Access routines

Access routines are used for reading the various parts of a common object file. Although the calling program must know the detailed structure of the parts of the object file it processes, the routines effectively insulate the calling program from the knowledge of the overall structure of the object file.

The access routines can be divided into four categories:

1. functions that open or close an object file

2. functions that read header or symbol table information

3. functions that position an object file at the start of a particular section of the object file

4. a function that returns the symbol table index for a particular symbol

These routines can be found in the library libld.a and are listed in the Programmer's Reference. A summary of what is available can be found in ldfcn(FP).