Next: File Commands, Up: Simple Commands [Contents][Index]

#### 3.4.1 Setting the Entry Point

The first instruction to execute in a program is called the entry point. You can use the `ENTRY` linker script command to set the entry point. The argument is a symbol name:

    ENTRY(symbol)

There are several ways to set the entry point. The linker will set the entry point by trying each of the following methods in order, and stopping when one of them succeeds:

- the ‘`-e`’ entry command-line option;
- the `ENTRY(symbol)` command in a linker script;
- the value of a target specific symbol, if it is defined; For many targets this is `start`, but PE and BeOS based systems for example check a list of possible entry symbols, matching the first one found.
- the address of the first byte of the ‘`.text`’ section, if present;
- The address `0`.