How Linux executes binaries: ELF and dynamic linking explained (opens in new tab)

Surely all of us have seen that we run ./app and within milliseconds we have a live process in the system. For the vast majority of modern developers, that brief lapse of time is an act of faith, a black box that simply “happens”. For a kernel hacker, however, it is the beginning of a determined choreography whose steps very few people know today.