String table compression is provided by the link-editor. This can result in reduced .dynstr and .strtab sections. This default processing can be disabled using the link-editor's -z nocompstrtab option. See String Table Compression.
The -z ignore option has been extended to eliminate unreferenced sections during a link-edit. See Remove Unused Material.
Unreferenced dependencies can be determined using ldd(1). See the -U option.
Support for extended ELF sections is provided by the link-editors. See ELF Header, Table 7–12, Sections, Table 7–17 and Symbol Table.
Greater flexibility in defining a symbols visibility is provided with the protected mapfile directive. See Defining Additional Symbols.