2.11BSD#431 - /usr/man/cat1/ld.0

LD(1)		    UNIX Programmer's Manual		    LD(1)


NAME
     ld - link editor (2BSD)

SYNOPSIS
     ld [ option ] ... file ...

DESCRIPTION
     Ld combines several object programs into one, resolves
     external references, and searches libraries.  In the sim-
     plest case several object files are given, and ld combines
     them, producing an object module which can be either exe-
     cuted or become the input for a further ld run.  (In the
     latter case, the -r option must be given to preserve the
     relocation bits.)	The output of ld is left on a.out.  This
     file is made executable only if no errors occurred during
     the load.

     The argument routines are concatenated in the order speci-
     fied.  The entry point of the output is the beginning of the
     first routine (unless the -e option is specified).

     If any argument is a library, it is searched exactly once at
     the point it is encountered in the argument list.	Only
     those routines defining an unresolved external reference are
     loaded.  If a routine from a library references another rou-
     tine in the library, and the library has not been processed
     by ranlib(1), the referenced routine must appear after the
     referencing routine in the library.  Thus the order of pro-
     grams within libraries may be important.  The first member
     of a library should be a file named `__.SYMDEF', which is
     understood to be a dictionary for the library as produced by
     ranlib(1); the dictionary is searched iteratively to satisfy
     as many references as possible.

     The symbols `_etext', `_edata' and `_end' (`etext', `edata'
     and `end' in C) are reserved, and if referred to, are set to
     the first location above the program, the first location
     above initialized data, and the first location above all
     data respectively.  It is erroneous to define these symbols.

     Ld understands several options.  Except for -l, they should
     appear before the file names.

     -D   Take the next argument as a decimal number and pad the
	  data segment with zero bytes to the indicated length.

     -d   Force definition of common storage even if the -r flag
	  is present.

     -e   The following argument is taken to be the name of the
	  entry point of the loaded program; location 0 is the
	  default.


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     -Ldir
	  Add dir to the list of directories in which libraries
	  are searched for.  Directories specified with -L are
	  searched before the standard directories.

     -lx  This option is an abbreviation for the library name
	  `libx.a', where x is a string.  Ld searches for
	  libraries first in any directories specified with -L
	  options, then in the standard directories `/lib',
	  `/usr/lib', and `/usr/local/lib'.  A library is
	  searched when its name is encountered, so the placement
	  of a -l is significant.

     -M   produce a primitive load map, listing the names of the
	  files which will be loaded.

     -n   Arrange (by giving the output file a 0410 "magic
	  number") that when the output file is executed, the
	  text portion will be read-only and shared among all
	  users executing the file.  This involves moving the
	  data areas up to the first possible 8K byte boundary
	  following the end of the text.  This option creates a
	  `pure executable' format.

     -i   When the output file is executed, the program text and
	  data areas will live in separate address spaces.  The
	  only difference between this option and -n is that here
	  the text and data segments are in separate address
	  spaces and both start at location 0.	This option
	  creates a `separate executable' format.

     -z   This option is a synonym for the -i option.  On other
	  systems (4.3BSD for example) the -z option causes a
	  demand paged executable to be built.	This option was
	  added to 2.11BSD because some systems (those which use
	  gcc) do not safely ignore (with a warning) the -i
	  option.  Adding the -z option to 2.11BSD allows
	  makefiles to be copied freely between multiple plat-
	  forms once again.

     -O   This is a text replacement overlay file; only the text
	  segment will be replaced by execve(2).  Shared data
	  must have the same size as the program overlaid, other-
	  wise the execve(2) will fail.  The entry point to the
	  overlay may be defined with the -e option.  This option
	  allows the creation of a `replacement executable' for-
	  mat.

     -o   The name argument after -o is used as the name of the
	  ld output file, instead of a.out.

     -r   Generate relocation bits in the output file so that it


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	  can be the subject of another ld run.  This flag also
	  prevents final definitions from being given to common
	  symbols, and suppresses the `undefined symbol' diagnos-
	  tics.  (Note that this option cannot be used with over-
	  lays (-Z) since they cannot be reloaded.)

     -s   `Strip' the output, that is, remove the symbol table
	  and relocation bits to save space (but impair the use-
	  fulness of the debuggers).  This information can also
	  be removed by strip(1).

     -q   ("quiet") Suppress the reporting of undefined symbols.
	  Normally only used when building networked kernels -
	  the large number of undefined symbols is normal (due to
	  the three phase link proceedure) but can be distracting
	  none the less.

     -t   ("trace")  Print the name of each file as it is pro-
	  cessed.

     -u   Take the following argument as a symbol and enter it as
	  undefined in the symbol table.  This is useful for
	  loading wholly from a library, since initially the sym-
	  bol table is empty and an unresolved reference is
	  needed to force the loading of the first routine.

     -v   ("verbose")  Print the VM statistics.  Printing out the
	  number of pages swapped to and from the VM tmp file is
	  now optional and only used when a problem is suspected
	  (or if you are voyeuristic).

     -X   Save local symbols except for those whose names begin
	  with `L'.  This option is used by cc(1) to discard
	  internally-generated labels while retaining symbols
	  local to routines.

     -x   Do not preserve local (non-.globl) symbols in the out-
	  put symbol table; only enter external symbols.  This
	  option saves some space in the output file.  It also
	  allows temporary labels  to be discarded to prevent
	  redefinition in sucessive ld's.  Warning: adb uses
	  these local symbols, especially when debugging overlaid
	  programs, so some debugging information is necessarily
	  lost if this option is used.

     -Z   Indicate the creation of an automatic-overlay format.
	  In addition a -i or -n must be present as overlays only
	  work with shared text objects.  Repeated instances of
	  -Z bracket the modules that will be loaded into a given
	  overlay.  Modules before the first -Z or after the con-
	  cluding -Y will be loaded into the non-overlaid text
	  (base) area.	Note that there may be a maximum of NOVL


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	  (currently 15) overlays.  This option produces the
	  `overlaid pure executable' and the `overlaid separate
	  executable' formats.	The loader creates a small entry
	  interface in the base segment for each subroutine in an
	  overlay.  This interface ("thunk") arranges for the
	  correct overlay to be present before the actual routine
	  is entered.

     -Y   Terminate text overlays.  This allows any remaining
	  modules or libraries to be loaded into the base area.
	  Note that the -Y option used to be -L, but had to be
	  changed when the loader was brought up to date with the
	  4.3BSD loader which uses -L to indicate a directory to
	  be searched for library references.

AUTOMATIC TEXT OVERLAY EXAMPLE
     To set up an automatic text overlay object with the loader,
     use a command of the form:


	  ld -n -X /lib/crt0.o base.o base2.o
	  -Z ov1a.o ov1b.o ...
	  -Z ov2a.o ov2b.o ...
	  -Y base3.o ... -lovc

     Assembly source code must be compiled using the assembler
     overlay flags: "as -V prog.s" which causes the assembler to
     leave certain symbols unresolved so that ld may rearrange
     them.  The various system compilers automatically use this
     option.

     When arranging modules into overlays, the following rules
     control the maximum sizes for an executable file.	The magic
     numbers are due to the granularity of PDP-11 segmentation
     registers (there are 8 registers, each controlling an 8192-
     byte segment).  The program is made up of four areas: base
     text, overlay text, data + bss, and stack sections.  The
     size of the overlay section is controlled by the size of the
     largest of the overlays.  Each section starts at an address
     that is a multiple of 8Kb, thus the size of each section is
     rounded up to a multiple of 8Kb.

     In the case of separate overlaid executable files, the text
     and overlays share one 64Kb byte address space; and the data
     + bss and stack share the other.  Thus, the total of the
     base text size (rounded up to an 8Kb boundary) plus the max-
     imum overlay size (similarly rounded) must be less than or
     equal to 64Kb.  Or, put another way, since there are only 8
     segmentation registers available, the number of segmentation
     registers needed for an overlaid object must be less than or
     equal to 8.  As an example, if the base text segment has
     36800 bytes and the largest overlay takes 14144, the base


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     will fit in 5 segments and the overlays in 2 segments; leav-
     ing one to spare.	The data and bss together must fit in 7
     segments (56K bytes), leaving one 8Kb segment for the stack.
     All of the limits can be checked by using checkobj(1).

     For pure overlaid programs, the rules are similar except
     that all four sections share one 64K-byte address space.
     The number of segments required by the text, overlay, data +
     bss and stack are calculated in the same way.  The sum of
     the segments required, including one for the stack, must be
     less than or equal to 8.  Example: a program has 8128 bytes
     of base text, the largest overlay is 16248 bytes, and the
     data and bss total 19500.	The text requires 1 8Kb segment,
     the overlays 2, and data and bss use 4, leaving one for the
     stack.

FILES
     /lib/lib*.a	    libraries
     /usr/lib/lib*.a	    more libraries
     /usr/local/lib/lib*.a  still more libraries
     a.out		    output file

SEE ALSO
     adb(1), ar(1), as(1), cc(1), checkobj(1), f77(1), file(1),
     ranlib(1), size(1), a.out(5)

BUGS
     The text overlay scheme presented is unique to the PDP-11
     and 2BSD.	The -i, -P, -Z, -Y options are specific to 2BSD.
     The -q and -v options are new with 2.11BSD.


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