Two Linux C/C++ library types 1. Static Library (.a) : become part of application 2. Dynamically linked shared object libraries (.so) : one form but can used in two ways: 1) Dynamically linked at run time 2) Dynamically loaded/unloaded and linked during execution using the dynamic linking loader system functions
Library naming convertions: libraries are typically named with prefix "lib". When linking, the command line reference will not contain the library prefix and suffix example: gcc src.c -lm -lpthread