ld.so(8) System Manager's Manual ld.so(8)
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.
(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 or 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.
SEE ALSO
ld(1), ldd(1), pldd(1), sprof(1), dlopen(3), getauxval(3), elf(5),
capabilities(7), rtld-audit(7), ldconfig(8), sln(8)
Linux man-pages 6.15 2025-05-17 ld.so(8)
ld.so, ld\-linux.so \- dynamic linker/loader