Overview of Incremental Linking

When ild is used in place of ld, the initial link causes the various text, data, bss, exception table sections, etc., to be padded with additional space for future expansion (see Figure B-1). Additionally, all relocation records and the global symbol table are saved into a new persistent state region in the executable file. On subsequent incremental links, ild uses timestamps to discover which object files have changed and patches the changed object code into a previously built executable. That is, previous versions of the object files are invalidated and the new object files are loaded into the space vacated, or into the pad sections of the executable when needed. All references to symbols in invalidated object files are patched to point to the correct new object files.

ild does not support all ld command options. If ild is passed a command option that it does not support (see "Notes"), ild directly invokes /usr/ccs/bin/ld to perform the link.