Index: gen-doc.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/ld/gen-doc.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -3 -p -B -u -b -B -p -r1.3 gen-doc.texi
--- gen-doc.texi	30 Oct 2001 15:20:10 -0000	1.3
+++ gen-doc.texi	18 Dec 2002 00:44:54 -0000
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 @set I960
 @set MMIX
 @set TICOFF
+@set WIN32
 
 @c 3. Properties of this configuration
 @clear SingleFormat
Index: ld.texinfo
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/ld/ld.texinfo,v
retrieving revision 1.77
diff -u -3 -p -B -u -b -B -p -r1.77 ld.texinfo
--- ld.texinfo	2 Dec 2002 00:40:28 -0000	1.77
+++ ld.texinfo	18 Dec 2002 00:45:15 -0000
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 @set C54X
 @set V850
 @set VAX
+@set WIN32
 @end ifset
 @c man end
 
@@ -145,6 +146,9 @@ section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
 @ifset TICOFF
 * TI COFF::                     ld and the TI COFF
 @end ifset
+@ifset WIN32
+* Win32::                       ld and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+@end ifset
 @end ifclear
 @ifclear SingleFormat
 * BFD::                         BFD
@@ -1789,8 +1792,8 @@ uwin, pw, etc.  For instance, cygwin DLL
 @item --enable-auto-import
 Do sophisticated linking of @code{_symbol} to @code{__imp__symbol} for 
 DATA imports from DLLs, and create the necessary thunking symbols when 
-building the DLLs with those DATA exports.  This generally will 'just 
-work' -- but sometimes you may see this message:
+building the import libraries with those DATA exports.  This generally 
+will 'just work' -- but sometimes you may see this message:
 
 "variable '<var>' can't be auto-imported. Please read the 
 documentation for ld's @code{--enable-auto-import} for details."
@@ -4380,6 +4383,9 @@ functionality are not listed.
 @ifset TICOFF
 * TI COFF::                     @command{ld} and TI COFF
 @end ifset
+@ifset WIN32
+* WIN32::                     @command{ld} and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+@end ifset
 @end menu
 @end ifset
 
@@ -4414,6 +4420,99 @@ page of memory, and changes them to use 
 (That is: the linker turns @samp{mov.b @code{@@}@var{aa}:16} into
 @samp{mov.b @code{@@}@var{aa}:8} whenever the address @var{aa} is in the
 top page of memory).
+@end table
+
+@ifclear GENERIC
+@lowersections
+@end ifclear
+@end ifset
+
+@ifset WIN32
+@ifclear GENERIC
+@raisesections
+@end ifclear
+
+@node WIN32
+@section @command{ld} and WIN32 (cygwin/mingw)
+
+This section describes some of the win32 specific @command{ld} issuses. 
+
+@table @emph
+@cindex import libaries 
+@item import libaries 
+Standard windows linker creates and uses so called import libraries, which 
+contains stuff for linking to dll's. They are regular static archives and 
+could be handled as any other static archive. 
+The cygwin/mingw ports of chas specific support for creating such 
+libraries provided with the @samp{--out-implib} command line option. 
+
+@cindex automatic data imports
+@item automatic data imports
+The standard windows dll format supports data imports from dlls only 
+by adding special decorations (dllimport/dllexport), which lets the 
+compiler produce specific assembler instructions to deal with this issue. 
+This increase the needed porting efforts, especially for big c++ libraries 
+and applications. 
+The auto-import feature, which was initial provided by Paul Sokolovsky, allows 
+to skip this decoration to archive a behavior more like ld on other platforms 
+does. This feature could be performed with the @samp{--enable-auto-import} 
+command-line option.
+
+@cindex direct linking to a dll
+@item direct linking to a dll
+The cygwin/mingw port of @command{ld} supports direct linking (including data symbols) 
+to a dll without the usage of any import libraries. Using this features saves 
+very much linking time and memory in case of bigger libaries or applications. 
+This is because bigger libaries, especially c++ libaries, gets very huge import 
+libaries (I have seen import libraries about 10 MB size).
+
+Linking directly to a dll could be done with the already known command line options 
+@samp{-L} and @samp{-l}. This is because @command{ld} has built in support for several 
+library names. See below, where @samp{xxx} means the basic library name like "png" for 
+the png library:
+
+@example
+libxxx.dll.a 
+xxx.dll.a 
+libxxx.a 
+cygxxx.dll 
+libxxx.dll 
+xxx.dll 
+@end example
+
+The generic cygwin/mingw path layout uses a @samp{bin} directory for applications 
+and dll's and a @samp{lib} directory for the import libraries. 
+
+@example
+bin/
+	cygxxx.dll
+
+lib/
+	libxxx.dll.a   (in case of dll's)
+	libxxx.a       (in case of static archive) 
+@end example
+
+Linking to a dll could be done by two ways: 
+
+1. use the dll directly by adding the @samp{bin} path to the link line 
+@example
+gcc -Wl,-verbose  -o a.exe -L../bin/ -lxxx
+@end example 
+
+2. create a symbolic link from the dll to a file in the @samp{lib} dir according to the above 
+mentioned search pattern. This should be used to avoid unwanted changes in the tools needed for making the app/dll. 
+
+@example
+ln -s bin/cygxxx.dll lib/[cyg|lib|]xxx.dll[.a]
+@end example 
+
+Then you can link without any make environment changes.
+
+@example
+gcc -Wl,-verbose  -o a.exe -L../lib/ -lxxx
+@end example 
+
+
 @end table
 
 @ifclear GENERIC