Relocation (computer science)

Relocation is when a computer program or software is moved from one place to another. It's like when you move your toys from your bedroom to your playroom. When a program is written, it is put into a file called an executable file or a binary file. This file has a specific location in the computer's memory where all the instructions are stored. It's like a big book that tells the computer what to do.

When a program is moved from one computer to another or from one folder to another, the location where the program was stored could be different. It's like moving your toys from your bedroom to your friend's bedroom, and their room might be organized differently. So, the executable file needs to be updated to tell the computer where to find all the instructions it needs to run the program.

This updating process is called relocation. It's like when you move your toys to your friend's bedroom, you need to tell them where to find specific toys in their new room. In computer science, this process of relocating is done automatically by the operating system, which adjusts the program's memory addresses to match its new location.

Relocation is important because it allows programs to be moved to different locations without having to rewrite them every time. It's like you can move your toys to different rooms without having to change them every time. This makes it easy to use the same program on different computers or in different folders.