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Introduction Compiler-linker-Assembler-loader Concept

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64 views2 pages

Introduction Compiler-linker-Assembler-loader Concept

To explore knowledge

Uploaded by

jk716773
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Computer Organization and Assembly language

Department of CS/IT HU
Instructor: Mir Muhammad Wasiq

Compiler, Linker, Assembler and Loader


1. Introduction
In this tutorial, we’ll study the roles of the compiler, linker, assembler, and loader modules in a
typical process of generating an executable code.
2. Executable Generation
A computer program is a sequence of statements in a programming language that instructs
the CPU to achieve a particular result.
To execute a program, we convert the source code to machine code. So, first, we compile the
code to an intermediate level and then convert it to assembly-level code. Then, we link this
assembly code with other external libraries or components it uses. Finally, we load it in memory
and execute the code:

Components in detail
3. Compiler
A compiler is a specialized system tool that translates a program written in a specific
programming language into the assembly language code. The assembly language code is
specific to each machine and is governed by the CPU of the machine.
The compiler takes a source-code file as input and carries out various transformations on it to
output the corresponding assembly code file. Internally, the compiler reads the whole source
code in a single pass before starting its work. Then, it creates language tokens from each line of
code and verifies the program conforms to the semantic rules/syntax of the programming
language’s grammar. Afterward it generates assembly code.
Most compilers perform multiple iterations before producing an output file.
4. Assembler
The assembler enters the arena after the compiler has played its part. The assembler translates
our assembly code to the machine code and then stores the result in an object file. This file
contains the binary representation of our program.
Moving further, the assembler gives a memory location to each object and instruction in
our code. The memory location can be physical as well as virtual. A virtual location is an offset
that is relative to the base address of the first instruction.
5. Linker
Next, we move to the linker module. The linker spawns to action after the assembler has done its
job. The linker combines all external programs (such as libraries and other shared
components) with our program to create a final executable. At the end of the linking step, we
get the executable for our program.
So, the linker takes all object files as input, resolves all memory references, and finally merges
these object files to make an executable file.
Thus, there are two prime tasks of the linker. The first is to probe and find referenced modules or
methods, or variables in our program. And the second is to determine and resolve the absolute
memory location where these codes need to be loaded.
6. Loader
The loader is a specialized operating system module that comes last in the picture. It loads the
final executable code into memory.
Afterward, it creates the program and data stack. Then, it initializes various registers and finally
gives control to the CPU so that it can start executing the code.

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