The post-linker is a Symbian-specific build tool. Its principal function is to create executables (DLLs and EXEs) in the particular format required by Symbian platform, known as the E32Image format. Commercial compiler and linkers, such as ARM's RVCT and GNU GCC, cannot directly generate that format. Such compilers do however support a standard output format called the Executable and Linking Format (ELF) (defined at http://www.caldera.com/developers/gabi/). A tool is therefore needed to convert from the ELF format into the E32Image format, and this is the key role of the post-linker. The tool also contains the functionality to maintain and create the DEF files used for freezing the exports of libraries.
In ordinary use, the post-linker is not used directly by users. It is called from the makefiles generated by abld on the command line, or from the build commands of an IDE.
The tool can also be used to output a description of an existing E32Image file for analysis.
This section contains the following topics: