External Bindings

When a symbol reference from the object being created is satisfied by a definition within a shared object, the symbol remains undefined. The relocation information that is associated with the symbol provides for its lookup at runtime. The shared object that provided the definition typically becomes a dependency.

The runtime linker employs a default search model to locate this definition at runtime. Typically, each object is searched, starting with the dynamic executable, and progressing through each dependency in the same order in which the objects were loaded.

Objects can also be created to use direct bindings. With this technique, the relationship between the symbol reference and the object that provides the symbol definition is maintained within the object being created. The runtime linker uses this information to directly bind the reference to the object that defines the symbol, thus bypassing the default symbol search model. See Direct Bindings.