test.d:

extern (C):
void foo(){}
alias foo bar;

$dmd -c test.d

$nm test.o
0000000000000000 t
0000000000000000 D _D11test12__ModuleInfoZ
                 w _d_dso_registry
                 U _Dmodule_ref
0000000000000000 T foo


Surely the aliased symbol should appear in the object file, or am I missing something?

On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 18:54:27 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
> test.d:
>
> extern (C):
> void foo(){}
> alias foo bar;
>
> $dmd -c test.d
>
> $nm test.o
> 0000000000000000 t
> 0000000000000000 D _D11test12__ModuleInfoZ
>                  w _d_dso_registry
>                  U _Dmodule_ref
> 0000000000000000 T foo
>
>
> Surely the aliased symbol should appear in the object file, or am I missing something?

Just to avoid any confusion for non-linux guys:

nm is a linux utility for listing the symbols in an object file.

On 4/21/13, John Colvin <john.loughran.colvin@gmail.com> wrote:
> Surely the aliased symbol should appear in the object file, or am I missing something?

Aliases are a purely compile-time feature. Wherever they're used it's as if the compiler rewrote the alias with the aliased symbol.

On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 18:54:27 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
> Surely the aliased symbol should appear in the object file, or am I missing something?

What would you expect it to look like in the object file? A duplicate of the foo function?

On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 19:22:27 UTC, Peter Alexander wrote:
> On Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 18:54:27 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
>> Surely the aliased symbol should appear in the object file, or am I missing something?
>
> What would you expect it to look like in the object file? A duplicate of the foo function?

Something like that, yes.

I have a templated function and need particular instantiations of it in a library. If aliases cannot be used for this, I suppose the most reasonable option is to write wrapper functions.