In a few cases we link in library-like functions when they're not actually needed. While we could use Kconfig options for each one of them, I think the better approach for such generic code is to build it always (thus making sure a build issue can't be introduced for these in any however exotic configuration) and then put it into an archive, for the linker to pick up as needed. The series here presents a first few tiny steps towards such a goal.
Note that we can't use thin archives yet, due to our tool chain (binutils) baseline being too low. Further almost immediate steps I'd like to take if the approach meets no opposition are - split and move the rest of common/lib.c, - split and move common/string.c, dropping the need for all the __HAVE_ARCH_* (implying possible per-arch archives then need to be specified ahead of lib/lib.a on the linker command lines), - move common/libelf/ and common/libfdt/. v3 has a new 1st patch and some review feedback addressed. See individual patches. 1: xen: fix build when $(obj-y) consists of just blanks 2: lib: collect library files in an archive 3: lib: move list sorting code 4: lib: move parse_size_and_unit() 5: lib: move init_constructors() 6: lib: move rbtree code 7: lib: move bsearch code 8: lib: move sort code Jan
