[RFC/WIP] Add plugin infrastructure to ld.

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Dave Korn <dave.korn.cygwin@gmail.com> writes:

>   This, of course, is the easy bit.  The more complex part is what I'd like to
> ask if anyone else has been thinking about or has any advice or suggestions:
> how to make LD play correctly with the plugin API.  I'm not even certain that
> their modes of operation are going to be commensurate enough to make them fit,
> so I wrote this framework as a testbed to try and prove the concept.

As far as I know the plugin framework should work OK with GNU ld.  It
was certainly designed with that in mind.

>   For instance, it seems to me that LD has many locations that open input
> files, all of which error out if they fail to find their file, and all of
> which would need patching to call the 'claim files' hook and leave the file
> alone but still not error out if the file got claimed.

I'm not sure why you say there are many places that open input files.
As far as I know they are all opened by ldfile_try_open_bfd.  Note that
linker scripts are not relevant to the plugin.

> I'm even less certain
> if LD's way of dealing with archives and archive members is commensurate
> enough with GOLD's to be compatible.

There is really only one way to handle archives and archive members, so
it should be pretty much the same.

Ian