xenial (1) monolinker.1.gz

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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 (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)