dynamic linking VS static linking

A static library is meant to be combined with your code into a single executable file by a linker.

A dynamic library is meant to be loaded by the operating system after the main executable has been loaded, and the linking of the symbol addresses will be done by the OS at that time. This may be done automatically based on dependency information in the executable, or it may be done explicitly by the program. This is called "dynamic linking" because the library may change at any point before the OS has loaded it.