LD: Miscellaneous Commands

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#### 3.4.5 Other Linker Script Commands

There are a few other linker scripts commands.

`ASSERT(exp, message)`

  Ensure that exp is non-zero. If it is zero, then exit the linker with an error code, and print message.

`EXTERN(symbol symbol …)`

  Force symbol to be entered in the output file as an undefined symbol. Doing this may, for example, trigger linking of additional modules from standard libraries. You may list several symbols for each `EXTERN`, and you may use `EXTERN` multiple times. This command has the same effect as the ‘`-u`’ command-line option.

`FORCE_COMMON_ALLOCATION`

  This command has the same effect as the ‘`-d`’ command-line option: to make `ld` assign space to common symbols even if a relocatable output file is specified (‘`-r`’).

`INHIBIT_COMMON_ALLOCATION`

  This command has the same effect as the ‘`--no-define-common`’ command-line option: to make `ld` omit the assignment of addresses to common symbols even for a non-relocatable output file.

`INSERT [ AFTER | BEFORE ] output_section`

  This command is typically used in a script specified by ‘`-T`’ to augment the default `SECTIONS` with, for example, overlays. It inserts all prior linker script statements after (or before) output_section, and also causes ‘`-T`’ to not override the default linker script. The exact insertion point is as for orphan sections. See Location Counter. The insertion happens after the linker has mapped input sections to output sections. Prior to the insertion, since ‘`-T`’ scripts are parsed before the default linker script, statements in the ‘`-T`’ script occur before the default linker script statements in the internal linker representation of the script. In particular, input section assignments will be made to ‘`-T`’ output sections before those in the default script. Here is an example of how a ‘`-T`’ script using `INSERT` might look:

      SECTIONS
      {
        OVERLAY :
        {
          .ov1 { ov1*(.text) }
          .ov2 { ov2*(.text) }
        }
      }
      INSERT AFTER .text;

`NOCROSSREFS(section section …)`

  This command may be used to tell `ld` to issue an error about any references among certain output sections.

  In certain types of programs, particularly on embedded systems when using overlays, when one section is loaded into memory, another section will not be. Any direct references between the two sections would be errors. For example, it would be an error if code in one section called a function defined in the other section.

  The `NOCROSSREFS` command takes a list of output section names. If `ld` detects any cross references between the sections, it reports an error and returns a non-zero exit status. Note that the `NOCROSSREFS` command uses output section names, not input section names.

`OUTPUT_ARCH(bfdarch)`

  Specify a particular output machine architecture. The argument is one of the names used by the BFD library (see BFD). You can see the architecture of an object file by using the `objdump` program with the ‘`-f`’ option.

`LD_FEATURE(string)`

  This command may be used to modify `ld` behavior. If string is `"SANE_EXPR"` then absolute symbols and numbers in a script are simply treated as numbers everywhere. See Expression Section.

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