elf->srec link vs string merging

[Ian Lance Taylor]

DJ Delorie <dj@redhat.com> writes:

>> It's just that the generic linker does not support string merge.
>
> Is this something we want to fix, ignore, or just warn about?

Issuing a warning seems useless as there is nothing the user can do
about it.

Fixing it would be reasonable but it seems like a fair amount of work
for a relatively small reward.

The whole approach is, in my opinion, wrongheaded in today's linker.  It
made sense when everything used the generic linker, but stopped making
sense when we introduced the backend-specific linkers (i.e., 1994).  The
right way is the way that gold generates binary output: generate the ELF
output as usual, and then convert to the desired format at the very end.

Actually I think that using objcopy is simple enough.  The only reason
that gold generates binary format is because the Linux kernel build uses
it.  Given that gold generates binary, it would be straightforward to
add support for S-records or Intel hex.

Ian