-O or -g on gcc linker frontend?

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Gerhard Theurich <gtheurich@sgi.com> writes:

> For a while now I have been wondering if the gcc linker frontend cares
> knowing about -g or -O flags. Let's say I have an object file a.o and
> I want to link it into an executable a.out using gcc I can just say:
>      gcc a.o
> But I can also use debug or optimization flags:
>      gcc -g a.o
>      gcc -O2 a.o
>      ....
> Does the gcc linker frontend care about these flags or are they simply
> ignored? Is it generally advisable to use some consistent set of -g/-O
> flags during linkage compared to what was used during compilation of
> the objects (what if the objects where compiled with different
> options)?

The -g and -O options are used only when generating .o files, and are
ignored when linking .o files.

Ian