Ubuntu Manpage: ld.so, ld-linux.so - dynamic linker/loader

NAME

       ld.so, ld-linux.so - dynamic linker/loader

SYNOPSIS

       The  dynamic  linker  can  be  run either indirectly by running some dynamically linked program or shared
       object (in which case no command-line options to the dynamic linker can be passed and, in the  ELF  case,
       the  dynamic  linker  which  is  stored in the .interp section of the program is executed) or directly by
       running:

       /lib/ld-linux.so.*  [OPTIONS] [PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS]]

DESCRIPTION

The programs ld.so and ld-linux.so* find and load the shared objects (shared libraries) needed by a
program, prepare the program to run, and then run it.

Linux binaries require dynamic linking (linking at run time) unless the -static option was given to ld(1)
during compilation.

The program ld.so handles a.out binaries, a binary format used long ago. The program ld-linux.so*
(/lib/ld-linux.so.1 for libc5, /lib/ld-linux.so.2 for glibc2) handles binaries that are in the more
modern ELF format. Both programs have the same behavior, and use the same support files and programs
(ldd(1), ldconfig(8), and /etc/ld.so.conf).

When resolving shared object dependencies, the dynamic linker first inspects each dependency string to
see if it contains a slash (this can occur if a shared object pathname containing slashes was specified
at link time). If a slash is found, then the dependency string is interpreted as a (relative or
absolute) pathname, and the shared object is loaded using that pathname.

If a shared object dependency does not contain a slash, then it is searched for in the following order:

(1) Using the directories specified in the DT_RPATH dynamic section attribute of the binary if present
and DT_RUNPATH attribute does not exist. Use of DT_RPATH is deprecated.

(2) Using the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH, unless the executable is being run in secure-
execution mode (see below), in which case this variable is ignored.

(3) Using the directories specified in the DT_RUNPATH dynamic section attribute of the binary if
present. Such directories are searched only to find those objects required by DT_NEEDED (direct
dependencies) entries and do not apply to those objects' children, which must themselves have their
own DT_RUNPATH entries. This is unlike DT_RPATH, which is applied to searches for all children in
the dependency tree.

(4) From the cache file /etc/ld.so.cache, which contains a compiled list of candidate shared objects
previously found in the augmented library path. If, however, the binary was linked with the -z
nodefaultlib linker option, shared objects in the default paths are skipped. Shared objects
installed in hardware capability directories (see below) are preferred to other shared objects.

(5) In the default path /lib, and then /usr/lib. (On some 64-bit architectures, the default paths for
64-bit shared objects are /lib64, and then /usr/lib64.) If the binary was linked with the -z
nodefaultlib linker option, this step is skipped.

Dynamic string tokens
In several places, the dynamic linker expands dynamic string tokens:

• In the environment variables LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_PRELOAD, and LD_AUDIT,

• inside the values of the dynamic section tags DT_NEEDED, DT_RPATH, DT_RUNPATH, DT_AUDIT, and
DT_DEPAUDIT of ELF binaries,

• in the arguments to the ld.so command line options --audit, --library-path, and --preload (see below),
and

• in the filename arguments to the dlopen(3) and dlmopen(3) functions.

The substituted tokens are as follows:

$ORIGIN (or equivalently ${ORIGIN})
This expands to the directory containing the program or shared object. Thus, an application
located in somedir/app could be compiled with

gcc -Wl,-rpath,'$ORIGIN/../lib'

so that it finds an associated shared object in somedir/lib no matter where somedir is located in
the directory hierarchy. This facilitates the creation of "turn-key" applications that do not
need to be installed into special directories, but can instead be unpacked into any directory and
still find their own shared objects.

$LIB (or equivalently ${LIB})
This expands to lib or lib64 depending on the architecture (e.g., on x86-64, it expands to lib64
and on x86-32, it expands to lib).

$PLATFORM (or equivalently ${PLATFORM})
This expands to a string corresponding to the processor type of the host system (e.g., "x86_64").
On some architectures, the Linux kernel doesn't provide a platform string to the dynamic linker.
The value of this string is taken from the AT_PLATFORM value in the auxiliary vector (see
getauxval(3)).

Note that the dynamic string tokens have to be quoted properly when set from a shell, to prevent their
expansion as shell or environment variables.

OPTIONS

--argv0 string (since glibc 2.33)
Set argv[0] to the value string before running the program.

--audit list
Use objects named in list as auditors. The objects in list are delimited by colons.

--glibc-hwcaps-mask list
only search built-in subdirectories if in list.

--glibc-hwcaps-prepend list
Search glibc-hwcaps subdirectories in list.

--inhibit-cache
Do not use /etc/ld.so.cache.

--library-path path
Use path instead of LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable setting (see below). The names ORIGIN,
LIB, and PLATFORM are interpreted as for the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

--inhibit-rpath list
Ignore RPATH and RUNPATH information in object names in list. This option is ignored when running
in secure-execution mode (see below). The objects in list are delimited by colons or spaces.

--list List all dependencies and how they are resolved.

--list-diagnostics (since glibc 2.33)
Print system diagnostic information in a machine-readable format, such as some internal loader
variables, the auxiliary vector (see getauxval(3)), and the environment variables. On some
architectures, the command might print additional information (like the cpu features used in GNU
indirect function selection on x86). --list-tunables (since glibc 2.33) Print the names and
values of all tunables, along with the minimum and maximum allowed values.

--preload list (since glibc 2.30)
Preload the objects specified in list. The objects in list are delimited by colons or spaces.
The objects are preloaded as explained in the description of the LD_PRELOAD environment variable
below.

By contrast with LD_PRELOAD, the --preload option provides a way to perform preloading for a
single executable without affecting preloading performed in any child process that executes a new
program.

--verify
Verify that program is dynamically linked and this dynamic linker can handle it.

ENVIRONMENT

Various environment variables influence the operation of the dynamic linker.

Secure-execution mode
For security reasons, if the dynamic linker determines that a binary should be run in secure-execution
mode, the effects of some environment variables are voided or modified, and furthermore those environment
variables are stripped from the environment, so that the program does not even see the definitions. Some
of these environment variables affect the operation of the dynamic linker itself, and are described
below. Other environment variables treated in this way include: GCONV_PATH, GETCONF_DIR, HOSTALIASES,
LOCALDOMAIN, LD_AUDIT, LD_DEBUG, LD_DEBUG_OUTPUT, LD_DYNAMIC_WEAK, LD_HWCAP_MASK, LD_LIBRARY_PATH,
LD_ORIGIN_PATH, LD_PRELOAD, LD_PROFILE, LD_SHOW_AUXV, LOCALDOMAIN, LOCPATH, MALLOC_TRACE, NIS_PATH,
NLSPATH, RESOLV_HOST_CONF, RES_OPTIONS, TMPDIR, and TZDIR.

A binary is executed in secure-execution mode if the AT_SECURE entry in the auxiliary vector (see
getauxval(3)) has a nonzero value. This entry may have a nonzero value for various reasons, including:

• The process's real and effective user IDs differ, or the real and effective group IDs differ. This
typically occurs as a result of executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID program.

• A process with a non-root user ID executed a binary that conferred capabilities to the process.

• A nonzero value may have been set by a Linux Security Module.

Environment variables
Among the more important environment variables are the following:

LD_ASSUME_KERNEL (from glibc 2.2.3 to glibc 2.36)
Each shared object can inform the dynamic linker of the minimum kernel ABI version that it
requires. (This requirement is encoded in an ELF note section that is viewable via readelf -n as
a section labeled NT_GNU_ABI_TAG.) At run time, the dynamic linker determines the ABI version of
the running kernel and will reject loading shared objects that specify minimum ABI versions that
exceed that ABI version.

LD_ASSUME_KERNEL can be used to cause the dynamic linker to assume that it is running on a system
with a different kernel ABI version. For example, the following command line causes the dynamic
linker to assume it is running on Linux 2.2.5 when loading the shared objects required by myprog:

$ LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ./myprog

On systems that provide multiple versions of a shared object (in different directories in the
search path) that have different minimum kernel ABI version requirements, LD_ASSUME_KERNEL can be
used to select the version of the object that is used (dependent on the directory search order).

Historically, the most common use of the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL feature was to manually select the older
LinuxThreads POSIX threads implementation on systems that provided both LinuxThreads and NPTL
(which latter was typically the default on such systems); see pthreads(7).

LD_BIND_NOW (since glibc 2.1.1)
If set to a nonempty string, causes the dynamic linker to resolve all symbols at program startup
instead of deferring function call resolution to the point when they are first referenced. This
is useful when using a debugger.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH
A list of directories in which to search for ELF libraries at execution time. The items in the
list are separated by either colons or semicolons, and there is no support for escaping either
separator. A zero-length directory name indicates the current working directory.

This variable is ignored in secure-execution mode.

Within the pathnames specified in LD_LIBRARY_PATH, the dynamic linker expands the tokens $ORIGIN,
$LIB, and $PLATFORM (or the versions using curly braces around the names) as described above in
Dynamic string tokens. Thus, for example, the following would cause a library to be searched for
in either the lib or lib64 subdirectory below the directory containing the program to be executed:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH='$ORIGIN/$LIB' prog

(Note the use of single quotes, which prevent expansion of $ORIGIN and $LIB as shell variables!)

LD_PRELOAD
A list of additional, user-specified, ELF shared objects to be loaded before all others. This
feature can be used to selectively override functions in other shared objects.

The items of the list can be separated by spaces or colons, and there is no support for escaping
either separator. The objects are searched for using the rules given under DESCRIPTION. Objects
are searched for and added to the link map in the left-to-right order specified in the list.

In secure-execution mode, preload pathnames containing slashes are ignored. Furthermore, shared
objects are preloaded only from the standard search directories and only if they have set-user-ID
mode bit enabled (which is not typical).

Within the names specified in the LD_PRELOAD list, the dynamic linker understands the tokens
$ORIGIN, $LIB, and $PLATFORM (or the versions using curly braces around the names) as described
above in Dynamic string tokens. (See also the discussion of quoting under the description of
LD_LIBRARY_PATH.)

There are various methods of specifying libraries to be preloaded, and these are handled in the
following order:

(1) The LD_PRELOAD environment variable.

(2) The --preload command-line option when invoking the dynamic linker directly.

(3) The /etc/ld.so.preload file (described below).

LD_TRACE_LOADED_OBJECTS
If set (to any value), causes the program to list its dynamic dependencies, as if run by ldd(1),
instead of running normally.

Then there are lots of more or less obscure variables, many obsolete or only for internal use.

LD_AUDIT (since glibc 2.4)
A list of user-specified, ELF shared objects to be loaded before all others in a separate linker
namespace (i.e., one that does not intrude upon the normal symbol bindings that would occur in the
process) These objects can be used to audit the operation of the dynamic linker. The items in the
list are colon-separated, and there is no support for escaping the separator.

LD_AUDIT is ignored in secure-execution mode.

The dynamic linker will notify the audit shared objects at so-called auditing checkpoints—for
example, loading a new shared object, resolving a symbol, or calling a symbol from another shared
object—by calling an appropriate function within the audit shared object. For details, see
rtld-audit(7). The auditing interface is largely compatible with that provided on Solaris, as
described in its Linker and Libraries Guide, in the chapter Runtime Linker Auditing Interface.

Within the names specified in the LD_AUDIT list, the dynamic linker understands the tokens
$ORIGIN, $LIB, and $PLATFORM (or the versions using curly braces around the names) as described
above in Dynamic string tokens. (See also the discussion of quoting under the description of
LD_LIBRARY_PATH.)

Since glibc 2.13, in secure-execution mode, names in the audit list that contain slashes are
ignored, and only shared objects in the standard search directories that have the set-user-ID mode
bit enabled are loaded.

LD_BIND_NOT (since glibc 2.1.95)
If this environment variable is set to a nonempty string, do not update the GOT (global offset
table) and PLT (procedure linkage table) after resolving a function symbol. By combining the use
of this variable with LD_DEBUG (with the categories bindings and symbols), one can observe all
run-time function bindings.

LD_DEBUG (since glibc 2.1)
Output verbose debugging information about operation of the dynamic linker. The content of this
variable is one of more of the following categories, separated by colons, commas, or (if the value
is quoted) spaces:

help Specifying help in the value of this variable does not run the specified program, and
displays a help message about which categories can be specified in this environment
variable.

all Print all debugging information (except statistics and unused; see below).

bindings Display information about which definition each symbol is bound to.

files Display progress for input file.

libs Display library search paths.

reloc Display relocation processing.

scopes Display scope information.

statistics Display relocation statistics.

symbols Display search paths for each symbol look-up.

unused Determine unused DSOs.

versions Display version dependencies.

Since glibc 2.3.4, LD_DEBUG is ignored in secure-execution mode, unless the file /etc/suid-debug
exists (the content of the file is irrelevant).

LD_DEBUG_OUTPUT (since glibc 2.1)
By default, LD_DEBUG output is written to standard error. If LD_DEBUG_OUTPUT is defined, then
output is written to the pathname specified by its value, with the suffix "." (dot) followed by
the process ID appended to the pathname.

LD_DEBUG_OUTPUT is ignored in secure-execution mode.

LD_DYNAMIC_WEAK (since glibc 2.1.91)
By default, when searching shared libraries to resolve a symbol reference, the dynamic linker will
resolve to the first definition it finds.

Old glibc versions (before glibc 2.2), provided a different behavior: if the linker found a symbol
that was weak, it would remember that symbol and keep searching in the remaining shared libraries.
If it subsequently found a strong definition of the same symbol, then it would instead use that
definition. (If no further symbol was found, then the dynamic linker would use the weak symbol
that it initially found.)

The old glibc behavior was nonstandard. (Standard practice is that the distinction between weak
and strong symbols should have effect only at static link time.) In glibc 2.2, the dynamic linker
was modified to provide the current behavior (which was the behavior that was provided by most
other implementations at that time).

Defining the LD_DYNAMIC_WEAK environment variable (with any value) provides the old (nonstandard)
glibc behavior, whereby a weak symbol in one shared library may be overridden by a strong symbol
subsequently discovered in another shared library. (Note that even when this variable is set, a
strong symbol in a shared library will not override a weak definition of the same symbol in the
main program.)

Since glibc 2.3.4, LD_DYNAMIC_WEAK is ignored in secure-execution mode.

LD_HWCAP_MASK (from glibc 2.1 to glibc 2.38)
Mask for hardware capabilities. Since glibc 2.26, the option might be ignored if glibc does not
support tunables.

LD_ORIGIN_PATH (since glibc 2.1)
Path where the binary is found.

Since glibc 2.4, LD_ORIGIN_PATH is ignored in secure-execution mode.

LD_POINTER_GUARD (from glibc 2.4 to glibc 2.22)
Set to 0 to disable pointer guarding. Any other value enables pointer guarding, which is also the
default. Pointer guarding is a security mechanism whereby some pointers to code stored in
writable program memory (return addresses saved by setjmp(3) or function pointers used by various
glibc internals) are mangled semi-randomly to make it more difficult for an attacker to hijack the
pointers for use in the event of a buffer overrun or stack-smashing attack. Since glibc 2.23,
LD_POINTER_GUARD can no longer be used to disable pointer guarding, which is now always enabled.

LD_PROFILE (since glibc 2.1)
The name of a (single) shared object to be profiled, specified either as a pathname or a soname.
Profiling output is appended to the file whose name is: $LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT/$LD_PROFILE.profile.

Since glibc 2.2.5, LD_PROFILE uses a different default path in secure-execution mode.

LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT (since glibc 2.1)
Directory where LD_PROFILE output should be written. If this variable is not defined, or is
defined as an empty string, then the default is /var/tmp.

LD_PROFILE_OUTPUT is ignored in secure-execution mode; instead /var/profile is always used.

LD_SHOW_AUXV (since glibc 2.1)
If this environment variable is defined (with any value), show the auxiliary array passed up from
the kernel (see also getauxval(3)).

Since glibc 2.3.4, LD_SHOW_AUXV is ignored in secure-execution mode.

LD_TRACE_PRELINKING (from glibc 2.4 to glibc 2.35)
If this environment variable is defined, trace prelinking of the object whose name is assigned to
this environment variable. (Use ldd(1) to get a list of the objects that might be traced.) If
the object name is not recognized, then all prelinking activity is traced.

LD_USE_LOAD_BIAS (from glibc 2.3.3 to glibc 2.35)
By default (i.e., if this variable is not defined), executables and prelinked shared objects will
honor base addresses of their dependent shared objects and (nonprelinked) position-independent
executables (PIEs) and other shared objects will not honor them. If LD_USE_LOAD_BIAS is defined
with the value 1, both executables and PIEs will honor the base addresses. If LD_USE_LOAD_BIAS is
defined with the value 0, neither executables nor PIEs will honor the base addresses.

Since glibc 2.3.3, this variable is ignored in secure-execution mode.

LD_VERBOSE (since glibc 2.1)
If set to a nonempty string, output symbol versioning information about the program if the
LD_TRACE_LOADED_OBJECTS environment variable has been set.

LD_WARN (since glibc 2.1.3)
If set to a nonempty string, warn about unresolved symbols.

LD_PREFER_MAP_32BIT_EXEC (x86-64 only; since glibc 2.23)
According to the Intel Silvermont software optimization guide, for 64-bit applications, branch
prediction performance can be negatively impacted when the target of a branch is more than 4 GB
away from the branch. If this environment variable is set (to any value), the dynamic linker will
first try to map executable pages using the mmap(2) MAP_32BIT flag, and fall back to mapping
without that flag if that attempt fails. NB: MAP_32BIT will map to the low 2 GB (not 4 GB) of the
address space.

Because MAP_32BIT reduces the address range available for address space layout randomization
(ASLR), LD_PREFER_MAP_32BIT_EXEC is always disabled in secure-execution mode.

FILES

       /lib/ld.so
              a.out dynamic linker/loader

       /lib/ld-linux.so.{1,2}
              ELF dynamic linker/loader

       /etc/ld.so.cache
              File  containing  a  compiled  list  of  directories  in which to search for shared objects and an
              ordered list of candidate shared objects.  See ldconfig(8).

       /etc/ld.so.preload
              File containing a whitespace-separated list of ELF shared objects to be loaded before the program.
              See the discussion of LD_PRELOAD above.  If both LD_PRELOAD and /etc/ld.so.preload  are  employed,
              the  libraries  specified by LD_PRELOAD are preloaded first.  /etc/ld.so.preload has a system-wide
              effect, causing the specified libraries to be preloaded for all programs that are executed on  the
              system.   (This is usually undesirable, and is typically employed only as an emergency remedy, for
              example, as a temporary workaround to a library misconfiguration issue.)

       lib*.so*
              shared objects

NOTES

   Legacy Hardware capabilities (from glibc 2.5 to glibc 2.37)
       Some shared objects are compiled using hardware-specific instructions which do not exist  on  every  CPU.
       Such  objects  should  be installed in directories whose names define the required hardware capabilities,
       such as /usr/lib/sse2/.  The dynamic linker checks these directories against the hardware of the  machine
       and  selects  the most suitable version of a given shared object.  Hardware capability directories can be
       cascaded to combine CPU features.  The list of supported hardware capability names depends  on  the  CPU.
       The following names are currently recognized:

       Alpha  ev4, ev5, ev56, ev6, ev67

       MIPS   loongson2e, loongson2f, octeon, octeon2

       PowerPC
              4xxmac,  altivec,  arch_2_05,  arch_2_06, booke, cellbe, dfp, efpdouble, efpsingle, fpu, ic_snoop,
              mmu, notb, pa6t, power4, power5, power5+, power6x, ppc32, ppc601, ppc64, smt, spe, ucache, vsx

       SPARC  flush, muldiv, stbar, swap, ultra3, v9, v9v, v9v2

       s390   dfp, eimm, esan3, etf3enh, g5, highgprs, hpage, ldisp, msa, stfle, z900, z990, z9-109, z10, zarch

       x86 (32-bit only)
              acpi, apic, clflush, cmov, cx8, dts, fxsr, ht, i386, i486, i586, i686, mca, mmx, mtrr,  pat,  pbe,
              pge, pn, pse36, sep, ss, sse, sse2, tm

       The  legacy  hardware  capabilities support has the drawback that each new feature added grows the search
       path exponentially, because it has to be added to every combination of the other existing features.

       For instance, on x86 32-bit, if the hardware supports i686 and sse2, the resulting search  path  will  be
       i686/sse2:i686:sse2:..     A    new    capability    newcap    will    set    the    search    path    to
       newcap/i686/sse2:newcap/i686:newcap/sse2:newcap:i686/sse2:i686:sse2:.

   glibc Hardware capabilities (from glibc 2.33)
       glibc 2.33 added a new hardware capability scheme,
              where under each CPU architecture, certain levels can be defined,  grouping  support  for  certain
              features  or  special instructions.  Each architecture level has a fixed set of paths that it adds
              to the dynamic linker search list, depending on the hardware  of  the  machine.   Since  each  new
              architecture level is not combined with previously existing ones, the new scheme does not have the
              drawback of growing the dynamic linker search list uncontrollably.

       For  instance,  on  x86  64-bit,  if  the  hardware supports x86_64-v3 (for instance Intel Haswell or AMD
       Excavator), the  resulting  search  path  will  be  glibc-hwcaps/x86-64-v3:glibc-hwcaps/x86-64-v2:.   The
       following paths are currently supported, in priority order.

       PowerPC (64-bit little-endian only)
              power10, power9

       s390 (64-bit only)
              z16, z15, z14, z13

       x86 (64-bit only)
              x86-64-v4, x86-64-v3, x86-64-v2

       glibc 2.37 removed support for the legacy hardware capabilities.