Link order a pain, positional argument --start-group problematic

[Nick Clifton]

Hi R Diez,

> I personally find disturbing that a duplicate symbol may or may not be
> detected depending on the link order, which can be pretty hard to
> control in complex or even automatically-generated makefiles.

Unfortunately this behaviour is now firmly established in modern 
linkers, and it is unlikely to change.

> As a work-around, I suggest adding alternative command-line arguments
> that are not position dependent. I guess in most situations a global
> flag like --whole-archive-all would provide a simpler, more intuitive
> and more reliable experience.

Well this is certainly possible, although you probably want to call the 
option something like --group-all.  --whole-archive-all implies that all 
of the contents of every library listed on the command line should be 
included in the executable, even if some of those library functions are 
not used.  That would lead to a lot of file bloat.

So the next problem is persuading someone to implement this feature. 
You can have a go yourself - we would be more than happy to provide you 
with advice and hints if you this way.  Alternatively you could pay 
someone to implement it.  There are several companies out there that do 
this kind of work.  Or you could try badgering the mailing lists until 
someone gives in and has a go.

There are also other linkers that you could try, or whose communities 
you could ask.  The LLVM project has a linker for example, and they 
might be interested in implementing this feature.

Cheers
   Nick