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Oracle Solaris 11.1 Linkers and Libraries Guide     Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library
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Document Information

Preface

Part I Using the Link-Editor and Runtime Linker

1.  Introduction to the Oracle Solaris Link Editors

Link-Editing

Static Executables

Runtime Linking

Related Topics

Dynamic Linking

Application Binary Interfaces

32-Bit Environments and 64-Bit Environments

Environment Variables

Support Tools

2.  Link-Editor

3.  Runtime Linker

4.  Shared Objects

Part II Quick Reference

5.  Link-Editor Quick Reference

Part III Advanced Topics

6.  Direct Bindings

7.  Building Objects to Optimize System Performance

8.  Mapfiles

9.  Interfaces and Versioning

10.  Establishing Dependencies with Dynamic String Tokens

11.  Extensibility Mechanisms

Part IV ELF Application Binary Interface

12.  Object File Format

13.  Program Loading and Dynamic Linking

14.  Thread-Local Storage

Part V Appendices

A.  Linker and Libraries Updates and New Features

B.  System V Release 4 (Version 1) Mapfiles

Index

Link-Editing

Link-editing takes a variety of input files, typically generated from compilers, assemblers, or ld(1). The link-editor concatenates and interprets the data within these input files to form a single output file. Although the link-editor provides numerous options, the output file that is produced is one of four basic types.

These output files, and the key link-editor options used in their creation, are shown in Figure 1-1.

Dynamic executables and shared objects are often referred to jointly as dynamic objects. Dynamic objects are the main focus of this document.

Figure 1-1 Static or Dynamic Link-Editing

image:Link-editor output files, and the key link-editor options used to create them.

Static Executables

The creation of static executables has been discouraged for many releases. In fact, 64–bit system archive libraries have never been provided. Because a static executable is built against system archive libraries, the executable contains system implementation details. This self-containment has a number of drawbacks.

Beginning with the Oracle Solaris 10 release, the OS no longer includes 32–bit system archive libraries. Without these libraries, specifically libc.a, the creation of a static executable is no longer achievable without specialized system knowledge. Note, that the link-editors ability to process static linking options, and the processing of archive libraries, remains unchanged.