LD(1) GNU Development Tools LD(1)
NAME
ld - Using LD, the GNU linker
SYNOPSIS
ld [options] objfile ...
DESCRIPTION
ld combines a number of object and archive files, relocates their data
and ties up symbol references. Usually the last step in compiling a
program is to run ld.
ld accepts Linker Command Language files written in a superset of
AT&Ts Link Editor Command Language syntax, to provide explicit and
total control over the linking process.
This man page does not describe the command language; see the ld entry
in "info", or the manual ld: the GNU linker, for full details on the
command language and on other aspects of the GNU linker.
This version of ld uses the general purpose BFD libraries to operate on
object files. This allows ld to read, combine, and write object files
in many different formats---for example, COFF or "a.out". Different
formats may be linked together to produce any available kind of object
file.
Aside from its flexibility, the GNU linker is more helpful than other
linkers in providing diagnostic information. Many linkers abandon exe
cution immediately upon encountering an error; whenever possible, ld
continues executing, allowing you to identify other errors (or, in some
cases, to get an output file in spite of the error).
The GNU linker ld is meant to cover a broad range of situations, and to
be as compatible as possible with other linkers. As a result, you have
many choices to control its behavior.
OPTIONS
The linker supports a plethora of command-line options, but in actual
practice few of them are used in any particular context. For instance,
a frequent use of ld is to link standard Unix object files on a stan
dard, supported Unix system. On such a system, to link a file
"hello.o":
ld -o |