HP eld Manual page 83

Other eld Processing Additional rules about -alf
Searches performed by the -alf option must always find DLLs rather than archives,
as if -b dllsonly had been specified. It is not possible to specify any -b options
with -alf.
The -alf option supports the -allow_missing_libs option. If a DLL that is listed
in the .liblist section cannot be found, the .liblist entry is left alone.
When the -alf option is operating on a program, it uses the user library the same as
when the linker created the program. By default, the library name stored within the file
is used for the filename of the user library. Or, the -local_libname option can be
specified with -alf, to override the name found within the file (this does not change
the filename that is stored in the file). The -set libname option cannot be specified
with -alf.
Note that the -alf option uses whatever user library name is currently within the file,
or specified by the -local_libname option. It isn't necessarily the same as the one
that was there when the file was previously preset.
The -change libname option cannot be specified with -alf. If desired, one linker
invocation could be used to change the name stored within the program, by specifying
-change libname, and then a separate linker invocation could give the -alf
option.
If a program specifies the name of a user library, and the -local_libname option is
not used, then on the PC this always means that the linker can't find the user library. If
the linker doesn't have a name for the user library, or, on any platform, if it can't open
such a file, it is treated like a missing DLL, the same as when a program is created. If
the -local_libname option is used, and the program doesn't mention any user
library name, that is an error.
By default, the -alf option considers it an error if the loadfile has any relocation sites
in the text segment, which would indicate non-PIC code. However, if the
-update_code option is specified, the -alf option does not consider this an error,
and it updates those relocation sites. The only relocation sites updated in the text
segment are 64-bit addresses of symbols found in the same DLL, which need to be
updated what that DLL is rebased, and is an error if the -update_code option is
specified when the -alf option is updating a program rather than a DLL.
By default, the way the -alf option treats unresolved references depends on the
value of the runtime_unres_checking bits of the .tandem_info section of the loadfile.
Note that, unlike the case of creating a loadfile, the default does not depend on
whether the public DLL registry was found. This can be overridden by specifying the -
unres_symbols option with the desired parameter value. When -unres_symbols
option is specified with -alf, the runtime_unres_checking bits of the .tandem_info
section are unchanged. The -change option can be used (in a separate run of the
linker) to change those bits within the file.
The meanings of the three choices for how unresolved references are handled is the
same for the -alf option as when the object file is first linked, except that the
decision as to whether an unresolved symbol is expected to be code or data is made
eld Manual—527255-009
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