7.4. Vague Linkage
There are several constructs in C++ which require space in the object
file but are not clearly tied to a single translation unit. We say that
these constructs have "vague linkage". Typically such constructs are
emitted wherever they are needed, though sometimes we can be more
clever.
- Inline Functions
Inline functions are typically defined in a header file which can be
included in many different compilations. Hopefully they can usually be
inlined, but sometimes an out-of-line copy is necessary, if the address
of the function is taken or if inlining fails. In general, we emit an
out-of-line copy in all translation units where one is needed. As an
exception, we only emit inline virtual functions with the vtable, since
it will always require a copy.
Local static variables and string constants used in an inline function
are also considered to have vague linkage, since they must be shared
between all inlined and out-of-line instances of the function.
- VTables
C++ virtual functions are implemented in most compilers using a lookup
table, known as a vtable. The vtable contains pointers to the virtual
functions provided by a class, and each object of the class contains a
pointer to its vtable (or vtables, in some multiple-inheritance
situations). If the class declares any non-inline, non-pure virtual
functions, the first one is chosen as the "key method" for the class,
and the vtable is only emitted in the translation unit where the key
method is defined.
Note: If the chosen key method is later defined as inline, the
vtable will still be emitted in every translation unit which defines it.
Make sure that any inline virtuals are declared inline in the class
body, even if they are not defined there.
- type_info objects
C++ requires information about types to be written out in order to
implement dynamic_cast, typeid and exception handling.
For polymorphic classes (classes with virtual functions), the type_info
object is written out along with the vtable so that dynamic_cast
can determine the dynamic type of a class object at runtime. For all
other types, we write out the type_info object when it is used: when
applying typeid to an expression, throwing an object, or
referring to a type in a catch clause or exception specification.
- Template Instantiations
Most everything in this section also applies to template instantiations,
but there are other options as well.
Section 7.6 Where's the Template?.
When used with GNU ld version 2.8 or later on an ELF system such as
GNU/Linux, duplicate copies of
these constructs will be discarded at link time. This is known as
COMDAT support.
On targets that don't support COMDAT, but do support weak symbols, GCC
will use them. This way one copy will override all the others, but
the unused copies will still take up space in the executable.
For targets which do not support either COMDAT or weak symbols,
most entities with vague linkage will be emitted as local symbols to
avoid duplicate definition errors from the linker. This will not happen
for local statics in inlines, however, as having multiple copies will
almost certainly break things.
Section 7.5 #pragma interface and implementation, for
another way to control placement of these constructs.
