Linux/Library Path

From Omnia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The usual dynamic linker on Linux uses a cache to find its libraries. The cache is stored in /etc/ld.so.cache, and is updated by ldconfig which looks on the paths it’s given in /etc/ld.so.conf (and nowadays typically files in /etc/ld.so.conf.d). Its contents can be listed by running ldconfig -p.

So there is no default value for LD_LIBRARY_PATH, default library lookup doesn’t need it at all. If LD_LIBRARY_PATH is defined, then it is used first, but doesn’t disable the other lookups (which also include a few default directories)


ref [https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/354295/what-is-the-default-value-of-ld-library-path

The ld.so(8) manpage has the details:

  • If a shared object dependency does not contain a slash, then it is searched for in the following order:
  • Using the directories specified in the DT_RPATH dynamic section attribute of the binary if present and DT_RUNPATH attribute does not exist. Use of DT_RPATH is deprecated.
  • Using the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH, unless the executable is being run in secure-execution mode (see below), in which case it is ignored.
  • Using the directories specified in the DT_RUNPATH dynamic section attribute of the binary if present.
  • From the cache file /etc/ld.so.cache, which contains a compiled list of candidate shared objects previously found in the augmented library path. If, however, the binary was linked with the -z nodeflib linker option, shared objects in the default paths are skipped. Shared objects installed in hardware capability directories (see below) are preferred to other shared objects.
  • In the default path /lib, and then /usr/lib. (On some 64-bit architectures, the default paths for 64-bit shared objects are /lib64, and then /usr/lib64.) If the binary was linked with the -z nodeflib linker option, this step is skipped.

If LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set or is empty, it is ignored. If it is set to empty values (with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=: for example), those empty values are interpreted as the current directory.