A cmake macro, check_gnu_linker_flag(), for checking if the GNU toolchain linker supports a given argument

gistfile1.txt

# This macro is designed to work with the GNU toolchain, 
# where the linker is called indirectly via 'gcc'
# You can invoke it as in this example:
# check_gnu_linker_flag("-pie", cxx_linker_pie)
# to test if the linker supports '-pie', and store the result in 
# variable 'cxx_linker_pie', in the same fashion as check_cxx_compiler_flag()

# Note, some versions of gnu linker will accept some unknown arguments
# for example -z <arg> may succeed whether <arg> is supported or not, 
# although I've found this to work in newer GNU versions.
# In other words, beware of false positives.  YMMV.

macro(check_gnu_linker_flag _flag _var)
    message("Performing Test ${_var}")        
    unset(${_var})

    set(_stub_code "int main() { return 0; }")

    # note, this uses the top build directory,
    # one might also use some temp dir, or whatever.
    # (could also have compiler read directly from stdin, if that is supported)

    file(WRITE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/stub_code.cpp "${_stub_code}\n")

    execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} ${_flag} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/stub_code.cpp
                    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
                    ERROR_VARIABLE _stderr)

    if (NOT _stderr)
        message("Performing Test ${_var} - Success")
        set(${_var} 1)
    else()
        message("Performing Test ${_var} - Failed")
    endif()
endmacro(check_gnu_linker_flag)