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dead function elimination

jimmy jimmyb@huawei.com
Thu Nov 9 09:19:00 GMT 2006 
Nick Clifton wrote:
> Hi Jimmy,
> 
>> Can gcc or ld perform dead procedure elimination apart from using the 
>> combination of --gc-sections/-ffunction-sections?
> 
> (Why are you excluding the --gc-sections / -ffunction-sections pairing 
> which were designed precisely for this purpose ?)
> 
> The short answer is yes.  Gcc can and will eliminate unused local 
> procedures, and with its --whole-program option it can even eliminate 
> unused non-local procedures.
> 
> But your question implies that you are asking if between them the linker 
> and compiler can eliminate unused procedures without recompilation of 
> all the sources, and in this case the answer is no.
> 
> Cheers
>   Nick
> 
I thght the linker alone was supposed to be able to do 
dead-procedure-elimination. After all can't the linker determine which 
procedures are unreferenced in the final executable?

If i'm not mistaken the diablo linker can do this?


Thanks!
-jb
-- 
mathematician, n.:
         Some one who believes imaginary things appear right before your 
i's.
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