SLAU131V October 2004 – February 2020
The --scan_libraries option scans all libraries during a link looking for duplicate symbol definitions to those symbols that are actually included in the link. The scan does not consider absolute symbols or symbols defined in COMDAT sections. The --scan_libraries option helps determine those symbols that were actually chosen by the linker over other existing definitions of the same symbol in a library.
The library scanning feature can be used to check against unintended resolution of a symbol reference to a definition when multiple definitions are available in the libraries.