The article "Paths in pieces" discusses how Linux distributions and package managers audit binaries for non-relocatable absolute paths, but notes that when using GCC on x86-64, string constants may not always appear literally in the binary. This is due to an optimization that breaks down string constants into smaller pieces, making it difficult to detect absolute paths using tools like `grep` or `strings`. The author demonstrates this issue with a C++ example, showing that a compiled binary may not contain the expected path, even though it is printed at runtime, highlighting the limitations of post-hoc scanning for absolute paths in binaries compiled with GCC on x86-64.