6. Linker Optimization Features

• Plugins

  More Information about linker plugins can be found at Linker Plugins

• Garbage Collection

  • Unused function and data sections are garbage collected by linker when we provide –gc-sections option at the link time

  • Garbage collected sections can be printed by providing –print-gc-sections option

  • –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.

  • If the linker performs a partial link (-r linker option), then you will need to provide the entry point using the -e / –entry linker option.