1999-07-12 snapshot - problem with ld on DEC unix

[Olly Betts <olly at muscat dot co dot uk>]

[I'm not subscribed, so please cc responses]

I'm trying to compile the 1999-07-12 snapshot on an alpha box running DEC
unix.  `uname -s -r' reports `OSF1 V4.0'.

However the version of ld we have is being stroppy about linking object
files with no content (which are encountered when the whole of the source
file is excluded by a `#ifdef' test).  ld moans:

/usr/bin/ld:
No symbolic information for: mbchar.o

`ld -V' reports `/usr/bin/ld version 3.11'.  I can't see any likely looking
switches in the ld man page to disable this check.

The obvious nasty workaround is to edit each of the problem object files out
of the makefiles as they crop up.  So far I've found mbchar.o, dwarfout.o,
xcoffout.o, and reorg.o.  And I'm rapidly losing enthusiasm for this
approach.

Is this a known problem?  I can't find any specific notes for any alpha
platforms in either of these:

http://egcs.cygnus.com/faq.html
http://egcs.cygnus.com/install/specific.html

Anyway, I'm going to install gnu ld - I'll let you know if that helps.

Cheers,
Olly