Syntax

              .clink["section name"]

Description

The .clink directive enables conditional linking by telling the linker to leave a section out of the final object module output of the linker if there are no references found to any symbol in that section. The .clink directive can be applied to initialized sections.

The .clink directive applies to the current initialized section. It tells the linker to leave the section out of the final object module output of the linker if there are no references found in a linked section to any symbol defined in the specified section.

The .clink directive is useful only with the COFF object file format. Under the COFF ABI model, the linker assumes that all sections are ineligible for removal via conditional linking by default. If you want to make a section eligible for removal, you must apply a .clink directive to it. In contrast, under the ELF EABI model, the linker assumes that all sections are eligible for removal via conditional linking. Therefore, the .clink directive has no effect under EABI.

A section in which the entry point of a C program is defined cannot be marked as a conditionally linked section.

Example

In this example, the Vars and Counts sections are set for conditional linking.

       1 000000               .sect   "Vars"
       2              ; Vars section is conditionally linked
       3                      .clink
       4              
       5 000000 001A  X:      .long   01Ah
         000001 0000 
       6 000002 001A  Y:      .word   01Ah
       7 000003 001A  Z:      .word   01Ah
       8              ; Counts section is conditionally linked
       9                      .clink
      10              
      11 000004 001A  XCount: .word   01Ah
      12 000005 001A  YCount: .word   01Ah
      13 000006 001A  ZCount: .word   01Ah
      14              ; By default, .text in unconditionally linked
      15 000000               .text
      16              
      17 000000 97C6          MOV     *XAR6, AH
      18              ; These references to symbol X cause the Vars
      19              ; section to be linked into the COFF output
      20 000001 8500+         MOV     ACC, @X
      21 000002 3100          MOV     P, #0
      22 000003 0FAB          CMPL    ACC, P