Libraries
Libraries - what are they?
No, not that type of library.
In Linux, libraries are precompiled code that can be used by a program. Programmers uses libraries to make their life easier as they do not have to reinvent the wheel each time they need to do a task (like reading or writing to a file).
Linux has many libraries that are used. Some more common ones are:
libc (standard C library)
glibc (GNU version of the standard C library)
libcrypt (encryption library)
ldconfig
The ldconfig command creates the links and caches the libraries that are found in directories provided on the command line or in the /etc/ld.so.conf file or in trusted directories. The trusted directories are usually:
/lib
/usr/lib
ldd
If you are wondering about what shared libraries a program uses you can use the ldd command to determine this information