x86 kernel build chain - how bzImage gets created

[Daniel Baluta]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Graeme Russ <graeme.russ at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Hopefully this will help demystify the build process
>
> Notation:
> <primary input file> (<file size in bytes>)
>  |
>  + <additional input file>
>  |
>  * <command>
>  |
>  \-> <output file> (<file size in bytes>)
>
> The file sizes are arbitrary and are based on the current configuration
> options I have set for a small kernel. They are simply there to illustrate
> the relative differences in file sizes.

Great! Thanks for sharing this.

> Note that vmlinux.o is not used to generate bzImage but I've included it
> for completeness

[...]
> + net/built-in.o
> |
> * ld -m elf_i386 -r -o vmlinux.o
> |
> \->vmlinux.o (2,889,050)

What is the purpose of vmlinux.o then?

thanks,
Daniel.