Anatomy of Linux Dynamic Libraries

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]

"Libraries were designed to package similar functionality in a single unit. These units could then be shared with other developers and permitted what came to be called modular programming—that is, building programs from modules. Linux supports two types of libraries, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The static library contains functionality that is bound to a program statically at compile time. This differs from dynamic libraries, which are loaded when an application is loaded and binding occurs at run time."

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