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NAME

       Mono CIL Linker

SYNOPSIS

       monolinker  [-o output_directory][-l i18n_assemblies][-c skip | copy | link] -x descriptor
       | -a assembly | -i info_file ...

DESCRIPTION

       monolinker is a CIL Linker.  The linker is a tool one can use to  only  ship  the  minimal
       possible  set  of  functions that a set of programs might require to run as opposed to the
       full libraries.

       The linker analyses the intermediate code (CIL) produced by every compiler  targeting  the
       Mono platform like mcs, gmcs, vbnc, booc or others. It will walk through all the code that
       it is given to it, and remove all the unused methods and classes.  This is  done  using  a
       mark and sweep operation on all the code that it is referenced.

       The  generated  output  from the monolinker can be later processed by the mkbundle tool to
       generate small native self-contained executables.

       Do not confuse this with the Assembly Linker (al) which creates assemblies from manifests,
       modules and resource files.

OPTIONS

       -d search_directory
              Specify a directory to the linker where to look for assemblies.

       -o output_directory
              Specify the output directory, default is 'output'.

              If you specify the directory `.', please ensure that you won't write over important
              assemblies of yours.

       -b true | false
              Specify whether to generate debug symbols or not, default is false.

       -g true | false
              Specify whether to generate a new guid for each linked module or reuse the existing
              one, default is true.

       -l i18n_assemblies
              Specify what to do with the region specific assemblies

              Mono have a few assemblies which contains everything region specific:
                   I18N.CJK.dll
                   I18N.MidEast.dll
                   I18N.Other.dll
                   I18N.Rare.dll
                   I18N.West.dll

              By  default,  they  will all be copied to the output directory, but you can specify
              which one you want using this command. The choice can either be:  none,  all,  cjk,
              mideast, other, rare or west. You can combine the values with a comma.

       -c action
              Specify the action to apply to the core assemblies.

              Core  assemblies  are  the  assemblies that belongs to the base class library, like
              mscorlib.dll, System.dll or System.Windows.Forms.dll.

              The linker supports three operations on these assemblies, you can  specify  one  of
              the following actions:

              skip   This instructs the linker to skip them and do nothing with them.

              copy   This instructs the linker to copy them to the output directory,

              link   This  instructs  the  linker  to  apply the linking process and reduce their
                     size.

       -p action assembly
              Specify per assembly which action to apply.

       -x descriptor
              Use an XML descriptor as a source for the linker.

              Here is an example that shows all the possibilities of this format:

              <linker>
                   <assembly fullname="Library">
                        <type fullname="Foo" />
                        <type fullname="Bar" preserve="nothing" required="false" />
                        <type fullname="Baz" preserve="fields" required="false" />
                        <type fullname="Gazonk">
                             <method signature="System.Void .ctor(System.String)" />
                             <field signature="System.String _blah" />
                             <field name="someFieldName" />
                        </type>
                   </assembly>
              </linker>

              In this example, the linker will link the types Foo, Bar, Baz and Gazonk.

              The preserve attribute ensures that all the fields of the type Baz will  be  always
              be  linked,  not matter if they are used or not, but that neither the fields or the
              methods of Bar will be linked if they are  not  used.  Not  specifying  a  preserve
              attribute implies that we are preserving everything in the specified type.

              The  required  attribute  specifies that if the type is not marked, during the mark
              operation, it will not be linked.

              The type Gazonk will be linked, as well as its constructor taking  a  string  as  a
              parameter, and it's _blah field.

              You can have multiple assembly nodes.

       -a assemblies
              use an assembly as a source for the linker.

              The  linker will walk through all the methods of the assembly to generate only what
              is necessary for this assembly to run.

       -i info_file
              use a .info xml file as a source for the linker.

              An info file is a file produced by the tool mono-api-info. The linker will  use  it
              to  generate an assembly that contains only what the public API defined in the info
              file needs.

       -s [StepBefore:]StepFullName,StepAssembly[:StepAfter]

              You can ask the linker to execute custom  steps  by  using  the  -s  command.  This
              command takes the standard TypeFullName,Assembly format to locate the step. You can
              customize its position in the pipeline by either adding it before a step, or after.

              Example:

              using System;

              using Mono.Linker;
              using Mono.Linker.Steps;

              namespace Foo {

                   public class FooStep : IStep {

                        public void Process (LinkContext context)
                        {
                             foreach (IStep step in context.Pipeline.GetSteps ()) {
                                  Console.WriteLine (step.GetType ().Name);
                             }
                        }
                   }
              }

              If you compile this custom against monolinker to a Foo.dll assembly,  you  can  use
              the -s switch as follows.   To add the FooStep at the end of the pipeline:

                   monolinker -s Foo.FooStep,Foo -a program.exe

              This commanand will add the FooStep after the MarkStep:

                   monolinker -s MarkStep:Foo.FooStep,Foo -a program.exe

              This command will add the FooStep before the MarkStep:

                   monolinker -s Foo.FooStep,Foo:MarkStep -a program.exe

              This command will add the FooStep before the MarkStep

       -m CustomParam ParamValue
              Specify a parameter for a custom step.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2007 Novell, Inc (http://www.novell.com)

BUGS

       Bugs report are welcome at http://bugzilla.xamarin.com

       Product Mono Tools, Component linker.

MAILING LISTS

       Mailing lists are listed at http://www.mono-project.com/community/help/mailing-lists/

WEB SITE

       http://www.mono-project.com/docs/tools+libraries/tools/linker/

AUTHORS

       The  linker  has  been  written by Jb Evain, and have been partially founded by the Google
       Summer of Code.

LICENSE

       The linker is licensed under the MIT/X11 license. Please  read  the  accompayning  MIT.X11
       file for details.

SEE ALSO

       al(1),mkbundle(1),mono(1),mcs(1).

                                            monolinker                                CIL(Linker)