How to use the INCLUDE command in ld linker script

Question

I have two linker scripts: common.ld which defines some symbols, and app.ld which positions the sections, using these defines.

If I just cat the two files together, and feed that to ld (via gcc), it works. If I use the INCLUDE command:

INCLUDE common.ld

I get the error:

ld.exe: invalid syntax in flags

collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

What do I do wrong? What is a correct statement to include another load script?

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From http://www.scoberlin.de/content/media/http/informatik/gcc_docs/ld_3.html#IDX204 :

INCLUDE filename

Include the linker script filename at this point. The file will be searched for in the current directory, and in any directory specified with the -L option. You can nest calls to INCLUDE up to 10 levels deep.

Note: I'm running this on a Windows 7 PC, using arm gcc tools from Code Red, full version:

arm-none-eabi-gcc (GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors) 4.6.2 20121016 (release) [ARM/embedded-4_6-branch revision 192487

Answer 1

This one is interesting. Apparently there is a bug in the ld command file lexer. I'm using binutils version 2.24 and had the same problem. One of your included files has a MEMORY command something like

MEMORY
{
  rom (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x00000000, LENGTH = 64M
  ram (!rx) : ORIGIN = 0x48000000, LENGTH = 32M
}

I think (but haven't proven) that the lexer is returning "!rx" instead of "rx" for the second attribute in an included file. Changing the MEMORY command to

MEMORY
{
  rom (rx) : ORIGIN = 0x00000000, LENGTH = 64M
  ram (! rx) : ORIGIN = 0x48000000, LENGTH = 32M
}

fixes the problem. I looked at ldlex.l and ldgram.y in the ld sources but couldn't find an obvious error before my eyes started to hurt.

Bug report: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=17900

Answer 2

The include syntax should be correct, INCLUDE common.ld works fine here.

Maybe the Windows version of ld had a bug, or maybe there was something wrong with either one of your linker scripts or the environment?

Answer 3

I update my toolchain from arm_eabi-2011.03 to arm-2012.09. then problem appeared. I have to copy the INCLUDEd file to my link script, in order to avoid the "flag" issue.

I wonder how could a new version of toolchain ruined older version functions?