Re: ld fails to link if library order is reversed

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Nilmoni Deb <address@hidden> writes:

> > This is correct and documented behaviour.  All Unix linkers behave
> > this way.
> 
> In other words, its a feature, not a bug. It seems that the ICC (intel
> cc) on linux does not have this feature.

Really?  I haven't tried it myself.

> Just wondering why not looking backwards (for ld) is considered desirable.

1) It's traditional Unix behaviour, so changing it will break some
   programs.

2) It is more efficient, as the linker can just walk through an
   archive's symbol table, include all required objects, and then move
   on.

You may want to look at the --start-group --end-group options.

Ian