Using This Documentation

• Overview – Describes the operations of the Oracle Solaris Operating System (Oracle Solaris OS) link-editor and runtime linker, and the objects on which these link-editors operate. The book covers the Link-Editor: ld(1), the Runtime Linker: ld.so.1(1), Shared Objects (sometimes referred to as Shared Libraries), and the ELF object file format. Special emphasis is placed on the generation and use of dynamic executables and shared objects because of their importance in a dynamic runtime environment.

  Note:

  This Oracle Solaris release supports systems that use the SPARC and x86 families of processor architectures. The supported systems appear in the Oracle Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types. In this document, these x86 related terms mean the following:

  • x86 refers to the larger family of 64-bit and 32-bit x86 compatible products.

  • x64 relates specifically to 64-bit x86 compatible CPUs.

  • "32-bit x86" points out specific 32-bit information about x86 based systems.

• Audience – This guide is intended for a range of programmers who are interested in the Oracle Solaris link-editor, runtime linker, and related tools.

  • Beginners learn the principal operations of the link-editor and runtime linker.

  • Intermediate programmers learn to create and use efficient custom libraries.

  • Advanced programmers, such as language-tools developers, learn how to interpret and generate object files.

  Most programmers should not need to read this guide from cover to cover.

• Required knowledge – Readers of this guide should be familiar and be able to use the following technologies.

  • A UNIX SVR4 system – preferably the current Oracle Solaris release.

  • The C programming language and application development.