![Forrest logo](/images/logo.png)
ldconfig:tldr:5e846
The sudo ldconfig
command is used in Linux systems to update the list of shared libraries caches. It helps the system locate shared libraries and their dependencies for installed software.
Here's what happens when you execute sudo ldconfig
:
-
sudo
: It is used to run the command with administrative privileges. When you usesudo
, you will be prompted to enter your password before the command is executed. -
ldconfig
: It is a utility that is used to maintain the runtime linkers cache for shared libraries on a Linux system. The linker is responsible for combining object files and libraries to create executable files.
When you run sudo ldconfig
, the utility will perform the following tasks:
-
It searches for shared libraries and their associated configuration files in predefined directories (such as
/lib
and/usr/lib
) and any additional directories specified in the/etc/ld.so.conf
file or files under the/etc/ld.so.conf.d/
directory. -
It updates the system-wide cache (
/etc/ld.so.cache
), which stores a list of available shared libraries and their locations. This cache speeds up the process of locating and loading shared libraries by the system's runtime linker.
Updating this cache is important after installing or removing shared libraries manually, as it ensures that the system can find the newly added or removed libraries.
To summarize, sudo ldconfig
updates the shared library cache on a Linux system, making sure that the system can locate and load the shared libraries required by installed software.