https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=89009
--- Comment #8 from Stephan Bergmann <sbergman at redhat dot com> ---
...and adding to the test.cc from comment 0 an additional
> $ cat main.cc
> void f1();
> struct S1 { static void f2(); };
> struct __attribute__ ((visibility("default"))) S2: S1 { static void f2(); };
> struct S3: S1 { static void f2(); };
> struct S4: S3 { static void f2(); };
> void f1() { __builtin_printf("f1\n"); }
> void S1::f2() { __builtin_printf("S1::f2\n"); }
> int main() { S4::f2(); }
>
> $ g++ -fvisibility=hidden -fpic -O2 -fno-inline test.cc main.cc
> $ ./a.out
> f1
to form a complete program still fails for me (GCC 8.2.1).
