Re: RFC: Sort input section by list

[Arjan van de Ven <arjan at linux dot intel dot com>]

Nick Clifton wrote:
> Hi Arjan,
>
> > > > because it allows the developer to put the commonly used functions 
> > > > at the start of the file, improving density in the page cache for 
> > > > example, 
> > >  > and generally improving  startup time.
>
> > > But surely this could be done with gcc's section name function 
> > > attribute without requiring any alterations to the linker ?
>
> > patching 3000 lines+ for each program ....
> > ... versus running a profile and generating an automated list to feed 
> > the linker?
> >
> > I know which one is usable in practice ;-)
>
> A generic method which will work with currently installed versions of 
> gcc and the linker on most linux boxes...
> ...versus a new, untested feature in the linker, in a version of the 
> linker that has not even been released yet.
>
> I know which one I would choose. ;-)

I suppose we chose differently; from a distro point of view patching each app's code that big
is a no go for us; once the new binutils is released we can automate and use the new feature
pretty quickly.
Add to this that which functions are on the list will also depend on which arguments you pass to configure...
sorry but really the "just patch the code in 3000 places" is really not going to work ;-(