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 - <title>Output Section Discarding (LD)</title>
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 - <a name="Output-Section-Discarding"></a>
 - <div class="header">
 - <p>
 - Next: <a href="Output-Section-Attributes.html#Output-Section-Attributes" accesskey="n" rel="next">Output Section Attributes</a>, Previous: <a href="Output-Section-Keywords.html#Output-Section-Keywords" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Output Section Keywords</a>, Up: <a href="SECTIONS.html#SECTIONS" accesskey="u" rel="up">SECTIONS</a>   [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
 - </div>
 - <hr>
 - <a name="Output-Section-Discarding-1"></a>
 - <h4 class="subsection">3.6.7 Output Section Discarding</h4>
 - <a name="index-discarding-sections"></a>
 - <a name="index-sections_002c-discarding"></a>
 - <a name="index-removing-sections"></a>
 - <p>The linker will not normally create output sections with no contents.
 - This is for convenience when referring to input sections that may or
 - may not be present in any of the input files.  For example:
 - </p><div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">.foo : { *(.foo) }
 - </pre></div>
 - <p>will only create a ‘<samp>.foo</samp>’ section in the output file if there is a
 - ‘<samp>.foo</samp>’ section in at least one input file, and if the input
 - sections are not all empty.  Other link script directives that allocate
 - space in an output section will also create the output section.  So
 - too will assignments to dot even if the assignment does not create
 - space, except for ‘<samp>. = 0</samp>’, ‘<samp>. = . + 0</samp>’, ‘<samp>. = sym</samp>’,
 - ‘<samp>. = . + sym</samp>’ and ‘<samp>. = ALIGN (. != 0, expr, 1)</samp>’ when
 - ‘<samp>sym</samp>’ is an absolute symbol of value 0 defined in the script.
 - This allows you to force output of an empty section with ‘<samp>. = .</samp>’.
 - </p>
 - <p>The linker will ignore address assignments (see <a href="Output-Section-Address.html#Output-Section-Address">Output Section Address</a>)
 - on discarded output sections, except when the linker script defines
 - symbols in the output section.  In that case the linker will obey
 - the address assignments, possibly advancing dot even though the
 - section is discarded.
 - </p>
 - <a name="index-_002fDISCARD_002f"></a>
 - <p>The special output section name ‘<samp>/DISCARD/</samp>’ may be used to discard
 - input sections.  Any input sections which are assigned to an output
 - section named ‘<samp>/DISCARD/</samp>’ are not included in the output file.
 - </p>
 - <p>Note, sections that match the ‘<samp>/DISCARD/</samp>’ output section will be
 - discarded even if they are in an ELF section group which has other
 - members which are not being discarded.  This is deliberate.
 - Discarding takes precedence over grouping.
 - </p>
 - <hr>
 - <div class="header">
 - <p>
 - Next: <a href="Output-Section-Attributes.html#Output-Section-Attributes" accesskey="n" rel="next">Output Section Attributes</a>, Previous: <a href="Output-Section-Keywords.html#Output-Section-Keywords" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Output Section Keywords</a>, Up: <a href="SECTIONS.html#SECTIONS" accesskey="u" rel="up">SECTIONS</a>   [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="LD-Index.html#LD-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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