Who loads and links the DLLs?

Windows and Linux both has PE/ELF binary loader to load executable and modules.
A loader in OS loads executable/extension when creating a process or when an application explicitly calls LoadLibrary() or LoadModule() to load a particular executable.
A loader loads any executable in the following steps.

  1. Find the executable in current/system/in path variable
  2. If not found through error
  3. If found check for signature of executable (say check signature of ELF ) for validity
  4. Load the code and data section in application/system address space.
  5. Links the imported symbols of the application with the exported symbols of the DLL.

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