[RFC/WIP] Add plugin infrastructure to ld.

[Dave Korn]

On 09/09/2010 22:46, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:

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

  Thanks, that's enough for me to reckon it's worth proceeding to the full
design with confidence that I'm not going to get 99% of the way there and
suddenly run into any fundamental incommensurability.

> 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.

  Well, I thought at first look that I was going to have to change
ldfile_try_open_bfd to return a tri-state, and at the very least have to
update the immediate callers to handle it, if not end up propagating that
change upward through more layers of callers.  But maybe I can just get away
with having it pretend a claimed file has been successfully opened, after all.

>> 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.

  I'm probably worrying needlessly.  I'll plough ahead and see where I get.

    cheers,
      DaveK