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eld should be reporting its own name/info in --version output #138
Description
Currently, eld's --version doesn't actually output anything saying that it is eld. Currently it looks something like below:
$ ld.eld --version
Supported Targets: arm aarch64 riscv x86_64
Linker from <vendor name> Version 21.0.0
Linker based on LLVM version: 21.0
Linker Plugin Support Enabled
Linker Plugin Interface Version 4.0
LTO Support Enabled
I think this is a problem as parsing --version output in build systems to detect the tool in use seems to be a fairly common occurrence and, in eld's case, there isn't anything particularly obvious to parse against. Especially worrying about this is that people might grab vendor specific information to detect a "generic" eld--see meson for example where I think this has happened already: https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/blob/4a57a5fd0cdd5064a03566f40b61c827f27ea529/mesonbuild/linkers/detect.py#L169-L171
Granted, people could check against something like "Linker" and "LLVM", but given that these are so generic I don't think that's a great direction to steer people. I think it makes most sense to just to report "eld" or "ELD" somewhere in the --version output to give something clear to parse.
Activity
quic-seaswara commentedon Jun 9, 2025
i agree having eld in the version output will allow scripts to parse that the linker being used is eld.
jonathonpenix commentedon Jun 9, 2025
I think this might have come up in the past, but would it be worth also establishing an eld-specific version while we're here? Or should build systems be looking at the associated LLVM version?
quic-seaswara commentedon Jun 9, 2025
How does this sound ?
jonathonpenix commentedon Jun 9, 2025
Seems reasonable to me. FWIW, I don't mind the extra
Linker from <vendor name> Version 21.0.0 \ Linker based on LLVM version: 21.0 \ Linker Plugin Support Enabled \ Linker Plugin Interface Version 4.0 \ LTO Support Enabledinfo being present if theeld <version> (GNU compatible linker)is firstquic-seaswara commentedon Jun 9, 2025
I will add an --about or --info option if we want more details about the linker
eld should report version information