How do I get ld to pull sections from archived objects?

[Andreas Schwab]

David Fernandez <david.fernandez.work@googlemail.com> writes:

> SECTIONS
> {
> ...
>     my_special_thing ORIGIN(rom) : {
>         KEEP(*(my_special_thing))
>     }
> ...
> }
>
> If all the objects containing "my_special_thing" section are in
> archives, this section never makes it to the final elf file.

The KEEP operator is not about forcing a reference, only about not
dropping it, if --gc-sections is in effect.  It will not change in any
way which inputs are considered for inclusion until the garbage
collector runs.  Thus it has no effect unless --gc-sections is used.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, SUSE Labs, schwab@suse.de
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