Link order a pain, positional argument --start-group problematic

["R. Diez" <rdiezmail-binutils at yahoo dot de>]

Hi all:

I grew up with MS-DOS and the like, where link order did not matter (as 
far as I remember). In fact, I still find ld's link order 
counterintuitive. In my experience, it is a common source of unexpected 
link errors.

I personally find disturbing that a duplicate symbol may or may not be 
detected depending on the link order, which can be pretty hard to 
control in complex or even automatically-generated makefiles.

Reordering libraries in the makefile because of this is a pain, and 
sometimes there is the issue or circular dependencies.

Furthermore, link order issues have multipled with the advent of C++. 
For example:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3363398/g-linking-order-dependency-when-linking-c-code-to-c-code

Using the --undefine flag is difficult with C++ mangled names, and not 
really practicable in large projects.

One of the often-suggested work-arounds is to list static libraries 
twice, but I am not sure whether that would slow down the link process. 
Maybe someone here can shed some light on this aspect.

Another common advice is to use --start-group / --end-group and/or 
--whole-archive . The problem is, the position of these command-line 
arguments is significant, and that is a problem with some build tools. 
For example, libtool does not support them:

> Please also note that libtool currently does not support position
> dependent linker flags such as --whole-archive, --start-group,
> --add-needed, --as-needed, or -Bstatic.  Lifting that restriction
> is planned, as possible, at some point in the future.

libtool is part or the autotools, which could be considered dead as far 
as real development is concerned, so I do not think that a fix is in sight.

As a work-around, I suggest adding alternative command-line arguments 
that are not position dependent. I guess in most situations a global 
flag like --whole-archive-all would provide a simpler, more intuitive 
and more reliable experience.

Please copy me on the answers, as I am not subscribed to this list.

Regards,
  rdiez