Linking

To build an executable program from source code, you have to compile and link it. Compilation is translating the source code into machine language, linking is adding functionality from libraries like drawing a circle, writing or printing text. "Adding functionality from libraries to an executable program" can mean that you add the code from the library to your program or that you call a function from your program. Adding the code is called static linking, calling a function from a library is called dynamic linking.

See

• static linking
• dynamic linking