Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!FIRTH@TL-20B.ARPA From: FIRTH@TL-20B.ARPA Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: \"ld\" and \".a\" files Message-ID: <7335@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Mon, 14-Jan-85 21:26:57 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7335 Posted: Mon Jan 14 21:26:57 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Jan-85 01:48:04 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 16 We are using BSD 4.2 Unix. The manual for the linker "ld" says that the program will search archive ".a" files for previously undefined global symbols, and will include any ROUTINES that define such symbols. After finding strange anomalies, I eventually looked at the code. The conclusion I reached (with some difficulty, since the relevant programs "ar" and "ranlib" are almost totally devoid of commentary) is that "ld" in fact loads not the routine but the FILE containing the definition of the global symbol. Is this the intended behaviour, and should I change the manual? Or is it a bug, and, if so, does anyone have a fix? Robert Firth -------