ld: orthogonal functionality?

[John Reiser <jreiser at BitWagon dot com>]

In ld for ELF, I'd like to control these features separately and
independently, both from the command line and from an input script:

0. output type ET_EXEC, ET_DYN, ET_REL
1. warn (alt: not) if undefined symbols are referenced
2. force non-zero exit status if undefined symbols are referenced
   (alt: undefineds have no effect on exit status)
3. inhibit output (alt: not) if undefined symbols are referenced
4. lazy relocation (delay as long as possible) vs. eager relocation
   (reduce strength [symbol==>section==>segment==><done>] as soon
   as possible)
5. allocate Common blocks (alt: not)

Current flags such as -dc, -r, -Bsymbolic, -shared, --no-undefined,
--noinhibit-exec provide only partial, non-orthogonal coverage
of the cases.  Lately I've run into several situations where I
could not figure out how to get what I want, even though the
underlying features are implemented for some other combination.

Please comment, suggest, cite known pitfalls, etc.  Thank you.

-- 
John Reiser, jreiser@BitWagon.com