Does executable file contains the precise path to SO file? Should it be compiled with precise knowing of SO file location?

Or it refers SO file somehow else?

Hi,

Ok, let's face it, your question is vague...perhaps due to the nature of the subject, I think.

SO files are drivers, they are needed by executable files, that have BIN as extension. Let's take an example, the java plugin is a file that is called "libjaveplugin_oji.so" and is needed by firefox.bin to run java.

Hope to have helped...eventually...

Thor

You can control that at link time.

That depends on how you want to use the executable. Typically not. Typically you want the environment at load time to determine search rules for the .so files.

There are a few search methods. I forget the details of most of the search methods. The simplest to understand and manipulate is the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

You can use the ldd command to find out what name, including path if any, is stored for each .so in the executable and what full path the ldd program thinks that resolves to in the current environment.

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So, if ldd reports .so file with no path, then it means that automatic search should be activated at load time? Or it means current directory?

It means search. It does not mean current directory. Linux does not automatically include the current directory when searching for a shared object.

ldd reports both the name as stored and the full path of the file (if any) found by the search.

Thank you, uderstood.

The thread has been answered above so I'll skip that. I'll only add...

Define "driver". Generally, a "driver" is a piece of software (a program if you wish) that lets your OS and the rest of the programs interact with a hardware device, or some other kind of device (even virtual ones). In any case, it's a software that's often close to the kernel of your OS.

.so files are what 'so' stands for: "shared object" files. They contain libraries of code that can be reused by any other program. They are not device drivers (that'd be '.ko' files, which are kernel modules).

In *nix, the so-called 'executable files' do not have any particular extension. POSIX based OSes and fs's support a +x attribute which is what defines whether a given file is executable or not.

I am considering .so files as equivalent to MS Windows' DLLs...

Basically, in concept. The implementations are quite different though. You can start here:

http://xenophilia.org/winvunix.html

Google might give you some interesting results if you search for "dll vs. so" or " dll vs. shared object"