binutils/

200x-xx-xx  Phil Edwards  <phil@codesourcery.com>
	    Richard Sandiford  <richard@codesourcery.com>

	* NEWS: Mention addition of --extract-symbol.
	* doc/binutils.texi: Document it.
	* objcopy.c (extract_symbol): New variable.
	(OPTION_EXTRACT_SYMBOLS): New command_line_switch.
	(copy_options): Add an entry for --extract-symbol.
	(copy_usage): Mention --extract-symbol.
	(copy_object): Set the start address to zero for --extract-symbol.
	Do not copy private BFD data in that case.
	(setup_section): Set the size, LMA and VMA to zero for
	--extract-symbol.  Do not copy private BFD data in that case.
	(copy_section): Do not copy section contents if --extract-symbol
	is passed.
	(copy_main): Set extract_symbol to TRUE if --extract-symbol
	is passed.

ld/testsuite/
	* ld-elf/extract-symbol-1sym.d, ld-elf/extract-symbol-1sec.d,
	* ld-elf/extract-symbol-1.s, ld-elf/extract-symbol-1.ld: New tests.
	* ld-elf/binutils.exp: Run them.

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/binutils/doc/binutils.texi b/binutils/doc/binutils.texi
index 3751d04..1eb854e 100644
--- a/binutils/doc/binutils.texi
+++ b/binutils/doc/binutils.texi
@@ -996,6 +996,7 @@ objcopy [@option{-F} @var{bfdname}|@option{--target=}@var{bfdname}]
         [@option{--add-gnu-debuglink=}@var{path-to-file}]
         [@option{--keep-file-symbols}]
         [@option{--only-keep-debug}]
+        [@option{--extract-symbol}]
         [@option{--writable-text}]
         [@option{--readonly-text}]
         [@option{--pure}]
@@ -1489,6 +1490,21 @@ currently only supports the presence of one filename containing
 debugging information, not multiple filenames on a one-per-object-file
 basis.
 
+@item --extract-symbol
+Keep the file's section flags and symbols but remove all section data.
+Specifically, the option:
+
+@itemize
+@item sets the virtual and load addresses of every section to zero;
+@item removes the contents of all sections;
+@item sets the size of every section to zero; and
+@item sets the file's start address to zero.
+@end itemize
+ 
+This option is used to build a @file{.sym} file for a VxWorks kernel.
+It can also be a useful way of reducing the size of a @option{--just-symbols}
+linker input file.
+
 @item -V
 @itemx --version
 Show the version number of @command{objcopy}.