Dynamic library dependencies

Dynamic libraries are loaded at runtime, which means that they are not linked into a program at compile time like static libraries. To understand the dynamic library that an executable requires you can run:

ldd </path/to/the/executable>

Which will print all shared object (*.so) dependencies. Dynamic libraries are often used to p rovide common functionality that is needed by multiple programs, such as system functions, graphical user interface (GUI) libraries, and database connectivity libraries.

Advantages and Limitations of Shared library

Dynamic libraries have several advantages over static libraries:

• The executabel take up less space, because multiple programs can share the same copy of the library.
• They are easier to update, because you only have to update the library file itself instead of rebuilding all the programs that use it.
• They allow programs to use new functionality without being recompiled, as long as the interface to the library remains the same.

Dynamic libraries also have some disadvantages:

• They can cause runtime errors if the library file is not found or is incompatible with the program.
• They can be slower to load than static libraries, because they need to be loaded into memory at runtime.

Checkout object files (*.o)

The compilations steps create an object file where symbols represent the entry point for the underline machine code for the linking phase. Symbols are used by functions, variable and all the rest of the machinery needed to link correclty the object (.o) files.

To list symbol names in object files, you can use the:

nm file.o

to list function symbol and respective definition of object files.