Relocation (computing): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:15, 31 July 2022

Revision as of 16:04, 1 August 2022

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A [[linker (computing)|linker]] usually performs relocation in conjunction with '''symbol resolution''', the process of searching files and libraries to replace symbolic references or names of [[library (computer science)|libraries]] with actual usable addresses in [[primary storage|memory]] before running a program.

Relocation is typically done by the linker at [[link time]], but it can also be done at [[load time]] by a relocating [[loader (computing)|loader]], or at [[run time (program lifecycle phase)|run time]] by the running program [[self-relocation|itself]]. Some architectures avoid relocation entirely by deferring address assignment to run time; as, for example, in stack machines with [[zero address arithmetic]] andor in some segmented architectures where every compilation unit is loaded into a separate segment.

== Segmentation ==