<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Input Section Keep - Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Untitled"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Input-Section.html#Input-Section" title="Input Section"> <link rel="prev" href="Input-Section-Common.html#Input-Section-Common" title="Input Section Common"> <link rel="next" href="Input-Section-Example.html#Input-Section-Example" title="Input Section Example"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- This file documents the GNU linker LD (GNU Binutils) version 2.26. Copyright (C) 1991-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.--> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Input-Section-Keep"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Input-Section-Example.html#Input-Section-Example">Input Section Example</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Input-Section-Common.html#Input-Section-Common">Input Section Common</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Input-Section.html#Input-Section">Input Section</a> <hr> </div> <h5 class="subsubsection">3.6.4.4 Input Section and Garbage Collection</h5> <p><a name="index-KEEP-445"></a><a name="index-garbage-collection-446"></a>When link-time garbage collection is in use (‘<samp><span class="samp">--gc-sections</span></samp>’), it is often useful to mark sections that should not be eliminated. This is accomplished by surrounding an input section's wildcard entry with <code>KEEP()</code>, as in <code>KEEP(*(.init))</code> or <code>KEEP(SORT_BY_NAME(*)(.ctors))</code>. </body></html>