[U-Boot] [PATCH v4] Switch from archive libraries to partial linking

[Detlev Zundel]

Hi Mike,

> On Tuesday, November 16, 2010 09:58:48 Detlev Zundel wrote:
>> > On Monday, November 15, 2010 07:13:03 Sebastien Carlier wrote:
>> >> On 2010-11-15 11:54:07, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
>> >> > I notice that the patch affects the size of the resulting U-Boot
>> >> > images.
>> >> > 
>> >> > For example:
>> >> > 
>> >> > Configuring for MiniFAP - Board: TQM5200, Options: MINIFAP
>> >> > 
>> >> >    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>> >> >  
>> >> >  358144   35208  303248  696600   aa118 ./u-boot	before
>> >> >  361340   35824  303332  700496   ab050 ./u-boot	after
>> >> > 
>> >> > -------------------------------
>> >> > 
>> >> > 		Delta:   +3896 Bytes
>> >> > 
>> >> > For other boards it's only a few hundred bytes, but why do we see
>> >> > such big increase here?
>> >> 
>> >> In this case, these libraries contribute 3260 bytes in unused
>> >> definitions:
>> >> 
>> >> In each case, a whole object file contains exactly the unused
>> >> definitions, and could be excluded in the respective Makefile.
>> > 
>> > or just use -ffunction-sections/-fdata-sections/-Wl,--gc-sections and
>> > dont worry about it.  which is what we do for the Blackfin port.
>> 
>> If you do worry, you can use the "--gc-sections" together with
>> "--print-gc-sections" to actually find out what is unused[1].
>
> the u-boot.map also mentions which input sections are discarded without 
> needing --print-gc-sections ...

Intersting, I didn't realize this.  Thanks!
  Detlev

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