[ghudson@MIT.EDU: Re: -Xlinker and LDFLAGS]

[Richard Stallman]

    The answer is simple: -R is not a compiler switch, it's a linker
    switch on Solaris, that Sun's C Compiler used to pass through to the
    linker, GCC does similarly on Solaris for compatibility, and GNU ld
    accepts for compatibility with Solaris' linker.

It is normal for C compilers to pass linker switches through.
The Unix C compiler did that in the mid 80s.

      The GNU ld switch is -rpath.

(It ought to be --rpath, right?  Is it --rpath, or is it just -rpath?)

--rpath might be a reasonable name for this option.  But is there a
good reason NOT to use -R on all systems?  After all, the other
options in GNU ld were mostly inspired by various other BSD-ish
systems.  If we support the functionality of -R, why not call it -R?
And why not have GCC forward it through?

Are there systems where -R in the native linker has some other
meaning instead?