The ld program distributed with binutils refers to this process as relaxation pretty extensively - you can see it in the ".map" file output or by greping the so

The ld program distributed with binutils refers to this process as relaxation pretty extensively - you can see it in the ".map" file output or by greping the source for ld. EDIT: The term is even in the wikipedia article for linker [1], although with a broader definition. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_(computing)#Relaxation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_(computing)#Relaxation