour.
- --add-needed
- --no-add-needed
- These two options have been deprecated because of the similarity of their
      names to the --as-needed and --no-as-needed options. They
      have been replaced by --copy-dt-needed-entries and
      --no-copy-dt-needed-entries.
- -assert keyword
- This option is ignored for SunOS compatibility.
- -Bdynamic
- -dy
- -call_shared
- Link against dynamic libraries. This is only meaningful on platforms for
      which shared libraries are supported. This option is normally the default
      on such platforms. The different variants of this option are for
      compatibility with various systems. You may use this option multiple times
      on the command line: it affects library searching for -l options
      which follow it.
- -Bgroup
- Set the "DF_1_GROUP" flag in the
      "DT_FLAGS_1" entry in the dynamic
      section. This causes the runtime linker to handle lookups in this object
      and its dependencies to be performed only inside the group.
      --unresolved-symbols=report-all is implied. This option is only
      meaningful on ELF platforms which support shared libraries.
- -Bstatic
- -dn
- -non_shared
- -static
- Do not link against shared libraries. This is only meaningful on platforms
      for which shared libraries are supported. The different variants of this
      option are for compatibility with various systems. You may use this option
      multiple times on the command line: it affects library searching for
      -l options which follow it. This option also implies
      --unresolved-symbols=report-all. This option can be used with
      -shared. Doing so means that a shared library is being created but
      that all of the library's external references must be resolved by pulling
      in entries from static libraries.
- -Bsymbolic
- When creating a shared library, bind references to global symbols to the
      definition within the shared library, if any. Normally, it is possible for
      a program linked against a shared library to override the definition
      within the shared library. This option can also be used with the
      --export-dynamic option, when creating a position independent
      executable, to bind references to global symbols to the definition within
      the executable. This option is only meaningful on ELF platforms which
      support shared libraries and position independent executables.
- -Bsymbolic-functions
- When creating a shared library, bind references to global function symbols
      to the definition within the shared library, if any. This option can also
      be used with the --export-dynamic option, when creating a position
      independent executable, to bind references to global function symbols to
      the definition within the executable. This option is only meaningful on
      ELF platforms which support shared libraries and position independent
      executables.
- --dynamic-list=dynamic-list-file
- Specify the name of a dynamic list file to the linker. This is typically
      used when creating shared libraries to specify a list of global symbols
      whose references shouldn't be bound to the definition within the shared
      library, or creating dynamically linked executables to specify a list of
      symbols which should be added to the symbol table in the executable. This
      option is only meaningful on ELF platforms which support shared libraries.
    The format of the dynamic list is the same as the version node
        without scope and node name. See VERSION for more
      information. 
- --dynamic-list-data
- Include all global data symbols to the dynamic list.
- --dynamic-list-cpp-new
- Provide the builtin dynamic list for C++ operator new and delete. It is
      mainly useful for building shared libstdc++.
- --dynamic-list-cpp-typeinfo
- Provide the builtin dynamic list for C++ runtime type identification.
- --check-sections
- --no-check-sections
- Asks the linker not to check section addresses after they have been
      assigned to see if there are any overlaps. Normally the linker will
      perform this check, and if it finds any overlaps it will produce suitable
      error messages. The linker does know about, and does make allowances for
      sections in overlays. The default behaviour can be restored by using the
      command line switch --check-sections. Section overlap is not
      usually checked for relocatable links. You can force checking in that case
      by using the --check-sections option.
- --copy-dt-needed-entries
- --no-copy-dt-needed-entries
- This option affects the treatment of dynamic libraries referred to by
      DT_NEEDED tags inside ELF dynamic libraries mentioned on the
      command line. Normally the linker won't add a DT_NEEDED tag to the output
      binary for each library mentioned in a DT_NEEDED tag in an input dynamic
      library. With --copy-dt-needed-entries specified on the command
      line however any dynamic libraries that follow it will have their
      DT_NEEDED entries added. The default behaviour can be restored with
      --no-copy-dt-needed-entries.
    This option also has an effect on the resolution of symbols in
        dynamic libraries. With --copy-dt-needed-entries dynamic
        libraries mentioned on the command line will be recursively searched,
        following their DT_NEEDED tags to other libraries, in order to resolve
        symbols required by the output binary. With the default setting however
        the searching of dynamic libraries that follow it will stop with the
        dynamic library itself. No DT_NEEDED links will be traversed to resolve
        symbols. 
- --cref
- Output a cross reference table. If a linker map file is being generated,
      the cross reference table is printed to the map file. Otherwise, it is
      printed on the standard output.
    The format of the table is intentionally simple, so that it
        may be easily processed by a script if necessary. The symbols are
        printed out, sorted by name. For each symbol, a list of file names is
        given. If the symbol is defined, the first file listed is the location
        of the definition. If the symbol is defined as a common value then any
        files where this happens appear next. Finally any files that reference
        the symbol are listed. 
- --no-define-common
- This option inhibits the assignment of addresses to common symbols. The
      script command
      "INHIBIT_COMMON_ALLOCATION" has the same
      effect.
    The --no-define-common option allows decoupling the
        decision to assign addresses to Common symbols from the choice of the
        output file type; otherwise a non-Relocatable output type forces
        assigning addresses to Common symbols. Using --no-define-common
        allows Common symbols that are referenced from a shared library to be
        assigned addresses only in the main program. This eliminates the unused
        duplicate space in the shared library, and also prevents any possible
        confusion over resolving to the wrong duplicate when there are many
        dynamic modules with specialized search paths for runtime symbol
        resolution. 
- --force-group-allocation
- This option causes the linker to place section group members like normal
      input sections, and to delete the section groups. This is the default
      behaviour for a final link but this option can be used to change the
      behaviour of a relocatable link (-r). The script command
      "FORCE_GROUP_ALLOCATION" has the same
      effect.
- --defsym=symbol=expression
- Create a global symbol in the output file, containing the absolute address
      given by expression. You may use this option as many times as
      necessary to define multiple symbols in the command line. A limited form
      of arithmetic is supported for the expression in this context: you
      may give a hexadecimal constant or the name of an existing symbol, or use
      "+" and
      "-" to add or subtract hexadecimal
      constants or symbols. If you need more elaborate expressions, consider
      using the linker command language from a script. Note: there should
      be no white space between symbol, the equals sign
      ("="), and expression.
- --demangle[=style]
- --no-demangle
- These options control whether to demangle symbol names in error messages
      and other output. When the linker is told to demangle, it tries to present
      symbol names in a readable fashion: it strips leading underscores if they
      are used by the object file format, and converts C++ mangled symbol names
      into user readable names. Different compilers have different mangling
      styles. The optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an
      appropriate demangling style for your compiler. The linker will demangle
      by default unless the environment variable COLLECT_NO_DEMANGLE is
      set. These options may be used to override the default.
- -Ifile
- --dynamic-linker=file
- Set the name of the dynamic linker. This is only meaningful when
      generating dynamically linked ELF executables. The default dynamic linker
      is normally correct; don't use this unless you know what you are
    doing.
- --no-dynamic-linker
- When producing an executable file, omit the request for a dynamic linker
      to be used at load-time. This is only meaningful for ELF executables that
      contain dynamic relocations, and usually requires entry point code that is
      capable of processing these relocations.
- --embedded-relocs
- This option is similar to the --emit-relocs option except that the
      relocs are stored in a target specific section. This option is only
      supported by the BFIN, CR16 and M68K targets.
- --disable-multiple-abs-defs
- Do not allow multiple definitions with symbols included in filename
      invoked by -R or --just-symbols
- --fatal-warnings
- --no-fatal-warnings
- Treat all warnings as errors. The default behaviour can be restored with
      the option --no-fatal-warnings.
- --force-exe-suffix
- Make sure that an output file has a .exe suffix.
    If a successfully built fully linked output file does not have
        a ".exe" or
        ".dll" suffix, this option forces the
        linker to copy the output file to one of the same name with a
        ".exe" suffix. This option is useful
        when using unmodified Unix makefiles on a Microsoft Windows host, since
        some versions of Windows won't run an image unless it ends in a
        ".exe" suffix. 
- --gc-sections
- --no-gc-sections
- Enable garbage collection of unused input sections. It is ignored on
      targets that do not support this option. The default behaviour (of not
      performing this garbage collection) can be restored by specifying
      --no-gc-sections on the command line. Note that garbage collection
      for COFF and PE format targets is supported, but the implementation is
      currently considered to be experimental.
    --gc-sections decides which input sections are used by
        examining symbols and relocations. The section containing the entry
        symbol and all sections containing symbols undefined on the command-line
        will be kept, as will sections containing symbols referenced by dynamic
        objects. Note that when building shared libraries, the linker must
        assume that any visible symbol is referenced. Once this initial set of
        sections has been determined, the linker recursively marks as used any
        section referenced by their relocations. See --entry and
        --undefined. This option can be set when doing a partial link (enabled with
        option -r). In this case the root of symbols kept must be
        explicitly specified either by an --entry or --undefined
        option or by a "ENTRY" command in the
        linker script. 
- --print-gc-sections
- --no-print-gc-sections
- List all sections removed by garbage collection. The listing is printed on
      stderr. This option is only effective if garbage collection has been
      enabled via the --gc-sections) option. The default behaviour (of
      not listing the sections that are removed) can be restored by specifying
      --no-print-gc-sections on the command line.
- --gc-keep-exported
- When --gc-sections is enabled, this option prevents garbage
      collection of unused input sections that contain global symbols having
      default or protected visibility. This option is intended to be used for
      executables where unreferenced sections would otherwise be garbage
      collected regardless of the external visibility of contained symbols. Note
      that this option has no effect when linking shared objects since it is
      already the default behaviour. This option is only supported for ELF
      format targets.
- --print-output-format
- Print the name of the default output format (perhaps influenced by other
      command-line options). This is the string that would appear in an
      "OUTPUT_FORMAT" linker script
    command.
- --print-memory-usage
- Print used size, total size and used size of memory regions created with
      the MEMORY command. This is useful on embedded targets to have a
      quick view of amount of free memory. The format of the output has one
      headline and one line per region. It is both human readable and easily
      parsable by tools. Here is an example of an output:
    
 
        Memory region         Used Size  Region Size  %age Used
                     ROM:        256 KB         1 MB     25.00%
                     RAM:          32 B         2 GB      0.00%
    
- --help
- Print a summary of the command-line options on the standard output and
      exit.
- --target-help
- Print a summary of all target specific options on the standard output and
      exit.
- -Map=mapfile
- Print a link map to the file mapfile. See the description of the
      -M option, above.
- --no-keep-memory
- ld normally optimizes for speed over memory usage by caching the
      symbol tables of input files in memory. This option tells ld to
      instead optimize for memory usage, by rereading the symbol tables as
      necessary. This may be required if ld runs out of memory space
      while linking a large executable.
- --no-undefined
- -z defs
- Report unresolved symbol references from regular object files. This is
      done even if the linker is creating a non-symbolic shared library. The
      switch --[no-]allow-shlib-undefined controls the behaviour for
      reporting unresolved references found in shared libraries being linked in.
    The effects of this option can be reverted by using
        "-z undefs". 
- --allow-multiple-definition
- -z muldefs
- Normally when a symbol is defined multiple times, the linker will report a
      fatal error. These options allow multiple definitions and the first
      definition will be used.
- --allow-shlib-undefined
- --no-allow-shlib-undefined
- Allows or disallows undefined symbols in shared libraries. This switch is
      similar to --no-undefined except that it determines the behaviour
      when the undefined symbols are in a shared library rather than a regular
      object file. It does not affect how undefined symbols in regular object
      files are handled.
    The default behaviour is to report errors for any undefined
        symbols referenced in shared libraries if the linker is being used to
        create an executable, but to allow them if the linker is being used to
        create a shared library. The reasons for allowing undefined symbol references in shared
        libraries specified at link time are that: 
  - A shared library specified at link time may not be the same as the one
      that is available at load time, so the symbol might actually be resolvable
      at load time.
- There are some operating systems, eg BeOS and HPPA, where undefined
      symbols in shared libraries are normal.
    The BeOS kernel for example patches shared libraries at load
        time to select whichever function is most appropriate for the current
        architecture. This is used, for example, to dynamically select an
        appropriate memset function. 
 
  - --no-undefined-version
- Normally when a symbol has an undefined version, the linker will ignore
      it. This option disallows symbols with undefined version and a fatal error
      will be issued instead.
- --default-symver
- Create and use a default symbol version (the soname) for unversioned
      exported symbols.
- --default-imported-symver
- Create and use a default symbol version (the soname) for unversioned
      imported symbols.
- --no-warn-mismatch
- Normally ld will give an error if you try to link together input
      files that are mismatched for some reason, perhaps because they have been
      compiled for different processors or for different endiannesses. This
      option tells ld that it should silently permit such possible
      errors. This option should only be used with care, in cases when you have
      taken some special action that ensures that the linker errors are
      inappropriate.
- --no-warn-search-mismatch
- Normally ld will give a warning if it finds an incompatible library
      during a library search. This option silences the warning.
- --no-whole-archive
- Turn off the effect of the --whole-archive option for subsequent
      archive files.
- --noinhibit-exec
- Retain the executable output file whenever it is still usable. Normally,
      the linker will not produce an output file if it encounters errors during
      the link process; it exits without writing an output file when it issues
      any error whatsoever.
- -nostdlib
- Only search library directories explicitly specified on the command line.
      Library directories specified in linker scripts (including linker scripts
      specified on the command line) are ignored.
- --oformat=output-format
- ld may be configured to support more than one kind of object file.
      If your ld is configured this way, you can use the --oformat
      option to specify the binary format for the output object file. Even when
      ld is configured to support alternative object formats, you don't
      usually need to specify this, as ld should be configured to produce
      as a default output format the most usual format on each machine.
      output-format is a text string, the name of a particular format
      supported by the BFD libraries. (You can list the available binary formats
      with objdump -i.) The script command
      "OUTPUT_FORMAT" can also specify the
      output format, but this option overrides it.
- --out-implib file
- Create an import library in file corresponding to the executable
      the linker is generating (eg. a DLL or ELF program). This import library
      (which should be called "*.dll.a" or
      "*.a" for DLLs) may be used to link
      clients against the generated executable; this behaviour makes it possible
      to skip a separate import library creation step (eg.
      "dlltool" for DLLs). This option is only
      available for the i386 PE and ELF targetted ports of the linker.
- -pie
- --pic-executable
- Create a position independent executable. This is currently only supported
      on ELF platforms. Position independent executables are similar to shared
      libraries in that they are relocated by the dynamic linker to the virtual
      address the OS chooses for them (which can vary between invocations). Like
      normal dynamically linked executables they can be executed and symbols
      defined in the executable cannot be overridden by shared libraries.
- -qmagic
- This option is ignored for Linux compatibility.
- -Qy
- This option is ignored for SVR4 compatibility.
- --relax
- --no-relax
- An option with machine dependent effects. This option is only supported on
      a few targets.
    On some platforms the --relax option performs target
        specific, global optimizations that become possible when the linker
        resolves addressing in the program, such as relaxing address modes,
        synthesizing new instructions, selecting shorter version of current
        instructions, and combining constant values. On some platforms these link time global optimizations may
        make symbolic debugging of the resulting executable impossible. This is
        known to be the case for the Matsushita MN10200 and MN10300 family of
        processors. On platforms where this is not supported, --relax is
        accepted, but ignored. On platforms where --relax is accepted the option
        --no-relax can be used to disable the feature. 
- --retain-symbols-file=filename
- Retain only the symbols listed in the file filename,
      discarding all others. filename is simply a flat file, with one
      symbol name per line. This option is especially useful in environments
      (such as VxWorks) where a large global symbol table is accumulated
      gradually, to conserve run-time memory.
    --retain-symbols-file does not discard undefined
        symbols, or symbols needed for relocations. You may only specify --retain-symbols-file once in the
        command line. It overrides -s and -S. 
- -rpath=dir
- Add a directory to the runtime library search path. This is used when
      linking an ELF executable with shared objects. All -rpath arguments
      are concatenated and passed to the runtime linker, which uses them to
      locate shared objects at runtime. The -rpath option is also used
      when locating shared objects which are needed by shared objects explicitly
      included in the link; see the description of the -rpath-link
      option. If -rpath is not used when linking an ELF executable, the
      contents of the environment variable
      "LD_RUN_PATH" will be used if it is
      defined.
    The -rpath option may also be used on SunOS. By
        default, on SunOS, the linker will form a runtime search path out of all
        the -L options it is given. If a -rpath option is used,
        the runtime search path will be formed exclusively using the
        -rpath options, ignoring the -L options. This can be
        useful when using gcc, which adds many -L options which may be on
        NFS mounted file systems. For compatibility with other ELF linkers, if the -R
        option is followed by a directory name, rather than a file name, it is
        treated as the -rpath option. 
- -rpath-link=dir
- When using ELF or SunOS, one shared library may require another. This
      happens when an "ld -shared" link
      includes a shared library as one of the input files.
    When the linker encounters such a dependency when doing a
        non-shared, non-relocatable link, it will automatically try to locate
        the required shared library and include it in the link, if it is not
        included explicitly. In such a case, the -rpath-link option
        specifies the first set of directories to search. The -rpath-link
        option may specify a sequence of directory names either by specifying a
        list of names separated by colons, or by appearing multiple times. The tokens $ORIGIN and
        $LIB can appear in these search directories. They
        will be replaced by the full path to the directory containing the
        program or shared object in the case of $ORIGIN and
        either lib - for 32-bit binaries - or lib64 - for 64-bit
        binaries - in the case of $LIB. The alternative form of these tokens - ${ORIGIN} and
        ${LIB} can also be used. The token $PLATFORM
        is not supported. This option should be used with caution as it overrides the
        search path that may have been hard compiled into a shared library. In
        such a case it is possible to use unintentionally a different search
        path than the runtime linker would do. The linker uses the following search paths to locate required
        shared libraries: 
  - 1.
- Any directories specified by -rpath-link options.
- 2.
- Any directories specified by -rpath options. The difference between
      -rpath and -rpath-link is that directories specified by
      -rpath options are included in the executable and used at runtime,
      whereas the -rpath-link option is only effective at link time.
      Searching -rpath in this way is only supported by native linkers
      and cross linkers which have been configured with the
      --with-sysroot option.
- 3.
- On an ELF system, for native linkers, if the -rpath and
      -rpath-link options were not used, search the contents of the
      environment variable "LD_RUN_PATH".
- 4.
- On SunOS, if the -rpath option was not used, search any directories
      specified using -L options.
- 5.
- For a native linker, search the contents of the environment variable
      "LD_LIBRARY_PATH".
- 6.
- For a native ELF linker, the directories in
      "DT_RUNPATH" or
      "DT_RPATH" of a shared library are
      searched for shared libraries needed by it. The
      "DT_RPATH" entries are ignored if
      "DT_RUNPATH" entries exist.
- 7.
- The default directories, normally /lib and /usr/lib.
- 8.
- For a native linker on an ELF system, if the file /etc/ld.so.conf
      exists, the list of directories found in that file.
 
If the required shared library is not found, the linker will issue
    a warning and continue with the link.
 
  - -shared
- -Bshareable
- Create a shared library. This is currently only supported on ELF, XCOFF
      and SunOS platforms. On SunOS, the linker will automatically create a
      shared library if the -e option is not used and there are undefined
      symbols in the link.
- --sort-common
- --sort-common=ascending
- --sort-common=descending
- This option tells ld to sort the common symbols by alignment in
      ascending or descending order when it places them in the appropriate
      output sections. The symbol alignments considered are sixteen-byte or
      larger, eight-byte, four-byte, two-byte, and one-byte. This is to prevent
      gaps between symbols due to alignment constraints. If no sorting order is
      specified, then descending order is assumed.
- --sort-section=name
- This option will apply "SORT_BY_NAME" to
      all wildcard section patterns in the linker script.
- --sort-section=alignment
- This option will apply
      "SORT_BY_ALIGNMENT" to all wildcard
      section patterns in the linker script.
- --spare-dynamic-tags=count
- This option specifies the number of empty slots to leave in the .dynamic
      section of ELF shared objects. Empty slots may be needed by post
      processing tools, such as the prelinker. The default is 5.
- --split-by-file[=size]
- Similar to --split-by-reloc but creates a new output section for
      each input file when size is reached. size defaults to a
      size of 1 if not given.
- --split-by-reloc[=count]
- Tries to creates extra sections in the output file so that no single
      output section in the file contains more than count relocations.
      This is useful when generating huge relocatable files for downloading into
      certain real time kernels with the COFF object file format; since COFF
      cannot represent more than 65535 relocations in a single section. Note
      that this will fail to work with object file formats which do not support
      arbitrary sections. The linker will not split up individual input sections
      for redistribution, so if a single input section contains more than
      count relocations one output section will contain that many
      relocations. count defaults to a value of 32768.
- --stats
- Compute and display statistics about the operation of the linker, such as
      execution time and memory usage.
- --sysroot=directory
- Use directory as the location of the sysroot, overriding the
      configure-time default. This option is only supported by linkers that were
      configured using --with-sysroot.
- --task-link
- This is used by COFF/PE based targets to create a task-linked object file
      where all of the global symbols have been converted to statics.
- --traditional-format
- For some targets, the output of ld is different in some ways from
      the output of some existing linker. This switch requests ld to use
      the traditional format instead.
    For example, on SunOS, ld combines duplicate entries in
        the symbol string table. This can reduce the size of an output file with
        full debugging information by over 30 percent. Unfortunately, the SunOS
        "dbx" program can not read the
        resulting program ("gdb" has no
        trouble). The --traditional-format switch tells ld to not
        combine duplicate entries. 
- --section-start=sectionname=org
- Locate a section in the output file at the absolute address given by
      org. You may use this option as many times as necessary to locate
      multiple sections in the command line. org must be a single
      hexadecimal integer; for compatibility with other linkers, you may omit
      the leading 0x usually associated with hexadecimal values.
      Note: there should be no white space between sectionname,
      the equals sign ("="), and org.
- -Tbss=org
- -Tdata=org
- -Ttext=org
- Same as --section-start, with
      ".bss",
      ".data" or
      ".text" as the sectionname.
- -Ttext-segment=org
- When creating an ELF executable, it will set the address of the first byte
      of the text segment.
- -Trodata-segment=org
- When creating an ELF executable or shared object for a target where the
      read-only data is in its own segment separate from the executable text, it
      will set the address of the first byte of the read-only data segment.
- -Tldata-segment=org
- When creating an ELF executable or shared object for x86-64 medium memory
      model, it will set the address of the first byte of the ldata
    segment.
- --unresolved-symbols=method
- Determine how to handle unresolved symbols. There are four possible values
      for method:
  - ignore-all
- Do not report any unresolved symbols.
- report-all
- Report all unresolved symbols. This is the default.
- ignore-in-object-files
- Report unresolved symbols that are contained in shared libraries, but
      ignore them if they come from regular object files.
- ignore-in-shared-libs
- Report unresolved symbols that come from regular object files, but ignore
      them if they come from shared libraries. This can be useful when creating
      a dynamic binary and it is known that all the shared libraries that it
      should be referencing are included on the linker's command line.
 
The behaviour for shared libraries on their own can also be
    controlled by the --[no-]allow-shlib-undefined option.
Normally the linker will generate an error message for each
    reported unresolved symbol but the option --warn-unresolved-symbols
    can change this to a warning.
 
  - --dll-verbose
- --verbose[=NUMBER]
- Display the version number for ld and list the linker emulations
      supported. Display which input files can and cannot be opened. Display the
      linker script being used by the linker. If the optional NUMBER
      argument > 1, plugin symbol status will also be displayed.
- --version-script=version-scriptfile
- Specify the name of a version script to the linker. This is typically used
      when creating shared libraries to specify additional information about the
      version hierarchy for the library being created. This option is only fully
      supported on ELF platforms which support shared libraries; see
      VERSION. It is partially supported on PE platforms, which can use
      version scripts to filter symbol visibility in auto-export mode: any
      symbols marked local in the version script will not be
    exported.
- --warn-common
- Warn when a common symbol is combined with another common symbol or with a
      symbol definition. Unix linkers allow this somewhat sloppy practice, but
      linkers on some other operating systems do not. This option allows you to
      find potential problems from combining global symbols. Unfortunately, some
      C libraries use this practice, so you may get some warnings about symbols
      in the libraries as well as in your programs.
    There are three kinds of global symbols, illustrated here by C
        examples: 
  - int i = 1;
- A definition, which goes in the initialized data section of the output
      file.
- extern int i;
- An undefined reference, which does not allocate space. There must be
      either a definition or a common symbol for the variable somewhere.
- int i;
- A common symbol. If there are only (one or more) common symbols for a
      variable, it goes in the uninitialized data area of the output file. The
      linker merges multiple common symbols for the same variable into a single
      symbol. If they are of different sizes, it picks the largest size. The
      linker turns a common symbol into a declaration, if there is a definition
      of the same variable.
 
The --warn-common option can produce five kinds of
    warnings. Each warning consists of a pair of lines: the first describes the
    symbol just encountered, and the second describes the previous symbol
    encountered with the same name. One or both of the two symbols will be a
    common symbol.
  - 1.
- Turning a common symbol into a reference, because there is already a
      definition for the symbol.
    
 
        <file>(<section>): warning: common of `<symbol>'
           overridden by definition
        <file>(<section>): warning: defined here
    
- 2.
- Turning a common symbol into a reference, because a later definition for
      the symbol is encountered. This is the same as the previous case, except
      that the symbols are encountered in a different order.
    
 
        <file>(<section>): warning: definition of `<symbol>'
           overriding common
        <file>(<section>): warning: common is here
    
- 3.
- Merging a common symbol with a previous same-sized common symbol.
    
 
        <file>(<section>): warning: multiple common
           of `<symbol>'
        <file>(<section>): warning: previous common is here
    
- 4.
- Merging a common symbol with a previous larger common symbol.
    
 
        <file>(<section>): warning: common of `<symbol>'
           overridden by larger common
        <file>(<section>): warning: larger common is here
    
- 5.
- Merging a common symbol with a previous smaller common symbol. This is the
      same as the previous case, except that the symbols are encountered in a
      different order.
    
 
        <file>(<section>): warning: common of `<symbol>'
           overriding smaller common
        <file>(<section>): warning: smaller common is here
    
 
  - --warn-constructors
- Warn if any global constructors are used. This is only useful for a few
      object file formats. For formats like COFF or ELF, the linker can not
      detect the use of global constructors.
- --warn-multiple-gp
- Warn if multiple global pointer values are required in the output file.
      This is only meaningful for certain processors, such as the Alpha.
      Specifically, some processors put large-valued constants in a special
      section. A special register (the global pointer) points into the middle of
      this section, so that constants can be loaded efficiently via a
      base-register relative addressing mode. Since the offset in base-register
      relative mode is fixed and relatively small (e.g., 16 bits), this limits
      the maximum size of the constant pool. Thus, in large programs, it is
      often necessary to use multiple global pointer values in order to be able
      to address all possible constants. This option causes a warning to be
      issued whenever this case occurs.
- --warn-once
- Only warn once for each undefined symbol, rather than once per module
      which refers to it.
- --warn-section-align
- Warn if the address of an output section is changed because of alignment.
      Typically, the alignment will be set by an input section. The address will
      only be changed if it not explicitly specified; that is, if the
      "SECTIONS" command does not specify a
      start address for the section.
- --warn-shared-textrel
- Warn if the linker adds a DT_TEXTREL to a shared object.
- --warn-alternate-em
- Warn if an object has alternate ELF machine code.
- --warn-unresolved-symbols
- If the linker is going to report an unresolved symbol (see the option
      --unresolved-symbols) it will normally generate an error. This
      option makes it generate a warning instead.
- --error-unresolved-symbols
- This restores the linker's default behaviour of generating errors when it
      is reporting unresolved symbols.
- --whole-archive
- For each archive mentioned on the command line after the
      --whole-archive option, include every object file in the archive in
      the link, rather than searching the archive for the required object files.
      This is normally used to turn an archive file into a shared library,
      forcing every object to be included in the resulting shared library. This
      option may be used more than once.
    Two notes when using this option from gcc: First, gcc doesn't
        know about this option, so you have to use -Wl,-whole-archive.
        Second, don't forget to use -Wl,-no-whole-archive after your list
        of archives, because gcc will add its own list of archives to your link
        and you may not want this flag to affect those as well. 
- --wrap=symbol
- Use a wrapper function for symbol. Any undefined reference to
      symbol will be resolved to
      "__wrap_symbol".
      Any undefined reference to
      "__real_symbol
      " will be resolved to symbol.
    This can be used to provide a wrapper for a system function.
        The wrapper function should be called
        "__wrap_
        symbol". If it wishes to call the
        system function, it should call
        "__real_symbol". Here is a trivial example: 
 
        void *
        __wrap_malloc (size_t c)
        {
          printf ("malloc called with %zu\n", c);
          return __real_malloc (c);
        }
    If you link other code with this file using --wrap
        malloc, then all calls to "malloc"
        will call the function "__wrap_malloc"
        instead. The call to "__real_malloc"
        in "__wrap_malloc" will call the real
        "malloc" function. You may wish to provide a
        "__real_malloc" function as well, so
        that links without the --wrap option will succeed. If you do
        this, you should not put the definition of
        "__real_malloc" in the same file as
        "__wrap_malloc"; if you do, the
        assembler may resolve the call before the linker has a chance to wrap it
        to "malloc". 
- --eh-frame-hdr
- --no-eh-frame-hdr
- Request (--eh-frame-hdr) or suppress (--no-eh-frame-hdr) the
      creation of ".eh_frame_hdr" section and
      ELF "PT_GNU_EH_FRAME" segment
    header.
- --no-ld-generated-unwind-info
- Request creation of ".eh_frame" unwind
      info for linker generated code sections like PLT. This option is on by
      default if linker generated unwind info is supported.
- --enable-new-dtags
- --disable-new-dtags
- This linker can create the new dynamic tags in ELF. But the older ELF
      systems may not understand them. If you specify --enable-new-dtags,
      the new dynamic tags will be created as needed and older dynamic tags will
      be omitted. If you specify --disable-new-dtags, no new dynamic tags
      will be created. By default, the new dynamic tags are not created. Note
      that those options are only available for ELF systems.
- --hash-size=number
- Set the default size of the linker's hash tables to a prime number close
      to number. Increasing this value can reduce the length of time it
      takes the linker to perform its tasks, at the expense of increasing the
      linker's memory requirements. Similarly reducing this value can reduce the
      memory requirements at the expense of speed.
- --hash-style=style
- Set the type of linker's hash table(s). style can be either
      "sysv" for classic ELF
      ".hash" section,
      "gnu" for new style GNU
      ".gnu.hash" section or
      "both" for both the classic ELF
      ".hash" and new style GNU
      ".gnu.hash" hash tables. The default is
      "sysv".
- --compress-debug-sections=none
- --compress-debug-sections=zlib
- --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu
- --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi
- On ELF platforms, these options control how DWARF debug sections are
      compressed using zlib.
    --compress-debug-sections=none doesn't compress DWARF
        debug sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu compresses
        DWARF debug sections and renames them to begin with .zdebug
        instead of .debug. --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi
        also compresses DWARF debug sections, but rather than renaming them it
        sets the SHF_COMPRESSED flag in the sections' headers. The --compress-debug-sections=zlib option is an alias
        for --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi. Note that this option overrides any compression in input debug
        sections, so if a binary is linked with
        --compress-debug-sections=none for example, then any compressed
        debug sections in input files will be uncompressed before they are
        copied into the output binary. The default compression behaviour varies depending upon the
        target involved and the configure options used to build the toolchain.
        The default can be determined by examining the output from the linker's
        --help option. 
- --reduce-memory-overheads
- This option reduces memory requirements at ld runtime, at the expense of
      linking speed. This was introduced to select the old O(n^2) algorithm for
      link map file generation, rather than the new O(n) algorithm which uses
      about 40% more memory for symbol storage.
    Another effect of the switch is to set the default hash table
        size to 1021, which again saves memory at the cost of lengthening the
        linker's run time. This is not done however if the --hash-size
        switch has been used. The --reduce-memory-overheads switch may be also be
        used to enable other tradeoffs in future versions of the linker. 
- --build-id
- --build-id=style
- Request the creation of a
      ".note.gnu.build-id" ELF note section or
      a ".buildid" COFF section. The contents
      of the note are unique bits identifying this linked file. style can
      be "uuid" to use 128 random bits,
      "sha1" to use a 160-bit SHA1 hash on the
      normative parts of the output contents,
      "md5" to use a 128-bit MD5 hash on the
      normative parts of the output contents, or
      "0x
      hexstring" to use a chosen bit string
      specified as an even number of hexadecimal digits
      ("-" and
      ":" characters between digit pairs are
      ignored). If style is omitted,
      "sha1" is used.
    The "md5" and
        "sha1" styles produces an identifier
        that is always the same in an identical output file, but will be unique
        among all nonidentical output files. It is not intended to be compared
        as a checksum for the file's contents. A linked file may be changed
        later by other tools, but the build ID bit string identifying the
        original linked file does not change. Passing "none" for
        style disables the setting from any
        "--build-id" options earlier on the
        command line. 
The i386 PE linker supports the -shared option, which
    causes the output to be a dynamically linked library (DLL) instead of a
    normal executable. You should name the output
    "*.dll" when you use this option. In
    addition, the linker fully supports the standard
    "*.def" files, which may be specified on
    the linker command line like an object file (in fact, it should precede
    archives it exports symbols from, to ensure that they get linked in, just
    like a normal object file).
In addition to the options common to all targets, the i386 PE
    linker support additional command line options that are specific to the i386
    PE target. Options that take values may be separated from their values by
    either a space or an equals sign.
  - --add-stdcall-alias
- If given, symbols with a stdcall suffix (@nn) will be exported
      as-is and also with the suffix stripped. [This option is specific to the
      i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --base-file file
- Use file as the name of a file in which to save the base addresses
      of all the relocations needed for generating DLLs with dlltool.
      [This is an i386 PE specific option]
- --dll
- Create a DLL instead of a regular executable. You may also use
      -shared or specify a "LIBRARY" in
      a given ".def" file. [This option is
      specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --enable-long-section-names
- --disable-long-section-names
- The PE variants of the COFF object format add an extension that permits
      the use of section names longer than eight characters, the normal limit
      for COFF. By default, these names are only allowed in object files, as
      fully-linked executable images do not carry the COFF string table required
      to support the longer names. As a GNU extension, it is possible to allow
      their use in executable images as well, or to (probably pointlessly!)
      disallow it in object files, by using these two options. Executable images
      generated with these long section names are slightly non-standard,
      carrying as they do a string table, and may generate confusing output when
      examined with non-GNU PE-aware tools, such as file viewers and dumpers.
      However, GDB relies on the use of PE long section names to find Dwarf-2
      debug information sections in an executable image at runtime, and so if
      neither option is specified on the command-line, ld will enable
      long section names, overriding the default and technically correct
      behaviour, when it finds the presence of debug information while linking
      an executable image and not stripping symbols. [This option is valid for
      all PE targeted ports of the linker]
- --enable-stdcall-fixup
- --disable-stdcall-fixup
- If the link finds a symbol that it cannot resolve, it will attempt to do
      "fuzzy linking" by looking for another defined symbol that
      differs only in the format of the symbol name (cdecl vs stdcall) and will
      resolve that symbol by linking to the match. For example, the undefined
      symbol "_foo" might be linked to the
      function "_foo@12", or the undefined
      symbol "_bar@16" might be linked to the
      function "_bar". When the linker does
      this, it prints a warning, since it normally should have failed to link,
      but sometimes import libraries generated from third-party dlls may need
      this feature to be usable. If you specify --enable-stdcall-fixup,
      this feature is fully enabled and warnings are not printed. If you specify
      --disable-stdcall-fixup, this feature is disabled and such
      mismatches are considered to be errors. [This option is specific to the
      i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --leading-underscore
- --no-leading-underscore
- For most targets default symbol-prefix is an underscore and is defined in
      target's description. By this option it is possible to disable/enable the
      default underscore symbol-prefix.
- --export-all-symbols
- If given, all global symbols in the objects used to build a DLL will be
      exported by the DLL. Note that this is the default if there otherwise
      wouldn't be any exported symbols. When symbols are explicitly exported via
      DEF files or implicitly exported via function attributes, the default is
      to not export anything else unless this option is given. Note that the
      symbols "DllMain@12",
      "DllEntryPoint@0",
      "DllMainCRTStartup@12", and
      "impure_ptr" will not be automatically
      exported. Also, symbols imported from other DLLs will not be re-exported,
      nor will symbols specifying the DLL's internal layout such as those
      beginning with "_head_" or ending with
      "_iname". In addition, no symbols from
      "libgcc",
      "libstd++",
      "libmingw32", or
      "crtX.o" will be exported. Symbols whose
      names begin with "__rtti_" or
      "__builtin_" will not be exported, to
      help with C++ DLLs. Finally, there is an extensive list of cygwin-private
      symbols that are not exported (obviously, this applies on when building
      DLLs for cygwin targets). These cygwin-excludes are:
      "_cygwin_dll_entry@12",
      "_cygwin_crt0_common@8",
      "_cygwin_noncygwin_dll_entry@12",
      "_fmode",
      "_impure_ptr",
      "cygwin_attach_dll",
      "cygwin_premain0",
      "cygwin_premain1",
      "cygwin_premain2",
      "cygwin_premain3", and
      "environ". [This option is specific to
      the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --exclude-symbols
    symbol,symbol,...
- Specifies a list of symbols which should not be automatically exported.
      The symbol names may be delimited by commas or colons. [This option is
      specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --exclude-all-symbols
- Specifies no symbols should be automatically exported. [This option is
      specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --file-alignment
- Specify the file alignment. Sections in the file will always begin at file
      offsets which are multiples of this number. This defaults to 512. [This
      option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --heap reserve
- --heap reserve,commit
- Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit)
      to be used as heap for this program. The default is 1MB reserved, 4K
      committed. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
      linker]
- --image-base value
- Use value as the base address of your program or dll. This is the
      lowest memory location that will be used when your program or dll is
      loaded. To reduce the need to relocate and improve performance of your
      dlls, each should have a unique base address and not overlap any other
      dlls. The default is 0x400000 for executables, and 0x10000000 for dlls.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --kill-at
- If given, the stdcall suffixes (@nn) will be stripped from symbols
      before they are exported. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted
      port of the linker]
- --large-address-aware
- If given, the appropriate bit in the "Characteristics" field of
      the COFF header is set to indicate that this executable supports virtual
      addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. This should be used in conjunction
      with the /3GB or /USERVA=value megabytes switch in the
      "[operating systems]" section of the BOOT.INI. Otherwise, this
      bit has no effect. [This option is specific to PE targeted ports of the
      linker]
- --disable-large-address-aware
- Reverts the effect of a previous --large-address-aware option. This
      is useful if --large-address-aware is always set by the compiler
      driver (e.g. Cygwin gcc) and the executable does not support virtual
      addresses greater than 2 gigabytes. [This option is specific to PE
      targeted ports of the linker]
- --major-image-version value
- Sets the major number of the "image version". Defaults to 1.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --major-os-version value
- Sets the major number of the "os version". Defaults to 4. [This
      option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --major-subsystem-version value
- Sets the major number of the "subsystem version". Defaults to 4.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --minor-image-version value
- Sets the minor number of the "image version". Defaults to 0.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --minor-os-version value
- Sets the minor number of the "os version". Defaults to 0. [This
      option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --minor-subsystem-version value
- Sets the minor number of the "subsystem version". Defaults to 0.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --output-def file
- The linker will create the file file which will contain a DEF file
      corresponding to the DLL the linker is generating. This DEF file (which
      should be called "*.def") may be used to
      create an import library with "dlltool"
      or may be used as a reference to automatically or implicitly exported
      symbols. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
      linker]
- --enable-auto-image-base
- --enable-auto-image-base=value
- Automatically choose the image base for DLLs, optionally starting with
      base value, unless one is specified using the
      "--image-base" argument. By using a hash
      generated from the dllname to create unique image bases for each DLL,
      in-memory collisions and relocations which can delay program execution are
      avoided. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
      linker]
- --disable-auto-image-base
- Do not automatically generate a unique image base. If there is no
      user-specified image base
      ("--image-base") then use the platform
      default. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
      linker]
- --dll-search-prefix string
- When linking dynamically to a dll without an import library, search for
      "<string><basename>.dll" in
      preference to "lib<basename>.dll".
      This behaviour allows easy distinction between DLLs built for the various
      "subplatforms": native, cygwin, uwin, pw, etc. For instance,
      cygwin DLLs typically use
      "--dll-search-prefix=cyg". [This option
      is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --enable-auto-import
- Do sophisticated linking of "_symbol" to
      "__imp__symbol" for DATA imports from
      DLLs, thus making it possible to bypass the dllimport mechanism on the
      user side and to reference unmangled symbol names. [This option is
      specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
    The following remarks pertain to the original implementation
        of the feature and are obsolete nowadays for Cygwin and MinGW
      targets. Note: Use of the 'auto-import' extension will cause the text
        section of the image file to be made writable. This does not conform to
        the PE-COFF format specification published by Microsoft. Note - use of the 'auto-import' extension will also cause read
        only data which would normally be placed into the .rdata section to be
        placed into the .data section instead. This is in order to work around a
        problem with consts that is described here:
        http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2004-09/msg01101.html Using 'auto-import' generally will 'just work' -- but
        sometimes you may see this message: "variable '<var>' can't be auto-imported. Please
        read the documentation for ld's
        "--enable-auto-import" for
        details." This message occurs when some (sub)expression accesses an
        address ultimately given by the sum of two constants (Win32 import
        tables only allow one). Instances where this may occur include accesses
        to member fields of struct variables imported from a DLL, as well as
        using a constant index into an array variable imported from a DLL. Any
        multiword variable (arrays, structs, long long, etc) may trigger this
        error condition. However, regardless of the exact data type of the
        offending exported variable, ld will always detect it, issue the
        warning, and exit. There are several ways to address this difficulty, regardless
        of the data type of the exported variable: One way is to use --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc switch. This
        leaves the task of adjusting references in your client code for runtime
        environment, so this method works only when runtime environment supports
        this feature. A second solution is to force one of the 'constants' to be a
        variable -- that is, unknown and un-optimizable at compile time. For
        arrays, there are two possibilities: a) make the indexee (the array's
        address) a variable, or b) make the 'constant' index a variable.
      Thus: 
 
        extern type extern_array[];
        extern_array[1] -->
           { volatile type *t=extern_array; t[1] }
    or 
 
        extern type extern_array[];
        extern_array[1] -->
           { volatile int t=1; extern_array[t] }
    For structs (and most other multiword data types) the only
        option is to make the struct itself (or the long long, or the ...)
        variable: 
 
        extern struct s extern_struct;
        extern_struct.field -->
           { volatile struct s *t=&extern_struct; t->field }
    or 
 
        extern long long extern_ll;
        extern_ll -->
          { volatile long long * local_ll=&extern_ll; *local_ll }
    A third method of dealing with this difficulty is to abandon
        'auto-import' for the offending symbol and mark it with
        "__declspec(dllimport)". However, in
        practice that requires using compile-time #defines to indicate whether
        you are building a DLL, building client code that will link to the DLL,
        or merely building/linking to a static library. In making the choice
        between the various methods of resolving the 'direct address with
        constant offset' problem, you should consider typical real-world
      usage: Original: 
 
        --foo.h
        extern int arr[];
        --foo.c
        #include "foo.h"
        void main(int argc, char **argv){
          printf("%d\n",arr[1]);
        }
    Solution 1: 
 
        --foo.h
        extern int arr[];
        --foo.c
        #include "foo.h"
        void main(int argc, char **argv){
          /* This workaround is for win32 and cygwin; do not "optimize" */
          volatile int *parr = arr;
          printf("%d\n",parr[1]);
        }
    Solution 2: 
 
        --foo.h
        /* Note: auto-export is assumed (no __declspec(dllexport)) */
        #if (defined(_WIN32) || defined(__CYGWIN__)) && \
          !(defined(FOO_BUILD_DLL) || defined(FOO_STATIC))
        #define FOO_IMPORT __declspec(dllimport)
        #else
        #define FOO_IMPORT
        #endif
        extern FOO_IMPORT int arr[];
        --foo.c
        #include "foo.h"
        void main(int argc, char **argv){
          printf("%d\n",arr[1]);
        }
    A fourth way to avoid this problem is to re-code your library
        to use a functional interface rather than a data interface for the
        offending variables (e.g. set_foo() and get_foo() accessor
        functions). 
- --disable-auto-import
- Do not attempt to do sophisticated linking of
      "_symbol" to
      "__imp__symbol" for DATA imports from
      DLLs. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
    linker]
- --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
- If your code contains expressions described in --enable-auto-import
      section, that is, DATA imports from DLL with non-zero offset, this switch
      will create a vector of 'runtime pseudo relocations' which can be used by
      runtime environment to adjust references to such data in your client code.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --disable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
- Do not create pseudo relocations for non-zero offset DATA imports from
      DLLs. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
    linker]
- --enable-extra-pe-debug
- Show additional debug info related to auto-import symbol thunking. [This
      option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --section-alignment
- Sets the section alignment. Sections in memory will always begin at
      addresses which are a multiple of this number. Defaults to 0x1000. [This
      option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
- --stack reserve
- --stack reserve,commit
- Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit)
      to be used as stack for this program. The default is 2MB reserved, 4K
      committed. [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the
      linker]
- --subsystem which
- --subsystem which:major
- --subsystem
    which:major.minor
- Specifies the subsystem under which your program will execute. The legal
      values for which are "native",
      "windows",
      "console",
      "posix", and
      "xbox". You may optionally set the
      subsystem version also. Numeric values are also accepted for which.
      [This option is specific to the i386 PE targeted port of the linker]
    The following options set flags in the
        "DllCharacteristics" field of the PE
        file header: [These options are specific to PE targeted ports of the
        linker] 
- --high-entropy-va
- Image is compatible with 64-bit address space layout randomization
    (ASLR).
- --dynamicbase
- The image base address may be relocated using address space layout
      randomization (ASLR). This feature was introduced with MS Windows Vista
      for i386 PE targets.
- --forceinteg
- Code integrity checks are enforced.
- --nxcompat
- The image is compatible with the Data Execution Prevention. This feature
      was introduced with MS Windows XP SP2 for i386 PE targets.
- --no-isolation
- Although the image understands isolation, do not isolate the image.
- --no-seh
- The image does not use SEH. No SE handler may be called from this
    image.
- --no-bind
- Do not bind this image.
- --wdmdriver
- The driver uses the MS Windows Driver Model.
- --tsaware
- The image is Terminal Server aware.
- --insert-timestamp
- --no-insert-timestamp
- Insert a real timestamp into the image. This is the default behaviour as
      it matches legacy code and it means that the image will work with other,
      proprietary tools. The problem with this default is that it will result in
      slightly different images being produced each time the same sources are
      linked. The option --no-insert-timestamp can be used to insert a
      zero value for the timestamp, this ensuring that binaries produced from
      identical sources will compare identically.
The C6X uClinux target uses a binary format called DSBT to support
    shared libraries. Each shared library in the system needs to have a unique
    index; all executables use an index of 0.
  - --dsbt-size size
- This option sets the number of entries in the DSBT of the current
      executable or shared library to size. The default is to create a
      table with 64 entries.
- --dsbt-index index
- This option sets the DSBT index of the current executable or shared
      library to index. The default is 0, which is appropriate for
      generating executables. If a shared library is generated with a DSBT index
      of 0, the "R_C6000_DSBT_INDEX" relocs
      are copied into the output file.
    The --no-merge-exidx-entries switch disables the
        merging of adjacent exidx entries in frame unwind info. 
The 68HC11 and 68HC12 linkers support specific options to control
    the memory bank switching mapping and trampoline code generation.
  - --no-trampoline
- This option disables the generation of trampoline. By default a trampoline
      is generated for each far function which is called using a
      "jsr" instruction (this happens when a
      pointer to a far function is taken).
- --bank-window name
- This option indicates to the linker the name of the memory region in the
      MEMORY specification that describes the memory bank window. The
      definition of such region is then used by the linker to compute paging and
      addresses within the memory window.
The following options are supported to control handling of GOT
    generation when linking for 68K targets.
  - --got=type
- This option tells the linker which GOT generation scheme to use.
      type should be one of single, negative,
      multigot or target. For more information refer to the Info
      entry for ld.
The following options are supported to control microMIPS
    instruction generation and branch relocation checks for ISA mode transitions
    when linking for MIPS targets.
  - --insn32
- --no-insn32
- These options control the choice of microMIPS instructions used in code
      generated by the linker, such as that in the PLT or lazy binding stubs, or
      in relaxation. If --insn32 is used, then the linker only uses
      32-bit instruction encodings. By default or if --no-insn32 is used,
      all instruction encodings are used, including 16-bit ones where
    possible.
- --ignore-branch-isa
- --no-ignore-branch-isa
- These options control branch relocation checks for invalid ISA mode
      transitions. If --ignore-branch-isa is used, then the linker
      accepts any branch relocations and any ISA mode transition required is
      lost in relocation calculation, except for some cases of
      "BAL" instructions which meet relaxation
      conditions and are converted to equivalent
      "JALX" instructions as the associated
      relocation is calculated. By default or if --no-ignore-branch-isa
      is used a check is made causing the loss of an ISA mode transition to
      produce an error.