link loader

linker
linkage editor
link editor
link loader

   <programming, tool> (link editor, linkage editor, link loader)
   A program that combines one or more files containing {object
   code} from separately compiled program {modules} into a single
   file containing loadable or executable code

   This process involves resolving references between the
   {modules} and fixing the {relocation} information used by the
   operating system {kernel} when loading the file into memory to
   run it.

   Under {Unix}, the linker is called "ld" and {object files}
   have filename extension .o (object), .so (shared object), or
   .lib ({library}), and the resulting {executable} is called
   "a.out" by default.

   (2001-10-13)