<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Bug Criteria - 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="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" title="Reporting Bugs"> <link rel="next" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" title="Bug Reporting"> <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="Bug-Criteria"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a> <hr> </div> <h3 class="section">6.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3> <p><a name="index-bug-criteria-753"></a> If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: <a name="index-fatal-signal-754"></a> <a name="index-linker-crash-755"></a> <a name="index-crash-of-linker-756"></a> <ul><li>If the linker gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> bug. Reliable linkers never crash. <p><a name="index-error-on-valid-input-757"></a><li>If <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. <p><a name="index-invalid-input-758"></a><li>If <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> does not produce an error message for invalid input, that may be a bug. In the general case, the linker can not verify that object files are correct. <li>If you are an experienced user of linkers, your suggestions for improvement of <samp><span class="command">ld</span></samp> are welcome in any case. </ul> </body></html>