If you want to get really deep into this, you can read the book Linkers and Loaders by John Levine. It's useful if you're writing either a compiler or an OS, or

If you want to get really deep into this, you can read the book Linkers and Loaders by John Levine. It's useful if you're writing either a compiler or an OS, or if you really want to understand the subtleties of how executables are loaded and executed. It may not help you solve your immediate linking or loading problem, but it'll at least help you understand how you got there and what they computer is trying to do.