whatis shared-library
Shared Library
Also known as: .so, dynamic library, ldd
A compiled .so file of code that many programs load at runtime instead of each including its own copy, such as libc.so.6.
What Is a Shared Library (.so) in Linux?
Dynamically linked programs list the shared libraries they need, and the dynamic linker finds and loads them at startup from paths like /usr/lib. Updating one library patches every program that uses it.
ldd /path/to/binary shows which libraries a program will load. "error while loading shared libraries" means one is missing or the wrong version.
Example
ldd /usr/bin/curlLearn more about Shared Library
- ldd and Shared Libraries: Why Your Binary Says No Such File A program that exists, is executable, and still reports file not found is almost always missing a shared library. Here is how dynamic linking works and how to find what is missing.
- Static vs Dynamic Linking Explained What the dynamic linker does at program startup, why a missing .so breaks everything, the tradeoffs of static binaries, and why glibc makes portable static linking harder than it looks.