>Number:         7672
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       annoying and unnecessary linker "warnings"
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people (Utility Bug People)
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun May 30 12:50:01 1999
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Greg A. Woods
>Organization:
Planix, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario; Canada
>Release:        1.3I & 1.4 i386
>Environment:

System: NetBSD 1.3I i386
Compiler: gcc version 2.7.2.2+myc2

System: NetBSD 1.4 i386
Compiler: gcc version egcs-2.91.60 19981201 (egcs-1.1.1 release)

>Description:

	The NetBSD linker has been configured to give helpful warnings
	to the programmer, such as:

walk.o: warning: reference to compatibility glob(); include <glob.h> for correct reference

	Unfortunately this warning is totally wrong in this case because
	glob() is being defined by the program itself (in another source
	file) and no reference is ever made to the glob() in the system
	libraries.

>How-To-Repeat:

	compile the following two files and link the resulting objects
	together:

	---------- glob.c ----------
	int glob(int foo)
	{
		return foo;
	}
	---------- end ----------

	---------- main.c ----------
	int	glob(int);

	int main()
	{
		glob(1);
	}
	---------- end ----------

14:16 [189] $ cc main.c glob.c   
/tmp/ccOuRD9q.o: warning: reference to compatibility glob(); include <glob.h> for correct reference

>Fix:

	fix the linker to only utter such warnings if the system
	supplied functions are actually used to fulfil the references.

	I thought it worked this way already, but obviously it
	doesn't....

	It is interesting to note that if the application's function
	definition (not just declaration) occurs within the same source
	file, even without a "static" qualifier, no warning is issued.

	It does not happen on 1.3.3 i386 or 1.3.2 sparc either...

	BTW, is there some way to have the linker warn about globals
	that have been seen either in objects or previous libraries and
	which are also found in later libraries?
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: