PR ld/6430

* ld.texinfo (--sort-common): Correct documentation to indicate
   that sorting is performed by alignment, not size, biggest
   alignment first.

ld/ChangeLog

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2008-05-21  Evandro Menezes  <evandro@yahoo.com>
+
+	PR ld/6430
+	* ld.texinfo (--sort-common): Correct documentation to indicate
+	that sorting is performed by alignment, not size, biggest
+	alignment first.
+
 2008-05-21  Christophe Lyon  <christophe.lyon@st.com>
 	    Nick Clifton  <nickc@redhat.com>
 

ld/NEWS

@@ -298,9 +298,11 @@ Changes in version 2.7:
 Changes in version 2.6:
 
 * When an ELF section name is representable as a C identifier (this is not true
-of most ELF section names), the linker will automatically define symbols
-__start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the section name, at the
-beginning and the end of the section.  This is used by glibc.
+  of most ELF section names), *and* the section is not explicitly handled by
+  the linker script (ie it is an orphaned section) then the linker will
+  automatically PROVIDE symbols __start_SECNAME and __stop_SECNAME, where
+  SECNAME is the section name, at the beginning and the end of the section.
+  This is used by glibc.
 
 * When an ELF section named .gnu.warning is encountered in an input file, the
 contents of the section are displayed as an error message, and the section is

ld/ld.texinfo

@@ -1620,11 +1620,11 @@ undefined symbols in the link.
 
 @item --sort-common
 @kindex --sort-common
-This option tells @command{ld} to sort the common symbols by size when it
-places them in the appropriate output sections.  First come all the one
-byte symbols, then all the two byte, then all the four byte, and then
-everything else.  This is to prevent gaps between symbols due to
-alignment constraints.
+This option tells @command{ld} to sort the common symbols by alignment when
+it places them in the appropriate output sections.  First come all the
+sixteen-byte aligned symbols, then all the eight-byte, then all the
+four-byte, then all the two-byte, and then everything else.  This is to
+prevent gaps between symbols due to alignment constraints.
 
 @kindex --sort-section name
 @item --sort-section name
@@ -4706,6 +4706,14 @@ at the end of the file.
 For ELF targets, the attribute of the section includes section type as
 well as section flag.
 
+If an orphaned section's name is representable as a C identifier then
+the linker will automatically @xref{PROVIDE} two symbols:
+__start_SECNAME and __end_SECNAME, where SECNAME is the name of the
+section.  These indicate the start address and end address of the
+orphaned section respectively.  Note: most section names are not
+representable as C identifiers because they contain a @samp{.}
+character.
+
 @node Location Counter
 @subsection The Location Counter
 @kindex .