The article explains that although memory appears as a simple array of bytes, the way programs locate data—through absolute and relative addressing, segment registers, and relocation—introduces significant complexity, especially in early x86 real‑mode environments where there is no memory protection.
The article explains how manually calculating absolute memory addresses for functions leads to error‑prone maintenance, introduces the concept of symbols to reference code by name, and details the role of object files, symbol tables, relocation tables, and the linking process that resolves addresses automatically.
This article explores the mechanisms of dynamic linking on Linux, covering global symbol interposition, lazy binding, position‑independent code, relocation tables, hidden symbols, and initialization order, with detailed code examples and assembly analysis to help developers understand and troubleshoot symbol conflicts and address‑independent execution.
This article explains the principles of static and dynamic linking on iOS, details how symbol tables, relocation entries, and GOT/PLT work, and demonstrates a practical static‑library hooking technique using relocation tables and the fishhook library.
