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LDCONFIG(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual LDCONFIG(8)
NAME
ldconfig - configure the dynamic linker search path for shared libraries
SYNOPSIS
ldconfig [-32] [-BRimr] [-f hints_file] [directory | file ...]
DESCRIPTION
ldconfig utility is used to configure the set of paths used by the
dynamic linker ld-elf.so.1(1) when searching for shared libraries. The
dynamic linker looks for libraries in a set of built-in system
directories and any directories specified in the hints file. This
obviates the need for storing search paths within the executable, see the
-rpath option for the static linker ld(1).
The hints file is maintained by ldconfig. The directories list to be
stored in the hints file is supplied on the command line.
Alternatively to the directories list on the command line, files may be
specified; these are expected to contain directories to scan for shared
libraries. Each directory's pathname must start on a new line. Blank
lines and lines starting with the comment character `#' are ignored.
For security reasons, directories which are world or group-writable or
which are not owned by root produce warning messages and are skipped,
unless the -i option is present.
The LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable can be used to specify
additional shared library search directories. LD_LIBRARY_PATH is a `:'
separated list of directory paths which are searched by the dynamic
linker when it needs to load a shared library. It can be viewed as the
run-time equivalent of the -L switch of ld(1).
The following options are recognized by ldconfig:
-32 Generate the hints for 32-bit ABI shared libraries on 64-bit
systems that support running 32-bit binaries.
-elf Ignored for backwards compatibility.
-B Force writing big-endian binary data to the hints file. The
default is to create hints files in the native byte-order of the
host. Reading of and merging into hints files preserves the
endianness of the existing hints file.
-R Appends pathnames on the command line to the directory list from
the hints file.
This is the default action when no options are given.
-f hints_file
Read and/or update the specified hints file, instead of the
standard file. This option is provided primarily for testing.
-i Run in insecure mode. The security checks will not be performed.
-m Instead of replacing the list of the directories to search with
the directories specified on the command line, merge existing
The historic options -elf, -s, and -v are accepted but ignored.
SECURITY
Special care must be taken when loading shared libraries into the address
space of set-user-Id programs. Whenever such a program is run by any
user except the owner of the program, the dynamic linker will only load
shared libraries from paths found in the hints file. In particular, the
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not used to search for libraries. Thus, ldconfig
serves to specify the trusted collection of directories from which shared
objects can be safely loaded.
FILES
/var/run/ld-elf.so.hints Standard hints file for the ELF dynamic
linker.
/var/run/ld-elf32.so.hints Hints file for 32 bit libraries on 64 bit
architectures, processed by ldconfig when
invoked with -32.
/etc/ld-elf.so.conf Optional file with names of directories to
be included in the standard hints file
when booting to multi-user mode.
/usr/local/libdata/ldconfig/* Additional files with names of directories
provided by optional ports or packages.
SEE ALSO
ld(1), ld-elf.so.1(1), link(5)
HISTORY
A ldconfig utility first appeared in SunOS 4.0, it appeared in its
current form in FreeBSD 1.1.
The name 'hints file' is historic from the times when the file also
contained hints to the dynamic linker. This functionality is not
provided for ELF.
FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE February 28, 2024 FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE