Editing Dld (software)

{{short description|Library package for the C programming language}}
'''Dld''' was a library package for the [[C (programming language)|C]] programming language that performs [[Dynamic loading|dynamic link editing]]. Programs that use dld can add or remove compiled [[object code]] from a process anytime during its execution. Loading modules, searching libraries, resolving external references, and allocating storage for global and static data structures are all performed at run time.

Dld supported various [[Unix]] platforms, having originally been developed for the [[VAX]], [[Sun-3]] and [[SPARCstation]] architectures.<ref name="spe">{{cite journal |title=An approach to genuine dynamic linking |author1=W. Wilson Ho |author2=Ronald A. Olsson |year=1991 |journal=Software: Practice and Experience |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=375–390 |doi=10.1002/spe.4380210404|citeseerx=10.1.1.37.933 }}</ref>
Its authors contrast its functionality with the dynamic linking that was at the time of its construction available in operating systems such as [[SunOS]] 4, [[UNIX System V|System V.4]], [[HP-UX]] and [[OpenVMS|VMS]]: all of these operating systems had [[shared libraries]], but did not allow programs to load additional libraries after startup. Dld offered this functionality without requiring changes to the OS or [[toolchain]].<ref name="spe"/>

Dld was a [[GNU]] package, but has been withdrawn because its functionality is available (through the <code>dlopen</code> API) in modern [[Unix-like]] operating systems.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/dld/ |title=dld |website=GNU Project |publisher=Free Software Foundation |accessdate=14 October 2013}}</ref>

==References==
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==External links==
* [https://swissnet.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/DLD.html DLD]
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[[Category:C (programming language) libraries]]


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