a stripped binary is produced with binutils-2.14

[sezero]

As the title says. And no, I don't use -s on the gcc link command line.

This doesn't happen with binutils-2.9.1.

[cahirwpz]

I cannot reproduce the problem. Without -s flag the file should contain information about symbols and in fact it does:

/* test.c */
int a;
char *str = "universe";

int foobar() {
  return 42;
}

int main() {
  return foobar();
}

# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -Wl,-v -O2 -o test test.c
collect2 version 2.95.3 20010315 (release) (68k, MIT syntax)
/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/bin/ld -L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib -fl libnix -o test /Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib/libnix/ncrt0.o -L/Users/cahir/Amiga/lib/gcc-lib/m68k-amigaos/2.95.3 -L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/lib -v /var/folders/9h/n58bx40n61b5jvxs1clytv140000gn/T/ccKgxXxb.o -lnixmain -lnix -lnix -lamiga -lstubs -lgcc -lnix -lnix
GNU ld version 2.14 20030612 (adtools build 20080628)

# m68k-amigaos-nm test
...
00000028 B _a
000000d6 T _foobar
000000ca T _geta4
000000e0 T _main
0000005c D _str

When I repeat the whole experiment with -s flag the file is indeed stripped:

# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -s -o test test.c
# m68k-amigaos-nm test
m68k-amigaos-nm: test: no symbols

[sezero]

The file lengths of original binary and the output from strip -S
are the same for me, which is 2808 bytes for the above test case.
With binutils-2.9.1, it is 5172 bytes before strip, and 2080 bytes
after strip -S.

[cahirwpz]

That's correct and expected behaviour in case of capital -S vs. small -s option. It does strip debug info but not symbol table:

# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -g -o test test.c
# ls -l test
...  5964 ...
# m68k-amigaos-strip -S test
# ls -l test
...  2808 ...
# m68k-amigaos-strip -s test
# ls -l test
... 1984 ...

[sezero]

is it expected behavior to discard the debug info without -s on the
gcc link command line?

[cahirwpz]

AFAIK it's expected behaviour for gcc not to generate debug information without explicit request with -g option. According to gcc documentation chapter Options for Debugging Your Program:

-g Produce debugging information in the operating system's native format.

In our case it's STABS format.

EDIT: I might have misunderstood your last question.

[sezero]

... without explicit request with -g ...

Yes yes, I do generate by objects with -g, and linkage keeps discarding the dgb info.

[cahirwpz]

I checked the behaviour with Linux box:

# gcc -g -c -o test.o test.c
# gcc -o test.1 test.o
# gcc -g -o test.2 test.o

Both files test.1 and test.2 are the same.

And repeated the expriment with m68k-amigaos toolchain:

# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -g -c -o test.o test.c
# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -g -o test.1 test.o
# m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -o test.2 test.o

Indeed file test.2 was stripped of debug information.

So finally, we have a clear problem statement ;-)

[sezero]

OK :)

[cahirwpz]

Let's have a look at what gcc compiler driver does when test.1 and test.2 are produced:

m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -Wl,-v -o test.1 test.o

/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/bin/ld -L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib
-fl libnix -o test.1 /Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib/libnix/ncrt0.o
-L/Users/cahir/Amiga/lib/gcc-lib/m68k-amigaos/2.95.3
-L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/lib
-v test.o -lnixmain -lnix -lnix -lamiga -lstubs -lgcc -lnix -lnix

m68k-amigaos-gcc -mcrt=nix -O2 -Wl,-v -g -o test.2 test.o

/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/bin/ld -L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib
-fl libnix -amiga-debug-hunk -o test.2 /Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/libnix/lib/libnix/ncrt0.o
-L/Users/cahir/Amiga/lib/gcc-lib/m68k-amigaos/2.95.3
-L/Users/cahir/Amiga/m68k-amigaos/lib
-v test.o -lnixmain -lnix -lnix -lamiga -lstubs -lgcc -lnix -lnix

So apparently there's a difference how -amiga-debug-hunk option is handled by ld in 2.9.1 and 2.14.

@sezero Could you investigate that?

EDIT: What is -amiga-debug-hunk option supposed to do?

[sezero]

Ok, -amiga-debug-hunk sets write_debug_hunk to 1.

ld/emultempl/amiga.em, parse_args():

    case OPTION_AMIGA_DEBUG:
      write_debug_hunk=1; /* Write out debug hunk */
      break;

2.9.1, bfd/amigaoslink.c:

int write_debug_hunk = 0;

Note that this is 1 instead of 0 in 2.14,
but its amiga.em:before_parse() sets it to 0,
so no difference there.

2.9.1, bfd/amigaos.c, amiga_write_object_contents():

  if (amiga_data->IsLoadFile /* && write_debug_hunk */ )

However, in 2.14, the write_debug_hunk check is NOT
commented out: that's the reason 2.14 discards the
debug info when run gcc is without -g for linkage..

[sezero]

Seems like that change happened with commit d6af3b0 (2006, 16 Mar.)

[sezero]

PING ?