<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Keep in Mind</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="FreeTDS User Guide" HREF="index.htm"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="On Linkers" HREF="rtl.htm"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="How Dost Thy Linker Link? " HREF="linker.how.htm"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="The interfaces File" HREF="interfacesfile.htm"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="userguide.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECTION" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN > User Guide: A Guide to Installing, Configuring, and Running <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >FreeTDS</SPAN ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="linker.how.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Appendix A. On Linkers</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="interfacesfile.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECTION" ><H1 CLASS="SECTION" ><A NAME="LINKER.CONCLUSION" >Keep in Mind</A ></H1 ><P >The compiler's job ends on the last line of each source code file. A header file describes a function <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >for the compiler</I ></SPAN >, not the linker. </P ><P >The linker, static or runtime, uses only the function's name to resolve references. Function parameters and semantics are invisible to it. </P ><P >The programmer and, to a lesser degree, the sysadmin direct the choice of which library to link to an executable. A missing function will prevent execution. A wrong function will promote wrong execution. Don't do that. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="linker.how.htm" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.htm" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="interfacesfile.htm" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >How Dost Thy Linker Link?</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="rtl.htm" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >The <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >interfaces</TT > File</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >
