This might be a limit-on-number-of-open-files issue.

I encounter it while trying to link with link time optimization *and* using the linker plugin an executable which needs loads of object files from two dozen libraries.

To study this, use a program that's build from libraries and linked as follows:

gcc [optimization options] -flto -fwhole-program -fuse-linker-plugin -o exe mainprogram.c lib1.a lib2.a ... libn.a

To enforce the limit, use the following command in bash

ulimit -n <some small number around 20>