Equally important in some environments is the ability to bind an entire subroutine library in advance of its use. The system subroutine libraries such as libc.a are, in effect, shipped in binder-output format, rather than as an archive file of .o files. This saves the user considerable processing time when binding an application with the required system libraries, because only the references from the application to the library subroutines have to be resolved. References among the system library routines themselves have already been resolved during the system-build process.
Many third-party subroutine libraries, however, are routinely shipped in archive form as raw .o files. When users bind applications with such libraries, the binder must resolve symbols for the entire library each time the application is bound. This results in long bind times in environments where applications are being bound with large libraries on small machines.
The performance difference between bound and unbound libraries can be significant, especially in minimum configurations.