LD_LIBRARY_PATH vs /etc/ld.so.cash question

[Alexei Nefediev <nefediev heron itep ru>]

Hello,

I would appreciate if somebody of know cleared up the following situation:
in e.g. Solaris one should set the variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to allow
application to see the libraries they are linked against. In Linux it is
ldconfig utility to solve the same purpose, but LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable
can also be set. So, the questions are:

1. Does the order of strings in /etc/ld.so.conf file matter? Does this
order define the order of looking for libraries by applications?
2. If LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable is set how does it affect the path to
libraries?
3. Is it possible to re-set this variable before starting some application
to make it take the apropriate library?

Thanks in advance,
Alexei