why is an archive member linked in ?

[Philippe De Muyter]

> 
> 
> > In the specific case I encountered, removing the module from the archive
> > made my link command succeed, while with the module in the archive my
> > link command failed because of some unresolved symbols in the module
> > that got linked in.
> 
> Sometimes, there might be more than one object that resolves a
> specific symbol.  If you take one out, the other gets used, and that
> changes everything.
> 
> For example, DJGPP has two math libraries.  One (libm.a) has a
> complete set of conforming (but slightly slower) functions, and the
> other (in libc.a) is smaller and faster, but less complete and less
> conforming.  If you link in libm.a, you get that set, but if you leave
> it out, the ones in libc.a get used.
> 

Thanks.  I already know that but that's the (slow and ugly) method I use
to find why an archive member causing a link error is linked in.  What I need
is a clean and fast method, e.g. a gld option or, better, a direct information
in the error message.

Philippe