RE: partial linking

[Пухальский Юрий Андреевич]

Is partial linking a documented libtool feature?  If not, how can 
failure to support partial linking be considered a bug?
It appears to be documented under "mode=link":
"If output-file ends in `.o' or `.lo', then a reloadable object file is created 
from the input files (generally using `ld -r'). This method is often called 
partial linking".

Another question concerning this. It appears, that we can make partially linked 
module only from pic objects. Does it always need to be so? I barely understand 
what pic means, but I've used partial linking of non-pic objects and it 
apparently worked. Or are there certain restrictions on files we partially link?