Introduction

This section describes the object file information and system actions that create running programs. Some information here applies to all systems; information specific to one processor resides in sections marked accordingly.

Executable and shared object files statically represent programs. To execute such programs, the system uses the files to create dynamic program representations, or process images. As section ''Virtual Address Space'' in Chapter 3 of the processor supplement describes, a process image has segments that hold its text, data, stack, and so on. This chapter's major sections discuss the following:

• Program Header. This section complements Chapter 4, describing object file structures that relate directly to program execution. The primary data structure, a program header table, locates segment images within the file and contains other information necessary to create the memory image for the program.
• Program Loading. Given an object file, the system must load it into memory for the program to run.
• Dynamic linking. After the system loads the program it must complete the process image by resolving symbolic references among the object files that compose the process.