Libraries, of course, are archives (collections) of code; as we well know, using libraries helps tremendously with code modularity, standardization, preventing the reinvent-the-wheel syndrome, and so on. A Linux desktop system might have libraries numbering in the hundreds, and possibly even a few thousand!
The classic K&R hello, world C program uses the printf API to write the string to the display:
printf(“hello, world\n”);
Obviously, the code of printf is not part of the hello, world source. So where does it come from? It's part of the standard C library; on Linux, due to its GNU origins, this library is commonly called GNU libc (glibc).
Glibc is a critical and required component on a Linux box. It not only contains the usual ...
