<s>
In	O
Unix	B-Application
and	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
,	O
a	O
soname	B-Application
is	O
a	O
field	O
of	O
data	O
in	O
a	O
shared	O
object	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
soname	B-Application
is	O
a	O
string	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
used	O
as	O
a	O
"	O
logical	O
name	O
"	O
describing	O
the	O
functionality	O
of	O
the	O
object	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Typically	O
,	O
that	O
name	O
is	O
equal	O
to	O
the	O
filename	B-Device
of	O
the	O
library	O
,	O
or	O
to	O
a	O
prefix	O
thereof	O
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
soname	B-Application
is	O
often	O
used	O
to	O
provide	O
version	O
backwards-compatibility	B-General_Concept
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
instance	O
,	O
if	O
versions	O
1.0	O
through	O
1.9	O
of	O
the	O
shared	O
library	O
libx	O
provide	O
identical	O
interfaces	O
,	O
they	O
would	O
all	O
have	O
the	O
same	O
soname	B-Application
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
If	O
the	O
system	O
only	O
includes	O
version	O
1.3	O
of	O
that	O
shared	O
object	O
,	O
with	O
filename	B-Device
libx.so.1.3	O
,	O
the	O
soname	B-Application
field	O
of	O
the	O
shared	O
object	O
tells	O
the	O
system	O
that	O
it	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
fill	O
the	O
dependency	O
for	O
a	O
binary	O
which	O
was	O
originally	O
compiled	O
using	O
version	O
1.2	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
If	O
the	O
application	B-Operating_System
binary	I-Operating_System
interface	I-Operating_System
(	O
ABI	O
)	O
of	O
a	O
library	O
changes	O
in	O
a	O
backward-incompatible	B-General_Concept
way	O
,	O
the	O
soname	B-Application
would	O
be	O
incremented	O
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GNU	B-Application
linker	I-Application
uses	O
the	O
-hname	O
or	O
-soname	O
=	O
name	O
to	O
specify	O
the	O
library	O
name	O
field	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Internally	O
,	O
the	O
linker	B-Application
will	O
create	O
a	O
DT_SONAME	O
field	O
and	O
populate	O
it	O
with	O
name	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Given	O
any	O
shared	O
object	O
file	O
,	O
one	O
can	O
use	O
the	O
following	O
command	O
to	O
get	O
the	O
information	O
from	O
within	O
the	O
library	O
file	O
using	O
objdump	B-Device
:	O
</s>
