DLL Programmer's Guide for TNS/E Systems

Essential DLL Facility Controls

DLL Programmer’s Guide for TNS/E Systems—527252-006

2-7

Specifying Which Inputs Go into a Link

Primary inputs to a link are the individual linkfiles inserted by name in the command

stream. Other linkfiles can come from archives that are inserted in the command

stream; an archive is a file that contains one or more linkfiles. Input linkfiles are merged

in the link process to form the output loadfile. Other inputs to a link are libraries that the

output loadfile references directly or indirectly. The following subsections describe each

of these inputs in detail.

Linkfile Inputs

The linker’s main purpose is to combine linkfiles to produce a loadfile. You must insert

directly in the command stream the name of the linkfiles that are the primary inputs to

the link. The names of these linkfile inputs can be unqualified if the linkfile is in the

same subvolume or directory from which you invoke the linker or else they must be

fully qualified file names; they cannot be part of any option. These names can be

inserted anywhere as long as they do not separate another option from its parameters.

The linker always resolves symbol references in linkfiles being linked with symbol

definitions those linkfiles themselves provide. In particular, if a loadfile refers to a

symbol that it also exports, the linker binds that reference to that loadfile’s definition. If

the loadfile is localized, which the linker assigns by default, then at load time, the

loader will accept this resolution. If the loadfile is not localized, the loader may revise

the linker’s resolution, as discussed in Ambiguity Example 2 on page 4-9.

Selecting Linkfiles from Archives

Like named linkfiles, by inserting their qualified names, you can specify archives for the

linker to access. To learn how the linker searches for an archive, see Specifying Where

the Linker Can Find Its Inputs on page 2-9. Two options allow you to select which

linkfiles are brought into the link from an open archive:

Specify the name of the file in which to

store the result

Assign the file name with a -o option

Name the resulting DLL differently from

the output file

Assign the DLL name with the -dllname

option and the file name with a -o option.

Simultaneously give the same name to

the output DLL and the file it is stored in

Assign the name with a -o option and do not

use a -dllname option, or vice versa.

Linkfiles to Bring into the Link Option

Bring in all linkfiles in this archive. -all or the synonym -

include_whole

Bring in only those linkfiles that resolve

currently unresolved symbols.

-none or the synonym

-no_include_whole

To: Action: