What is a Linker used for in computer programming?

Answer 1

Linking is the process of combining various pieces of code and data together to form a single executable that can be loaded in memory. Linking can be done at compile time, at load time (by loaders) and also at run time (by application programs)

Answer 2

The source code(the original code that we write in c++ eg:cout<<"Peter"; ) is converted to object code by the compiler and it is

converted to machine code(ie, executable file) by the linker(a linker is a program that combines object modules- codes to form an

executable program).

Answer 3

Building machine code from a C++ source is a three-stage process. First, the preprocessor interprets the # macros to produce intermediate source files. The compiler then produces object files from the intermediate files. Finally, the linker links the object files together to produce the machine code executable.

Answer 4

A "linker" is used for modular programming languages. A modular programming language is one that allows a program to be broken into multiple source files, then compiles each of those source files into individual "object files". The "linker" then links all of those object files into a final executable.

Answer 5

The output of the linker is a machine code executable (exe file) or library (lib or dll file). The linker's inputs are the object files output by the compiler. The purpose of the linker is to link these object files together. The object files are essentially the machine-code representations of each translation unit compiled by the compiler, including symbol tables to assist the linker. The compiler can only "see" one translation unit at a time and, beyond compile-time computations, has very little opportunity to optimise the code as it cannot see the whole program. The linker, however, can see the whole program and therefore has much greater opportunities to optimise the resultant machine code.

Answer 6

Nothing. Of course, if your program (written in C or whatever language) has undefined external symbols, or duplicate public symbols, you will get linker error.

Answer 7

1. Linker builds executable program from object-modules and object-libraries.

2. It is not part of the C-language.