Unused section elimination removes code that is never executed, or data that is not referred to by the code, from the final image. This optimization can be controlled by the --remove, --no_remove, --first, --last, and --keep linker options. Use the --info unused linker option to instruct the linker to generate a list of the unused sections that have been eliminated.

Unused section elimination is suppressed in those cases that might result in the removal of all sections.

An input section is retained in the final image under the following conditions: