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authorjohannst <johannes.stoelp@gmail.com>2020-11-18 22:55:47 +0100
committerjohannst <johannes.stoelp@gmail.com>2020-11-18 22:55:47 +0100
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added hello dynamic link module
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+# Hello dynamic linking
+
+In `dynamic linking` a program can use code that is not contained in the
+program itself but rather in separate library files, so called shared objects.
+
+A statically linked program contains all the `code` & `data` that it needs to
+run from start until completion. The program will be loaded by the OS from the
+disk into the virtual address space and control is handed over to the mapped
+program.
+```text
+ @vm
+ | |
+ @disk |--------|
++--------+ execve(2) | | <- $rip
+| prog A | ------------> | prog A |
++--------+ | |
+ |--------|
+ | |
+```
+
+A dynamically linked program needs to specify a `dynamic linker` which is
+basically a runtime interpreter. The OS will additionally load that interpreter
+into the virtual address space and give control to the interpreter rather than
+the user program.
+The interpreter will prepare the execution environment, like loading the
+dependencies and so on and once that is done pass control to the user program.
+```text
+ @vm @vm
+ | | | |
+ @disk |--------| |----------|
++--------------+ execve(2) | | | | <- $rip
+| prog A | ------------> | prog A | | prog A |
++--------------+ | | load deps | |
+| interp ldso | |--------| ------------> |----------|
+| dep libgreet | | | | |
++--------------+ |--------| |----------|
+ | ldso | <- $rip | ldso |
+ |--------| |----------|
+ | |
+ |----------|
+ | libgreet |
+ |----------|
+```
+> NOTE: Technically the OS does not need to load the user program itself in
+> case it is dynamically linked, but that detail is not important here.
+
+In `ELF` files the name of the dynamic linker is specified in the `.interp` section.
+```bash
+readelf -W --string-dump .interp main
+
+String dump of section '.interp':
+ [ 0] /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
+```
+
+The `.interp` section is referenced by the `PT_INTERP` segment in the program
+headers. During `execve(2)` in the [`load_elf_binary`][load_elf_binary]
+function (Linux Kernel) this segment is used to check if the program needs a
+dynamic linker and to get its name.
+```bash
+readelf -W --sections --program-headers main
+
+Section Headers:
+ [Nr] Name Type Address Off Size ES Flg Lk Inf Al
+ [ 0] NULL 0000000000000000 000000 000000 00 0 0 0
+ [ 1] .interp PROGBITS 00000000000002a8 0002a8 00001c 00 A 0 0 1
+ ...
+
+Program Headers:
+ Type Offset VirtAddr PhysAddr FileSiz MemSiz Flg Align
+ PHDR 0x000040 0x0000000000000040 0x0000000000000040 0x000268 0x000268 R 0x8
+ INTERP 0x0002a8 0x00000000000002a8 0x00000000000002a8 0x00001c 0x00001c R 0x1
+ [Requesting program interpreter: /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2]
+ ...
+```
+
+Using `gdb` to break on the first instruction (`starti`) and printing the
+backtrace (`bt`) it can be seen that the control first is passed to the
+dynamic linker `ld-linux-x86.so.2` rather than to the user program.
+```bash
+gdb -q --batch -ex 'starti' -ex 'bt' ./main
+
+Program stopped.
+0x00007ffff7fd2090 in _start () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
+#0 0x00007ffff7fd2090 in _start () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
+#1 0x0000000000000001 in ?? ()
+#2 0x00007fffffffe43e in ?? ()
+#3 0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
+```
+> NOTE: Frames `#1`, `#2`, `#3` don't actually exist, gdb's unwinder just tried to further unwind the stack.
+
+## Things to remember
+- Dynamically linked programs use code contained in separate library files.
+- The `dynamic linker` is an interpreter loaded by the OS and gets control
+ before the user program.
+- A dynamically linked program specifies the dynamic linker needed in the
+ `.interp` ELF section.
+
+[load_elf_binary]: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v5.9.8/source/fs/binfmt_elf.c#L850