Large dynamically linked executables can have a LOT of dependencies, which are resolved by the runtime linker when a program is executed. To see which libraries an executable and the executable’s shared dependencies depend on, the ldd utility can be used:
$ ldd /usr/sbin/metastat
libmeta.so.1 => /lib/libmeta.so.1
libc.so.1 => /lib/libc.so.1
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1
libadm.so.1 => /lib/libadm.so.1
libdevid.so.1 => /lib/libdevid.so.1
libgen.so.1 => /lib/libgen.so.1
libefi.so.1 => /lib/libefi.so.1
libdevinfo.so.1 => /lib/libdevinfo.so.1
libscf.so.1 => /lib/libscf.so.1
libmp.so.2 => /lib/libmp.so.2
libmd5.so.1 => /lib/libmd5.so.1
libuuid.so.1 => /lib/libuuid.so.1
libnvpair.so.1 => /lib/libnvpair.so.1
libdoor.so.1 => /lib/libdoor.so.1
libuutil.so.1 => /lib/libuutil.so.1
libsocket.so.1 => /lib/libsocket.so.1
libm.so.2 => /lib/libm.so.2
/platform/SUNW,Ultra-5_10/lib/libc_psr.so.1
/platform/SUNW,Ultra-5_10/lib/libmd5_psr.so.1
To view just the shared libraries that the executable depends on, the elfdump “-d” (dump the contents of the dynamic symbol table) option can be used:
$ /usr/ccs/bin/elfdump -d /usr/sbin/metastat | grep NEEDED
[0] NEEDED 0x867 libmeta.so.1
[1] NEEDED 0x884 libc.so.1
In the examples above, metastat only requires two libraries, but those two libraries have numerous dependencies.