AWS linux documentation change
Summary
Added documentation about deprecation of ld.gold linker in AL2023 and migration guidance to ld.bfd
Security assessment
The change documents the deprecation of a linker tool without mentioning any security vulnerabilities or weaknesses. Deprecation is due to upstream removal, not a security concern.
Diff
diff --git a/linux/al2/ug/deprecated-al2.md b/linux/al2/ug/deprecated-al2.md index 91f68429a..65fa10505 100644 --- a//linux/al2/ug/deprecated-al2.md +++ b//linux/al2/ug/deprecated-al2.md @@ -5 +5 @@ -32-bit x86 (i686) Packagesaws-apitools-* replaced by AWS CLIamazon-cloudwatch-agent replaces awslogsbzr revision control systemcgroup v1log4j hotpatch (log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch)lsb_release and the system-lsb-core packagemcryptOpenJDK 7 (java-1.7.0-openjdk)Python 2.7rsyslog-openssl replaces rsyslog-gnutlsNetwork Information Service (NIS) / ypMultiple domain names in Amazon VPC create-dhcp-optionsOpenSSH key fingerprint in audit log +32-bit x86 (i686) Packagesaws-apitools-* replaced by AWS CLIamazon-cloudwatch-agent replaces awslogsbzr revision control systemcgroup v1log4j hotpatch (log4j-cve-2021-44228-hotpatch)lsb_release and the system-lsb-core packagemcryptOpenJDK 7 (java-1.7.0-openjdk)Python 2.7rsyslog-openssl replaces rsyslog-gnutlsNetwork Information Service (NIS) / ypMultiple domain names in Amazon VPC create-dhcp-optionsOpenSSH key fingerprint in audit logld.gold Linker @@ -40,0 +41,2 @@ This section describes functionality that is available in AL2, and no longer ava + * ld.gold Linker + @@ -154,0 +157,6 @@ Later in the lifecyle of AL2, a patch was added to the OpenSSH package to emit t +## `ld.gold` Linker + +The `ld.gold` linker is available in AL2, and is removed in AL2023. Customers building software that explicitly references the gold linker should migrate to the regular (`ld.bfd`) linker. + +The upstream [GNU Binutils](https://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/) [release notes for version 2.44](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2025-02/msg00001.html) (released Feb 2025) document the removal of `ld.gold`: "In a change to our previous practice, in this release the binutils-2.44.tar tarball does not contain the sources for the gold linker. This is because the gold linker is now deprecated and will eventually be removed unless volunteers step forward and offer to continue development and maintenance." +