monolinker(1)
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)
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