“Application Binary Interface or ABI refers to the run-time
interfaces between an application program and the OS environment
where it is executing. The components of the OS environment that
form the ABI for a particular OS are:
- Object file format
- Application Programming Interface (API) calls
- Dynamically linked libraries
- Run-time linking and loading
“The OS environment usually provides a single object file format
by default for all applications within this environment. The
various object file formats that are used within the OS environment
are A.OUT, COFF, XCOFF and ELF. The OS environment also consists of
a set of well-defined API calls defined within the OS or in a set
of dynamically linked libraries. Application programs typically
invoke these API calls to access OS services through the
dynamically linked libraries. The run-time linking and loading
support in the OS facilitates program execution by resolving all
unresolved API calls in the application to the dynamically linked
libraries at run-time…”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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