what is the difference between linking and loading in c language

Question

Does linking and loading of the the dynamic libraries both happen at runtime? or is it that only loading of the library happens at run time?

Answer 1

Windows and Unix systems use completely different approaches to Dynamic libraries.

Windows DLLs are not linked. Therefore, you cannot share static objects across DLLs. It's just like a separate program in your address space.

Unix shared objects are really "linked" in run time, just as different modules of the same project, performing symbol resolution.