SLAU132V October 2004 – February 2020
With ELF conditional linking, all sections are considered eligible for removal through conditional linking, except the .reset section. Sections are not removed if they are referenced or if they are marked with the .retain directive.
A section that is never referenced by any other section in the program is removed from the program automatically, unless it is marked with .retain or is the .reset section. Conditional linking is disabled when performing a partial link or when relocation information is kept with the output of the link.