http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=56371
--- Comment #2 from Karlson2k <k2k at narod dot ru> 2013-02-22 15:59:56 UTC --- There is bug in configure script. Just before 'checking linker for .hidden support', configure detect ld version by: if test $in_tree_ld != yes ; then ld_ver=`$gcc_cv_ld --version 2>/dev/null | sed 1q` if echo "$ld_ver" | grep GNU > /dev/null; then if test x"$ld_is_gold" = xyes; then [... cut ...] fi ld_date=`echo $ld_ver | sed -n 's,^.*\([2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\)[-]*\([01][0-9]\)[-]*\([0-3][0-9]\).*$,\1\2\3,p'` ld_vers_major=`expr "$ld_vers" : '\([0-9]*\)'` ld_vers_minor=`expr "$ld_vers" : '[0-9]*\.\([0-9]*\)'` ld_vers_patch=`expr "$ld_vers" : '[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.\([0-9]*\)'` else case "${target}" in [... cut ...] esac fi fi But in tree ld version is not detected at all! Just a few lines later: if test $in_tree_ld = yes ; then gcc_cv_ld_hidden=no if test "$gcc_cv_gld_major_version" -eq 2 -a "$gcc_cv_gld_minor_version" -ge 13 -o "$gcc_cv_gld_major_version" -gt 2 \ && test $in_tree_ld_is_elf = yes; then gcc_cv_ld_hidden=yes fi else configure make some assumption about ld basing on lv version. As ld is build before run of gcc's configure, all detection could be unified for in-tree ld and external ld.