[LLVMdev] LLD use cases and design meeting and discussion

[Meador Inge]

On Sat, Jun 06, 2015 at 01:22:25PM -0700, Rick Mann wrote:

> I have a tiny bit of input, but I'm not sure this is the right
> discussion for it, so ignore me if it is not. Is LLD responsible
> for producing the final executable file, in whatever format (ELF,
> Mach-O, dylib, etc.)?

Yes.

> If so, one use I have is to produce "raw" executables. That is, I
> want to produce a file of bytes suitable for directly flashing onto
> tiny MCUs that execute code starting at the first byte in their flash.

With Binutils this is normally done use 'objcopy'.  AFAIK, LLVM does not
have an 'objcopy' equivalent yet.

> It may be this request is for such a fundamental feature that it's
> pedantic to request it, and if so, please ignore me. But this seems
> to be a missing link in clang/LLVM that was only filled with binutils.
> Will I be able to get away from binutils altogether with LLD?

LLD should eventually cover the GNU LD part (and more).  There are
several other "utils" they may not have an replacement:

  * http://marshall.calepin.co/binutils-replacements-for-llvm.html

Not sure how up to date that is.

> Perhaps I already can today?

Probably not, but I think that depends on what you are using from Binutils.

--
Meador Inge