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| Next: <a href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="n" rel="next">Reporting Bugs</a>, Previous: <a href="Machine-Dependent.html#Machine-Dependent" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Machine Dependent</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> |
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| <a name="BFD-1"></a> |
| <h2 class="chapter">5 BFD</h2> |
| |
| <a name="index-back-end"></a> |
| <a name="index-object-file-management"></a> |
| <a name="index-object-formats-available"></a> |
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| <p>The linker accesses object and archive files using the BFD libraries. |
| These libraries allow the linker to use the same routines to operate on |
| object files whatever the object file format. A different object file |
| format can be supported simply by creating a new BFD back end and adding |
| it to the library. To conserve runtime memory, however, the linker and |
| associated tools are usually configured to support only a subset of the |
| object file formats available. You can use <code>objdump -i</code> |
| (see <a href="http://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/binutils/objdump.html#objdump">objdump</a> in <cite>The GNU Binary Utilities</cite>) to |
| list all the formats available for your configuration. |
| </p> |
| <a name="index-BFD-requirements"></a> |
| <a name="index-requirements-for-BFD"></a> |
| <p>As with most implementations, BFD is a compromise between |
| several conflicting requirements. The major factor influencing |
| BFD design was efficiency: any time used converting between |
| formats is time which would not have been spent had BFD not |
| been involved. This is partly offset by abstraction payback; since |
| BFD simplifies applications and back ends, more time and care |
| may be spent optimizing algorithms for a greater speed. |
| </p> |
| <p>One minor artifact of the BFD solution which you should bear in |
| mind is the potential for information loss. There are two places where |
| useful information can be lost using the BFD mechanism: during |
| conversion and during output. See <a href="BFD-information-loss.html#BFD-information-loss">BFD information loss</a>. |
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| <table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0"> |
| <tr><td align="left" valign="top">• <a href="BFD-outline.html#BFD-outline" accesskey="1">BFD outline</a>:</td><td> </td><td align="left" valign="top">How it works: an outline of BFD |
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