<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="8">
    <tr>
        <th>Issue</th>
        <td>
            <a href=https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/119179>119179</a>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <th>Summary</th>
        <td>
            [Clang-CL] Should -Xlinker be allowed for Clang-CL?
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <th>Labels</th>
      <td>
            clang-cl
      </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <th>Assignees</th>
      <td>
      </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <th>Reporter</th>
      <td>
          Maetveis
      </td>
    </tr>
</table>

<pre>
    Recently while exposing more options to the Fortran `flang` driver, some options were accidentally exposed to `clang-cl` too. Among them is `-Xlinker` to pass an argument to the linker, allowing granular control over the linker command line. 

There are potential users for this flag, for example CMake has expressed a desire to have something like this:

> MSVC cl doesn't support driving the linker, or at least didn't when all this was developed. EDIT: at least not with sufficient control of the linker command line.

(https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/24243#note_1289518)

@HaohaiWen reports that since the accidental introduction to trunk they already use of the flag. Could you maybe explain how you use it?

In #118640, I'm looking to disable the accidentally exposed flags, but due to being potentially useful, and the fact that there are no known users I've left `-Xlinker` available to `clang-cl`.

Should we keep this flag exposed? If yes we should have a test that uses it through `clang-cl`, which we lack currently. @HaohaiWen maybe you'd be willing to add one, given you are interested in keeping it working :^).
</pre>
<img width="1px" height="1px" alt="" src="http://email.email.llvm.org/o/eJx0VE2P6zYM_DXKhdjAlvN58GGb3aALdC99D21vBW0xthpZNPQRv_z7QrL3o1u8UxCDQw5nhkLvdWeJarH9RWyfVhhDz65-RQo30n7VsLrXv1NLNpg7TL02BPRjZK9tBwM7Ah6DZushMISe4MwuOLQgdsXFoO3ErgDl9I2ckCfwPHwgJnIE2LZakQ1ozH3uTCr1EruiTfiH1qQWgXkNjwPbLk0ZQPtU8fCX0fZKbq6AEb0HtICuiwPZ8MZpKZInQGN4StQ7hzYadNCyDY4N8I3cp2JoeRjQqvSX1iCKR1E8fu8zY0cwciAbNBqInpyHCyew9nAx2KVB6QP9wGE0BKdXvBL06NN-jnzaEEGR144SxR5vlJUJfaJm9JVyM1E9znNF9Qyv3_44QWtAMXkr5D6Aj-PILmR19azLp03ZAQYwhD6A0mqGTD3ZpMHMdUIPim5keCS1huenl--ievyAWQ4w6dCDj5eLbnVS9F2uy0_FWjjLQx_CmJeQZyHPnQ4Gm_VVhwkdrVsehDy3A17p0--DkGftfSQv5Flu5KYSsrIc6O9SHo7b8iDkcem_KX5F7lH_SRYcJSU8hB4DeG1byuw-sgU60VaxTcnLsXDRXlPRHdA4QnVPTr6tlVxcw4mjUXDnCAPem5x7g9pCz1P-mgA6iOo8M3qxIGRVlofdpkgOvAi5H8AwX7M7DEp7bMxXap9in8b6BG1iABVzOBpK6Pe8mczzEk1Os1UzXWzDvHt4T6hluFqe7BLQROZGYOgSvh4O3lCbmdjXs1u8_NZnJSaCK9H4EfQ34qI6w8sF7pRuGvxcnVONEMgv3KInDzr9cRy7_suotM_U67ZPLQy2V2ijc_nZWcN_zJ7NuHMUcq-gIZi0MYvEqBSwpdSs0zey2ackh7aBHPlACrTNaySEDjCxy_6knG6fhTyuV6qu1LE64orqcl9V-0pui2rV181B7opmW8nqQHjYqeZSqGpflsfDscWy3a10LQu5KWVxLA6y3FTrbXlQjdzviaq22pAUm4IG1GZtzG1Ys-tWOex1WR7L_XFlsCHj81Ms5bs2UqaH2dUJ89DEzotNYbQP_qNL0MHkJ_yUQaffxPYJFtferE5K5ecvBY0dvJdW51V0pv7ftfaxWa40zVl-HkbH_1AbPt_pwv5Wy38DAAD__99vIDc">