Removing Unused Files
An input relocatable object file is determined to be unused if all allocatable sections provided by the relocatable object are unused.
Unused files are diagnosed with the -z guidance
option, and
can be discarded from the link-edit by using the
-z discard-unused=files
option.
The -z discard-unused
option provides independent control
over unused sections and unused files in order to compliment
-z guidance
processing. Under
-z guidance
, files that are determined to be unused are
identified. Unused files can often easily be removed from a link-edit. However,
sections that are determined to be unused are not identified under
-z guidance
processing. Unused sections can involve much
more investigation and effort to remove and can be a consequence of compiler actions
that are beyond your control.
By using the -z discard-unused=sections
option together with
the -z guidance
option, unused sections are automatically
removed, while unused files are identified for you to remove from the
link-edit.