5.1: Assemble/Link/Load Overview
- Page ID
- 19883
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In broad terms, the assemble, link, and load process is how programmer written source files are converted into an executable program.
The human readable source file is converted into an object file by the assembler. In the most basic form, the object file is converted into an executable file by the linker. The loader will load the executable file into memory.
An overview of the process is provided in the following diagram.
The assemble, link, and load steps are described in more detail in the following sections.