1<html lang="en"> 2<head> 3<title>Overview - Untitled</title> 4<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> 5<meta name="description" content="Untitled"> 6<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> 7<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> 8<link rel="prev" href="index.html#Top" title="Top"> 9<link rel="next" href="Invocation.html#Invocation" title="Invocation"> 10<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> 11<!-- 12This file documents the GNU linker LD 13(Sourcery CodeBench Lite 2011.09-69) 14version 2.21.53. 15 16Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 172001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 18 19Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document 20under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 21or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; 22with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no 23Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the 24section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.--> 25<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> 26<style type="text/css"><!-- 27 pre.display { font-family:inherit } 28 pre.format { font-family:inherit } 29 pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } 30 pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } 31 pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } 32 pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } 33 span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } 34 span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } 35 span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } 36--></style> 37<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> 38</head> 39<body> 40<div class="node"> 41<a name="Overview"></a> 42<p> 43Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Invocation.html#Invocation">Invocation</a>, 44Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="index.html#Top">Top</a>, 45Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="index.html#Top">Top</a> 46<hr> 47</div> 48 49<h2 class="chapter">1 Overview</h2> 50 51<p><a name="index-g_t_0040sc_007bgnu_007d-linker-1"></a><a name="index-what-is-this_003f-2"></a> 52 53<!-- man begin DESCRIPTION --> 54 <p><samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> combines a number of object and archive files, relocates 55their data and ties up symbol references. Usually the last step in 56compiling a program is to run <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp>. 57 58 <p><samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> accepts Linker Command Language files written in 59a superset of AT&T's Link Editor Command Language syntax, 60to provide explicit and total control over the linking process. 61 62 <p>This version of <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> uses the general purpose BFD libraries 63to operate on object files. This allows <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> to read, combine, and 64write object files in many different formats—for example, COFF or 65<code>a.out</code>. Different formats may be linked together to produce any 66available kind of object file. See <a href="BFD.html#BFD">BFD</a>, for more information. 67 68 <p>Aside from its flexibility, the <span class="sc">gnu</span> linker is more helpful than other 69linkers in providing diagnostic information. Many linkers abandon 70execution immediately upon encountering an error; whenever possible, 71<samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> continues executing, allowing you to identify other errors 72(or, in some cases, to get an output file in spite of the error). 73 74<!-- man end --> 75 </body></html> 76 77