New ELF linker code added to GNU binutils

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> writes:

> "Will Newton" <will.newton@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 12:02 AM, Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  At the moment gold has only one significant advantage over the
>>>  existing linker: it is faster.  On large C++ programs, I have measured
>>>  it as running five times faster.
>>
>> This new linker sounds interesting, but I'm not sure as someone who
>> maintains a binutils port what's in it for me. ;-)
>>
>> Is it designed just to be faster or are there other new features
>> planned? Should I consider doing a port of gold to my target? At the
>> moment not linking Linux is a showstopper for me, but I would imagine
>> that will be fixed in time.
>
> Other new features are planned, but even for them the main focus is on
> being faster (concurrent linking, incremental linking).  Most people
> do not look to the linker for features; most people are barely aware
> of the linker at all (obviously the readers of this mailing list are
> an exception).
>
> For people who work on small embedded systems in particular, there is
> likely to be little incentive to do a port to the new linker at this
> time.

I should add that I'm certainly not opposed to new features, I just
don't expect to focus on them myself.  I do think that it is easier to
add features to gold than to GNU ld, but then I would think that.
Only time will tell whether others agree.

Ian