2016-05-27 17:48, Ferruh Yigit:

--whole-archive argument only required for pmd libraries, and currently
it covers more libraries. Reducing scope of the argument to pmd
libraries slightly reduce final application size.

In my understanding, --whole-archive is required for static libraries used
by plugins:
	http://dpdk.org/commit/20afd76a

If we want to restrict it, I would say it must be around EAL, ring,
mbuf, mempool, ethdev, cryptodev, etc.