https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=28399
--- Comment #2 from hiraditya <hiraditya at msn dot com> --- > the format of the file it is a text file with line separated (mangled) symbol name. > nor what happens to symbols that are not in the file IIUC symbols that are in the file get preference over all other symbols > or symbols that are in the file but which do not appear in any of the input > files. Those symbols get ignored. And can be printed with -order_file_statistics flag > (Or what happens to weak symbols, or aliases or ...) I think the linker may print warning in case of duplicates. but it can take any conservative approach. I forgot to mention that MacOS linker also has similar functionality. Here is relevant output from `man ld` on Mac OS -order_file file Alters the order in which functions and data are laid out. For each section in the output file, any symbol in that section that are specified in the order file file is moved to the start of its section and laid out in the same order as in the order file file. Order files are text files with one symbol name per line. Lines starting with a # are comments. A symbol name may be optionally preceded with its object file leaf name and a colon (e.g. foo.o:_foo). This is useful for static functions/data that occur in multiple files. A symbol name may also be optionally preceded with the architecture (e.g. ppc:_foo or ppc:foo.o:_foo). This enables you to have one order file that works for multiple architectures. Literal c-strings may be ordered by by quoting the string (e.g. "Hello, world\n") in the order file. -no_order_inits When the -order_file option is not used, the linker lays out functions in object file order and it moves all initializer routines to the start of the __text section and terminator routines to the end. Use this option to disable the automatic rearrangement of initializers and terminators. -exported_symbols_order file When targeting Mac OS X 10.6 or later, the format of the exported symbol information can be optimized to make lookups of popular symbols faster. This option is used to pass a file containing a list of the sym- bols most frequently used by clients of the dynamic library being built. Not all exported symbols need to be listed. -order_file_statistics Logs information about the processing of a -order_file. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.