[COFF] [TUHS] Re: What does `ld` stand for?

[Douglas McIlroy via COFF]

>> Technically exec(2) was the loader.  ld was generally invoked
>> subliminally and rarely recursively. Thus, in conversation it was
>> known as "loader", a converter from relocatable binary to core image.
>> The man page, however, carefully characterized its full recursive
>> capability.

> How was ld invoked subliminally?  What do you mean by invoking it
> recursively?

> but is that called "recursion"?  If yes, ok I'll accept that.
> If not, then what is "loader recursion"?

Subliminality: Ld is involved in creating almost every a.out, but
rarely appears in the shell scripts that cause the creation.

Ld does not call itself recursively, but it can be used recursively.
For example, one can write a recursive shell script to combine
a list of .o files one at a time instead of all at once.

Doug