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A linker or link editor is a computer program that combines intermediate software build files such as object and library files into a single executable file such a program or library. A linker is often part of a toolchain that includes a compiler and/or assembler that generates intermediate files that the linker processes.
The design and/or choice of an object file format is a key part of overall system design. It affects the performance of the linker and thus programmer turnaround while a program is being developed. If the format is used for executables, the design also affects the time programs take to begin running, and thus the responsiveness for users.
Compiler software interacts with source code by converting it typically from a higher-level programming language into object code that can later be executed by the computer's central processing unit (CPU). [6] The object code created by the compiler consists of machine-readable code that the computer can process. This stage of the computing ...
A relatively common and simple toolchain consists of the tools to build for a particular operating system (OS) and CPU architecture; consisting of a compiler, a linker, and a debugger. With a cross-compiler, a toolchain can support cross-platform development. For building more complex software systems, many other tools may be in the toolchain.
Any object code produced by compilers is usually linked with other pieces of object code (produced by the same or another compiler) by a type of program called a linker. The linker needs a great deal of information on each program entity. For example, to correctly link a function it needs its name, the number of arguments and their types, and ...
When code generation occurs at runtime, as in just-in-time compilation (JIT), it is important that the entire process be efficient with respect to space and time. For example, when regular expressions are interpreted and used to generate code at runtime, a non-deterministic finite-state machine is often generated instead of a deterministic one, because usually the former can be created more ...
In computing, a dynamic linker is the part of an operating system that loads and links the shared libraries needed by an executable when it is executed (at "run time"), by copying the content of libraries from persistent storage to RAM, filling jump tables and relocating pointers. The specific operating system and executable format determine ...
In computer science, link time refers to the period of time, during the creation of a computer program, in which a linker is being applied to that program. [1] [2] [3] Link time occurs after compile time and before runtime (when a program is executed).