Techniques for cloning programming code are disclosed. In an embodiment, the cloned code is in the form of functions in the C language. Further, in a method embodiment, a clone of a function is invoked, and information mapping the clone to the function is generated. At link time, if no function body of the clone is accessible by a linker, then the linker uses information mapping the clone to the function to satisfy a linker's requirement. At load time, if no function body of the clone is accessible by a loader, then the loader, based on the mapping information, allows selection of a body of the function. However, if the body function of the clone is accessible by the loader, then the loader allows selection of the body of the clone.