When searching for an object (.OBJ), library (.LIB), or module definition (.DEF) file, the linker looks for the file in several locations.
The linker looks in this order:
If you specify a path with the file, the linker searches only that path and stops linking if the file cannot be found there.
If the linker cannot locate a file, it generates an error message and stops linking.
related references
Linker environment variables
File-name defaults