Also called link editor and binder, a linker is a program that combines object modules to form an executable program. Many programming languages allow you to write different pieces of code, called modules, separately. This simplifies the programming task because you can break a large program into small, more manageable pieces. Eventually, though, you need to put all the modules together. This is the job of the linker.
In addition to combining modules, a linker also replaces symbolic addresses with real addresses. Therefore, you may need to link a program even if it contains only one module.
