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 2013.11-24) 14version 2.23.52. 15 16Copyright (C) 1991-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 17 18Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document 19under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 20or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; 21with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no 22Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the 23section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.--> 24<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> 25<style type="text/css"><!-- 26 pre.display { font-family:inherit } 27 pre.format { font-family:inherit } 28 pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } 29 pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } 30 pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } 31 pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } 32 span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } 33 span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } 34 span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } 35--></style> 36<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> 37</head> 38<body> 39<div class="node"> 40<a name="Overview"></a> 41<p> 42Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Invocation.html#Invocation">Invocation</a>, 43Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="index.html#Top">Top</a>, 44Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="index.html#Top">Top</a> 45<hr> 46</div> 47 48<h2 class="chapter">1 Overview</h2> 49 50<p><a name="index-g_t_0040sc_007bgnu_007d-linker-1"></a><a name="index-what-is-this_003f-2"></a> 51 52<!-- man begin DESCRIPTION --> 53 <p><samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> combines a number of object and archive files, relocates 54their data and ties up symbol references. Usually the last step in 55compiling a program is to run <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp>. 56 57 <p><samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> accepts Linker Command Language files written in 58a superset of AT&T's Link Editor Command Language syntax, 59to provide explicit and total control over the linking process. 60 61 <p>This version of <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> uses the general purpose BFD libraries 62to operate on object files. This allows <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> to read, combine, and 63write object files in many different formats—for example, COFF or 64<code>a.out</code>. Different formats may be linked together to produce any 65available kind of object file. See <a href="BFD.html#BFD">BFD</a>, for more information. 66 67 <p>Aside from its flexibility, the <span class="sc">gnu</span> linker is more helpful than other 68linkers in providing diagnostic information. Many linkers abandon 69execution immediately upon encountering an error; whenever possible, 70<samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> continues executing, allowing you to identify other errors 71(or, in some cases, to get an output file in spite of the error). 72 73<!-- man end --> 74 </body></html> 75 76