Linker API Proposal

[Jim Wilson]

Kirkegaard, Knud J wrote:
> We understand that gcc is considering adding link-time compilation
> features and an API to allow the linker to interact with the compiler
> and related tools.

Not anytime soon.  There are political problems that prevent us from 
doing this.  FSF policy forbids writing information to files and reading 
it back in later, as that might allow someone to subvert the GPL and use 
proprietary compiler code with GPL'ed gcc code, or vice versa.

Many of us expect that we will need this feature eventually to stay 
competitive with other compilers, but for now, policy forbids it.

You might want to look at LLVM which uses gcc as a front end to a 
compiler that does do link-time optimizations.
     http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/
-- 
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.SpecifixInc.com