Link time affected by debug info?

[Pierre Sarrazin]

Hi.  I work on a large C++ application that takes a lot more time
to link when I compile the sources with debugging information (-g
switch of g++ 3.4.2).  (The linking is static and produces an 20
meg executable file.)

Why does the presence of debugging information slow the linking
process so much?  It would seem like all the linker has to do
is to copy the debug info to the executable without caring about
its contents.  The complexity of the linking task does not seem
to depend on that info.  I'm trying to determine if the problem is
with the linker or with gcc.  Thanks.

-- 
Pierre Sarrazin <sarrazip at sympatico dot ca>