RFC: GAS: Add option to generate unused section symbols

[Michael Matz]

Hello,

On Fri, 4 Mar 2022, Nick Clifton via Binutils wrote:

>   With the 2.36 release of the binutils we stopped generating section
>   symbols if they were not needed by relocations.  This helps to reduce
>   object file size and enhances compatibility with the LLVM compiler.
>   But I have received some bug reports about this feature, most notably
>   from kernel maintainers who have found that the new behaviour breaks
>   the recordmcount tool.

This problem was fixed in the kernel (and backported by distros to their 
kernels if binutils was updated); it's fairly simplistic changes.

I don't see the need for returning (optionally) to the old behaviour 
again.  I mean, at the time, when 2.36 came out, sure, the patch might 
have made sense, but now?


Ciao,
Michael.