Michael Eager wrote: > Arguably, the linker should know > that add is not referenced and could remove it, but linkers are not > usually able to slice and dice object files. You address this limitation by compiling with "-ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -Wl,--gc-sections". However, it's still better to use "static" on these kinds of local functions that are only used from the same .o file. This has a number of benefits: - it ensures that internal functions of a library are not exported for use by other code when they are not part of the defined ABI/API - it prevents them from taking up needless relocations, which can slow linking - when compiled -fpic (as in a shared library) it allows for direct calls to the function instead of having to go through the PLT which is slower - it allows the compiler freedom to inline Brian
