example some @code{a.out}-based formats do not support partial linking
with input files in other formats at all.
+On ELF platforms, when the relocatable output contains both contents
+which require link-time optimization (LTO) and contents which don't
+require LTO, a .gnu_object_only section will be created to contain a
+relocatable object file, as if @samp{-r} is applied to all relocatable
+inputs which don't require LTO. When processing a relocatable input
+with a .gnu_object_only section, the linker will extract the
+.gnu_object_only section as a separate input.
+
+Note that since @samp{-r} groups some sections from different input files
+together, there may be negative impacts on code size and locality in
+final executable or shared library.
+
This option does the same thing as @samp{-i}.
@kindex -R @var{file}