Gcc uses specs-strings, which control which subprocesses to run and what parameters it shall pass to them. The behavior defined by the spec-strings can be overridden using spec-files, whose purpose and syntax is documented here: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Spec-Files.html
Looking at these spec files in the lib folder of the gcc tool chain (e.g. /usr/lib/arm-none-eabi/lib) we can see that the mentioned spec files define which standard library is to be used by the linker.
For example, nosys.specs just defines that system calls should be implemented as stubs that return errors when called (-lnosys). The choice of libc in this case depends on whether nano should be used. With %G the libgcc spec-string is processed, which defines the parameters passed to the linker.
nosys.specs:
%rename link_gcc_c_sequence nosys_link_gcc_c_sequence
*nosys_libgloss:
-lnosys
*nosys_libc:
%{!specs=nano.specs:-lc} %{specs=nano.specs:-lc_nano}
*link_gcc_c_sequence:
%(nosys_link_gcc_c_sequence) --start-group %G %(nosys_libc) %(nosys_libgloss) --end-group
nano.specs defines the system include path and library parameters to use newlib-nano. The spec file contains replacements for -lc and others to nano equivalents, e.g. -lc_nano. So using it in conjunction with these will make gcc still pass nano libaries to the linker.
Using rdimon.specs, -lrdimon is passed as the libgloss part of the standard library. This basically means that you can use system calls (and also printf), but this relies on a debugger being attached, and the CPU may crash if no debugger is present.