gas -Z flag -Z is supposed to "generate object file even after errors". It doesn't do so at the moment, unless you count a zero length object file as useful output. Fixed for most targets as follows. I suspect avr and pru need target patches. * output-file.c (output_file_close): Do a normal close when flag_always_generate_output. * write.c (write_object_file): Don't stop output when flag_always_generate_output.