GNU linker is the GNU Project

GNU Project

The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...

's implementation of the Unix

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

 command ld

Ld (Unix)

GNU linker is the GNU Project's implementation of the Unix command ld. GNU ld runs the linker, which creates an executable file from object files created during compilation of a software project. A linker script may be passed to GNU ld to exercise greater control over the linking process...

. GNU ld runs the linker, which creates an executable file (or a library) from object file

Object file

An object file is a file containing relocatable format machine code that is usually not directly executable. Object files are produced by an assembler, compiler, or other language translator, and used as input to the linker....

s created during compilation

Compiler

A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...

 of a software project. A linker script may be passed to GNU ld to exercise greater control over the linking process. The GNU linker is part of the GNU Binary Utilities

GNU Binary Utilities

The GNU Binary Utilities, or binutils, comprise a collection of programming tools for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats. The current versions were originally written by programmers at Cygnus Solutions using the Binary File Descriptor library...

 (binutils).

The name of the command originated as an abbreviation for "load

Loader (computing)

In computing, a loader is the part of an operating system that is responsible for loading programs. It is one of the essential stages in the process of starting a program, as it places programs into memory and prepares them for execution...

".

GNU linker is free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

.

See also

• Binary File Descriptor library (libbfd)
• Gold (linker)
  Gold (linker)
  gold is a linker for ELF files. It became an official GNU package and was added to binutils on March, 2008 and first released in binutils version 2.19. Gold was developed by Ian Lance Taylor and a small team at Google...