Special Environment Variables (Cont.)

Shared libraries and LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

This variable tells the dynamic linker-loader ('ld.so') where to look for shared libraries, and is consulted before 'ld.so' checks the '/etc/ld.so.cache' file.

Extra shared libraries with LD_PRELOAD.

This variable may contain names of libraries that should be loaded into memory after all other shared libraries were loaded. Such loading may be used to override the normal functions found in system libraries.