Is ld.so an executable?

$ file /lib/ld-linux.so.2 /lib/ld-linux.so.2: symbolic link to i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.27.so $ readlink -f /lib/ld-linux.so.2 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.27.so $ file /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.27.so /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.27.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, BuildID[sha1]=7a59ed1836f27b66ffd391d656da6435055f02f8, stripped So is ld-2.27.so a shared library? It is said to be a dynamic linker/loader and mentioned in section 8 of man . So is it an executable? If yes, why is it named like a shared library as *.so? If no, how shall I understand it is like an executable, for being a dynamic linker/loader and mentioned in section 8 of man? Thanks.