\input texinfo
@setfilename ld.info
@c Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
-@c 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@syncodeindex ky cp
@include configdoc.texi
@c (configdoc.texi is generated by the Makefile)
@set MCORE
@set MIPS
@set MMIX
+@set MSP430
@set PDP11
@set PJ
@set SH
@set C54X
@set V850
@set VAX
+@set WIN32
@end ifset
@c man end
This file documents the @sc{gnu} linker LD version @value{VERSION}.
Copyright (C) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000,
-2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@ignore
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@c man begin COPYRIGHT
-Copyright @copyright{} 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001,
+2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
@ifset TICOFF
* TI COFF:: ld and the TI COFF
@end ifset
+@ifset WIN32
+* Win32:: ld and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+@end ifset
@end ifclear
@ifclear SingleFormat
* BFD:: BFD
@option{-L} options apply to all @option{-l} options, regardless of the
order in which the options appear.
+If @var{searchdir} begins with @code{=}, then the @code{=} will be replaced
+by the @dfn{sysroot prefix}, a path specified when the linker is configured.
+
@ifset UsesEnvVars
The default set of paths searched (without being specified with
@samp{-L}) depends on which emulation mode @command{ld} is using, and in
@item -N
@itemx --omagic
Set the text and data sections to be readable and writable. Also, do
-not page-align the data segment. If the output format supports Unix
-style magic numbers, mark the output as @code{OMAGIC}.
+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 @code{OMAGIC}.
+
+@kindex --no-omagic
+@cindex OMAGIC
+@item --no-omagic
+This option negates most of the effects of the @option{-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 @option{-Bdynamic} for this.
@kindex -o @var{output}
@kindex --output=@var{output}
it only when there are unavoidable circular references between two or
more archives.
+@kindex --accept-unknown-input-arch
+@kindex --no-accept-unknown-input-arch
+@item --accept-unknown-input-arch
+@itemx --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 @samp{--accept-unknown-input-arch} option has been added to
+restore the old behaviour.
+
@kindex -assert @var{keyword}
@item -assert @var{keyword}
This option is ignored for SunOS compatibility.
@item --no-undefined
@itemx -z defs
Normally when creating a non-symbolic shared library, undefined symbols
-are allowed and left to be resolved by the runtime loader. These options
-disallows such undefined symbols.
+are allowed and left to be resolved by the runtime loader. This option
+disallows such undefined symbols if they come from regular object
+files. The switch @samp{--no-allow-shlib-undefined} controls the
+behaviour for shared objects being linked into the shared library.
@kindex --allow-multiple-definition
@kindex -z muldefs
first definition will be used.
@kindex --allow-shlib-undefined
+@kindex --no-allow-shlib-undefined
@item --allow-shlib-undefined
-Allow undefined symbols in shared objects even when --no-undefined is
-set. The net result will be that undefined symbols in regular objects
-will still trigger an error, but undefined symbols in shared objects
-will be ignored. The implementation of no_undefined makes the
-assumption that the runtime linker will choke on undefined symbols.
-However there is at least one system (BeOS) where undefined symbols in
-shared libraries is normal since the kernel patches them at load time to
-select which function is most appropriate for the current architecture.
-I.E. dynamically select an appropriate memset function. Apparently it
-is also normal for HPPA shared libraries to have undefined symbols.
+@itemx --no-allow-shlib-undefined
+Allow (the default) or disallow undefined symbols in shared objects.
+The setting of this switch overrides @samp {--no-undefined} where
+shared objects are concerned. Thus if @samp {--no-undefined} is set
+but @samp {--no-allow-shlib-undefined} is not, the net result will be
+that undefined symbols in regular object files will trigger an error,
+but undefined symbols in shared objects will be ignored.
+
+The reason that @samp{--allow-shlib-undefined} is the default is that
+the shared object being specified at link time may not be the same one
+that is available at load time, so the symbols might actually be
+resolvable at load time. Plus there are some systems, (eg BeOS) where
+undefined symbols in shared libraries is normal since the kernel
+patches them at load time to select which function is most appropriate
+for the current architecture. eg. to dynamically select an appropriate
+memset function. Apparently it is also normal for HPPA shared
+libraries to have undefined symbols.
+
+@kindex --no-undefined-version
+@item --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.
@kindex --no-warn-mismatch
@item --no-warn-mismatch
@cindex DLLs, linking to
@kindex --dll-search-prefix
@item --dll-search-prefix @var{string}
-When linking dynamically to a dll without an import library, i
+When linking dynamically to a dll without an import library,
search for @code{<string><basename>.dll} in preference to
@code{lib<basename>.dll}. This behavior allows easy distinction
between DLLs built for the various "subplatforms": native, cygwin,
@item --enable-auto-import
Do sophisticated linking of @code{_symbol} to @code{__imp__symbol} for
DATA imports from DLLs, and create the necessary thunking symbols when
-building the DLLs with those DATA exports. This generally will 'just
-work' -- but sometimes you may see this message:
+building the import libraries with those DATA exports. This 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 @code{--enable-auto-import} for details."
There are several ways to address this difficulty, regardless of the
data type of the exported variable:
-One solution is to force one of the 'constants' to be a 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 environtment 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:
@{ volatile long long * local_ll=&extern_ll; *local_ll @}
@end example
-A second method of dealing with this difficulty is to abandon
+A third method of dealing with this difficulty is to abandon
'auto-import' for the offending symbol and mark it with
@code{__declspec(dllimport)}. However, in practice that
requires using compile-time #defines to indicate whether you are
@}
@end example
-A third way to avoid this problem is to re-code your
+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).
Do not attempt to do sophisticalted linking of @code{_symbol} to
@code{__imp__symbol} for DATA imports from DLLs.
+@kindex --enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
+@item --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.
+
+@kindex --disable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
+@item --disable-runtime-pseudo-reloc
+Do not create pseudo relocations for non-zero offset DATA imports from
+DLLs. This is the default.
+
@kindex --enable-extra-pe-debug
@item --enable-extra-pe-debug
Show additional debug info related to auto-import symbol thunking.
When the linker finds a symbol defined in a library which is not
specifically bound to a version node, it will effectively bind it to an
unspecified base version of the library. You can bind all otherwise
-unspecified symbols to a given version node by using @samp{global: *}
+unspecified symbols to a given version node by using @samp{global: *;}
somewhere in the version script.
The names of the version nodes have no specific meaning other than what
won't.
@smallexample
-@{ global: foo; bar; local: *; @}
+@{ global: foo; bar; local: *; @};
@end smallexample
When you link an application against a shared library that has versioned
in the C source file. This renames the function @samp{original_foo} to
be an alias for @samp{foo} bound to the version node @samp{VERS_1.1}.
The @samp{local:} directive can be used to prevent the symbol
-@samp{original_foo} from being exported.
+@samp{original_foo} from being exported. A @samp{.symver} directive
+takes precedence over a version script.
The second GNU extension is to allow multiple versions of the same
function to appear in a given shared library. In this way you can make
@cindex dot inside sections
Note: @code{.} actually refers to the byte offset from the start of the
current containing object. Normally this is the @code{SECTIONS}
-statement, whoes start address is 0, hence @code{.} can be used as an
+statement, whose start address is 0, hence @code{.} can be used as an
absolute address. If @code{.} is used inside a section description
however, it refers to the byte offset from the start of that section,
not an absolute address. Thus in a script like this:
@cindex round up location counter
@cindex align location counter
Return the location counter (@code{.}) aligned to the next @var{exp}
-boundary. @var{exp} must be an expression whose value is a power of
-two. This is equivalent to
-@smallexample
-(. + @var{exp} - 1) & ~(@var{exp} - 1)
-@end smallexample
-
+boundary.
@code{ALIGN} doesn't change the value of the location counter---it just
does arithmetic on it. Here is an example which aligns the output
@code{.data} section to the next @code{0x2000} byte boundary after the
@ifset MMIX
* MMIX:: @code{ld} and MMIX
@end ifset
+@ifset MSP430
+* MSP430:: @code{ld} and MSP430
+@end ifset
@ifset TICOFF
* TI COFF:: @command{ld} and TI COFF
@end ifset
+@ifset WIN32
+* WIN32:: @command{ld} and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+@end ifset
@end menu
@end ifset
@end ifclear
@end ifset
+@ifset WIN32
+@ifclear GENERIC
+@raisesections
+@end ifclear
+
+@node WIN32
+@section @command{ld} and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+
+This section describes some of the win32 specific @command{ld} issues.
+See @ref{Options,,Command Line Options} for detailed decription of the
+command line options mentioned here.
+
+@table @emph
+@cindex import libraries
+@item import libraries
+The standard Windows linker creates and uses so-called import
+libraries, which contains information for linking to dll's. They are
+regular static archives and are handled as any other static
+archive. The cygwin and mingw ports of @command{ld} have specific
+support for creating such libraries provided with the
+@samp{--out-implib} command line option.
+
+@item exporting DLL symbols
+@cindex exporting DLL symbols
+The cygwin/mingw @command{ld} has several ways to export symbols for dll's.
+
+@table @emph
+@item using auto-export functionality
+@cindex using auto-export functionality
+By default @command{ld} exports symbols with the auto-export functionality,
+which is controlled by the following command line options:
+
+@itemize
+@item --export-all-symbols [This is the default]
+@item --exclude-symbols
+@item --exclude-libs
+@end itemize
+
+If, however, @samp{--export-all-symbols} is not given explicitly on the
+command line, then the default auto-export behavior will be @emph{disabled}
+if either of the following are true:
+
+@itemize
+@item A DEF file is used.
+@item Any symbol in any object file was marked with the __declspec(dllexport) attribute.
+@end itemize
+
+@item using a DEF file
+@cindex using a DEF file
+Another way of exporting symbols is using a DEF file. A DEF file is
+an ASCII file containing definitions of symbols which should be
+exported when a dll is created. Usually it is named @samp{<dll
+name>.def} and is added as any other object file to the linker's
+command line. The file's name must end in @samp{.def} or @samp{.DEF}.
+
+@example
+gcc -o <output> <objectfiles> <dll name>.def
+@end example
+
+Using a DEF file turns off the normal auto-export behavior, unless the
+@samp{--export-all-symbols} option is also used.
+
+Here is an example of a DEF file for a shared library called @samp{xyz.dll}:
+
+@example
+LIBRARY "xyz.dll" BASE=0x10000000
+
+EXPORTS
+foo
+bar
+_bar = bar
+@end example
+
+This example defines a base address and three symbols. The third
+symbol is an alias for the second. For the complete format
+specification see ld/deffilep.y in the binutils sources.
+
+@cindex creating a DEF file
+While linking a shared dll, @command{ld} is able to create a DEF file
+with the @samp{--output-def <file>} command line option.
+
+@item Using decorations
+@cindex Using decorations
+Another way of marking symbols for export is to modify the source code
+itself, so that when building the DLL each symbol to be exported is
+declared as:
+
+@example
+__declspec(dllexport) int a_variable
+__declspec(dllexport) void a_function(int with_args)
+@end example
+
+All such symbols will be exported from the DLL. If, however,
+any of the object files in the DLL contain symbols decorated in
+this way, then the normal auto-export behavior is disabled, unless
+the @samp{--export-all-symbols} option is also used.
+
+Note that object files that wish to access these symbols must @emph{not}
+decorate them with dllexport. Instead, they should use dllimport,
+instead:
+
+@example
+__declspec(dllimport) int a_variable
+__declspec(dllimport) void a_function(int with_args)
+@end example
+
+This complicates the structure of library header files, because
+when included by the library itself the header must declare the
+variables and functions as dllexport, but when included by client
+code the header must declare them as dllimport. There are a number
+of idioms that are typically used to do this; often client code can
+omit the __declspec() declaration completely. See
+@samp{--enable-auto-import} and @samp{automatic data imports} for more
+imformation.
+@end table
+
+@cindex automatic data imports
+@item automatic data imports
+The standard Windows dll format supports data imports from dlls only
+by adding special decorations (dllimport/dllexport), which let the
+compiler produce specific assembler instructions to deal with this
+issue. This increases the effort necessary to port existing Un*x
+code to these platforms, especially for large
+c++ libraries and applications. The auto-import feature, which was
+initially provided by Paul Sokolovsky, allows one to omit the
+decorations to archieve a behavior that conforms to that on POSIX/Un*x
+platforms. This feature is enabled with the @samp{--enable-auto-import}
+command-line option, although it is enabled by default on cygwin/mingw.
+The @samp{--enable-auto-import} option itself now serves mainly to
+suppress any warnings that are ordinarily emitted when linked objects
+trigger the feature's use.
+
+auto-import of variables does not always work flawlessly without
+additional assistance. Sometimes, you will see this message
+
+"variable '<var>' can't be auto-imported. Please read the
+documentation for ld's @code{--enable-auto-import} for details."
+
+The @samp{--enable-auto-import} documentation explains why this error
+occurs, and several methods that can be used to overcome this difficulty.
+One of these methods is the @emph{runtime pseudo-relocs} feature, described
+below.
+
+@cindex runtime pseudo-relocation
+For complex variables imported from DLLs (such as structs or classes),
+object files typically contain a base address for the variable and an
+offset (@emph{addend}) within the variable--to specify a particular
+field or public member, for instance. Unfortunately, the runtime loader used
+in win32 environments is incapable of fixing these references at runtime
+without the additional information supplied by dllimport/dllexport decorations.
+The standard auto-import feature described above is unable to resolve these
+references.
+
+The @samp{--enable-runtime-pseudo-relocs} switch allows these references to
+be resolved without error, while leaving the task of adjusting the references
+themselves (with their non-zero addends) to specialized code provided by the
+runtime environment. Recent versions of the cygwin and mingw environments and
+compilers provide this runtime support; older versions do not. However, the
+support is only necessary on the developer's platform; the compiled result will
+run without error on an older system.
+
+@samp{--enable-runtime-pseudo-relocs} is not the default; it must be explicitly
+enabled as needed.
+
+@cindex direct linking to a dll
+@item direct linking to a dll
+The cygwin/mingw ports of @command{ld} support the direct linking,
+including data symbols, to a dll without the usage of any import
+libraries. This is much faster and uses much less memory than does the
+traditional import library method, expecially when linking large
+libraries or applications. When @command{ld} creates an import lib, each
+function or variable exported from the dll is stored in its own bfd, even
+though a single bfd could contain many exports. The overhead involved in
+storing, loading, and processing so many bfd's is quite large, and explains the
+tremendous time, memory, and storage needed to link against particularly
+large or complex libraries when using import libs.
+
+Linking directly to a dll uses no extra command-line switches other than
+@samp{-L} and @samp{-l}, because @command{ld} already searches for a number
+of names to match each library. All that is needed from the developer's
+perspective is an understanding of this search, in order to force ld to
+select the dll instead of an import library.
+
+
+For instance, when ld is called with the argument @samp{-lxxx} it will attempt
+to find, in the first directory of its search path,
+
+@example
+libxxx.dll.a
+xxx.dll.a
+libxxx.a
+cygxxx.dll (*)
+libxxx.dll
+xxx.dll
+@end example
+
+before moving on to the next directory in the search path.
+
+(*) Actually, this is not @samp{cygxxx.dll} but in fact is @samp{<prefix>xxx.dll},
+where @samp{<prefix>} is set by the @command{ld} option
+@samp{--dll-search-prefix=<prefix>}. In the case of cygwin, the standard gcc spec
+file includes @samp{--dll-search-prefix=cyg}, so in effect we actually search for
+@samp{cygxxx.dll}.
+
+Other win32-based unix environments, such as mingw or pw32, may use other
+@samp{<prefix>}es, although at present only cygwin makes use of this feature. It
+was originally intended to help avoid name conflicts among dll's built for the
+various win32/un*x environments, so that (for example) two versions of a zlib dll
+could coexist on the same machine.
+
+The generic cygwin/mingw path layout uses a @samp{bin} directory for
+applications and dll's and a @samp{lib} directory for the import
+libraries (using cygwin nomenclature):
+
+@example
+bin/
+ cygxxx.dll
+lib/
+ libxxx.dll.a (in case of dll's)
+ libxxx.a (in case of static archive)
+@end example
+
+Linking directly to a dll without using the import library can be
+done two ways:
+
+1. Use the dll directly by adding the @samp{bin} path to the link line
+@example
+gcc -Wl,-verbose -o a.exe -L../bin/ -lxxx
+@end example
+
+However, as the dll's often have version numbers appended to their names
+(@samp{cygncurses-5.dll}) this will often fail, unless one specifies
+@samp{-L../bin -lncurses-5} to include the version. Import libs are generally
+not versioned, and do not have this difficulty.
+
+2. Create a symbolic link from the dll to a file in the @samp{lib}
+directory according to the above mentioned search pattern. This
+should be used to avoid unwanted changes in the tools needed for
+making the app/dll.
+
+@example
+ln -s bin/cygxxx.dll lib/[cyg|lib|]xxx.dll[.a]
+@end example
+
+Then you can link without any make environment changes.
+
+@example
+gcc -Wl,-verbose -o a.exe -L../lib/ -lxxx
+@end example
+
+This technique also avoids the version number problems, because the following is
+perfectly legal
+
+@example
+bin/
+ cygxxx-5.dll
+lib/
+ libxxx.dll.a -> ../bin/cygxxx-5.dll
+@end example
+
+Linking directly to a dll without using an import lib will work
+even when auto-import features are exercised, and even when
+@samp{--enable-runtime-pseudo-relocs} is used.
+
+Given the improvements in speed and memory usage, one might justifiably
+wonder why import libraries are used at all. There are two reasons:
+
+1. Until recently, the link-directly-to-dll functionality did @emph{not}
+work with auto-imported data.
+
+2. Sometimes it is necessary to include pure static objects within the
+import library (which otherwise contains only bfd's for indirection
+symbols that point to the exports of a dll). Again, the import lib
+for the cygwin kernel makes use of this ability, and it is not
+possible to do this without an import lib.
+
+So, import libs are not going away. But the ability to replace
+true import libs with a simple symbolic link to (or a copy of)
+a dll, in most cases, is a useful addition to the suite of tools
+binutils makes available to the win32 developer. Given the
+massive improvements in memory requirements during linking, storage
+requirements, and linking speed, we expect that many developers
+will soon begin to use this feature whenever possible.
+
+@item symbol aliasing
+@table @emph
+@item adding additional names
+Sometimes, it is useful to export symbols with additional names.
+A symbol @samp{foo} will be exported as @samp{foo}, but it can also be
+exported as @samp{_foo} by using special directives in the DEF file
+when creating the dll. This will affect also the optional created
+import library. Consider the following DEF file:
+
+@example
+LIBRARY "xyz.dll" BASE=0x61000000
+
+EXPORTS
+foo
+_foo = foo
+@end example
+
+The line @samp{_foo = foo} maps the symbol @samp{foo} to @samp{_foo}.
+
+Another method for creating a symbol alias is to create it in the
+source code using the "weak" attribute:
+
+@example
+void foo () @{ /* Do something. */; @}
+void _foo () __attribute__ ((weak, alias ("foo")));
+@end example
+
+See the gcc manual for more information about attributes and weak
+symbols.
+
+@item renaming symbols
+Sometimes it is useful to rename exports. For instance, the cygwin
+kernel does this regularly. A symbol @samp{_foo} can be exported as
+@samp{foo} but not as @samp{_foo} by using special directives in the
+DEF file. (This will also affect the import library, if it is
+created). In the following example:
+
+@example
+LIBRARY "xyz.dll" BASE=0x61000000
+
+EXPORTS
+_foo = foo
+@end example
+
+The line @samp{_foo = foo} maps the exported symbol @samp{foo} to
+@samp{_foo}.
+@end table
+
+Note: using a DEF file disables the default auto-export behavior,
+unless the @samp{--export-all-symbols} command line option is used.
+If, however, you are trying to rename symbols, then you should list
+@emph{all} desired exports in the DEF file, including the symbols
+that are not being renamed, and do @emph{not} use the
+@samp{--export-all-symbols} option. If you list only the
+renamed symbols in the DEF file, and use @samp{--export-all-symbols}
+to handle the other symbols, then the both the new names @emph{and}
+the original names for the the renamed symbols will be exported.
+In effect, you'd be aliasing those symbols, not renaming them,
+which is probably not what you wanted.
+@end table
+
+@ifclear GENERIC
+@lowersections
+@end ifclear
+@end ifset
+
@ifclear GENERIC
@ifset Hitachi
@c This stuff is pointless to say unless you're especially concerned
are left out from an mmo file.
@end ifset
+@ifset MSP430
+@node MSP430
+@section @code{ld} and MSP430
+For the MSP430 it is possible to select the MPU architecture. The flag @samp{-m [mpu type]}
+will select an appropriate linker script for selected MPU type. (To get a list of known MPUs
+just pass @samp{-m help} option to the linker).
+
+@cindex MSP430 extra sections
+The linker will recognize some extra sections which are MSP430 specific:
+
+@table @code
+@item @samp{.vectors}
+Defines a portion of ROM where interrupt vectors located.
+
+@item @samp{.bootloader}
+Defines the bootloader portion of the ROM (if applicable). Any code
+in this section will be uploaded to the MPU.
+
+@item @samp{.infomem}
+Defines an information memory section (if applicable). Any code in
+this section will be uploaded to the MPU.
+
+@item @samp{.infomemnobits}
+This is the same as the @samp{.infomem} section except that any code
+in this section will not be uploaded to the MPU.
+
+@item @samp{.noinit}
+Denotes a portion of RAM located above @samp{.bss} section.
+
+The last two sections are used by gcc.
+@end table
+@end ifset
+
@ifset TICOFF
@node TI COFF
@section @command{ld}'s support for various TI COFF versions
Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the
problem and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might
-assume that the name of a symbol you use in an example does not matter.
-Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is
-a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where
-that name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were different, the
-contents of that location would fool the linker into doing the right
-thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a specific, complete
-example. That is the easiest thing for you to do, and the most helpful.
-
-Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug if
-it is new to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports on the assumption
-that the bug has not been reported previously.
+assume that the name of a symbol you use in an example does not
+matter. Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps
+the bug is a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the
+location where that name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name
+were different, the contents of that location would fool the linker
+into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a
+specific, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do,
+and the most helpful.
+
+Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix
+the bug if it is new to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports
+on the assumption that the bug has not been reported previously.
Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, ``Does this ring a
bell?'' Those bug reports are useless, and we urge everyone to
@item
A complete input file, or set of input files, that will reproduce the
-bug. It is generally most helpful to send the actual object files,
-uuencoded if necessary to get them through the mail system. Making them
-available for anonymous FTP is not as good, but may be the only
-reasonable choice for large object files.
+bug. It is generally most helpful to send the actual object files
+provided that they are reasonably small. Say no more than 10K. For
+bigger files you can either make them available by FTP or HTTP or else
+state that you are willing to send the object file(s) to whomever
+requests them. (Note - your email will be going to a mailing list, so
+we do not want to clog it up with large attachments). But small
+attachments are best.
If the source files were assembled using @code{gas} or compiled using
@code{gcc}, then it may be OK to send the source files rather than the
projects / thirdparty / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff