A software library is reusable code exposed through an interface for other computer programs to call. It can supply operations such as sorting, text decoding or solving a linear system. Clients depend on the interface and its behavioral contract rather than having to copy the implementation.
A compiled software library can be linked into a computer program or supplied as a shared component loaded for execution. CMake distinguishes static, shared and other library targets in a build description.[ref] For example, two applications can call the same numerical routine with different arrays. Reusing the implementation saves duplication, while both callers must still satisfy its dimension, precision and error-handling requirements. A software package is a distribution unit and can contain several software libraries.
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