2.17.2 Adding symbols to the hash table

The linker proper will call the _bfd_link_add_symbols entry point for each object file or archive which is to be linked (typically these are the files named on the command line, but some may also come from the linker script). The entry point is responsible for examining the file. For an object file, BFD must add any relevant symbol information to the hash table. For an archive, BFD must determine which elements of the archive should be used and adding them to the link.

The a.out version of this entry point is NAME(aout,link_add_symbols).