as: L
2.7 Include Local Symbols: '-L'
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Symbols beginning with system-specific local label prefixes, typically
'.L' for ELF systems or 'L' for traditional a.out systems, are called
"local symbols". Symbol Names. Normally you do not see such
symbols when debugging, because they are intended for the use of
programs (like compilers) that compose assembler programs, not for your
notice. Normally both 'as' and 'ld' discard such symbols, so you do not
normally debug with them.
This option tells 'as' to retain those local symbols in the object
file. Usually if you do this you also tell the linker 'ld' to preserve
those symbols.