Re: -gc-sections for elf32-dlx and possible buglette in elf32-target.h

[Ian Lance Taylor <ian at wasabisystems dot com>]

"Dave Korn" <dk@artimi.com> writes:

> 2) Get the dlx-specific RELOCATE_SECTION routine to support HOWTO
> special_function calls itself.

> 4) Re-implement the current HOWTOs in a way that only relies on standard ELF
> linking and doesn't need any special_function calls.

The right option is the combination of these two.  It does indeed
require that special handling be implemented in two different ways.
That is an unfortunate consequence of using the more efficient backend
ELF linker.

It's perhaps worth noting that once the backend ELF linker is
implemented, the HOWTO special_functions are used only by the
assembler and when linking directly to a non-ELF format such as
S-records.  In practice it is unfortunately the case that many of the
ELF backends no longer support linking directly to S-records in any
case.  Users are required to use objcopy instead.  So if you can live
without the ability to link directly to S-records, then the
duplication of functionality is less important, because the HOWTO
special_functions will then only be used by the assembler.

Ian