<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Bug Criteria - Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Untitled"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.7"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" title="Reporting Bugs"> <link rel="next" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" title="Bug Reporting"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- This file documents the GNU linker LD (GNU Binutils) version 2.19. Copyright (C) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.--> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family: serif; font-weight: normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <p> <a name="Bug-Criteria"></a>Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a> <hr><br> </div> <h3 class="section">6.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3> <p><a name="index-bug-criteria-640"></a> If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: <a name="index-fatal-signal-641"></a> <a name="index-linker-crash-642"></a> <a name="index-crash-of-linker-643"></a> <ul><li>If the linker gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a <span class="command">ld</span> bug. Reliable linkers never crash. <p><a name="index-error-on-valid-input-644"></a><li>If <span class="command">ld</span> produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. <p><a name="index-invalid-input-645"></a><li>If <span class="command">ld</span> does not produce an error message for invalid input, that may be a bug. In the general case, the linker can not verify that object files are correct. <li>If you are an experienced user of linkers, your suggestions for improvement of <span class="command">ld</span> are welcome in any case. </ul> </body></html>