Order in which library directories are searched and linked

I am having difficulty understanding the order in which directories are searched for linking to libraries. I have a CentOS6 system and 3 versions of gcc, 4.4.7, 4.7.2, 4.9.2. The system version is 4.4.7 and version 4.7.2 and 4.9.2 are modules. In /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ there two files, gcc-4.7.2.conf and gcc-4.9.2.conf which contain the paths to the 4.7.2 and 4.9.2 libraries.

I created a simple C++ program, main.cpp

#include <cstdio>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;


int main(void)
{
    cout << "Hello You!" << endl;
    printf("Back at you!\n");

    return 0;
}

compiling it with g++-4.4.7 and running ldd a.out, I see

linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fff5535b000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /nonstandardpath/gcc-4.7.2/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00002ac12de73000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00002ac12e17a000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /nonstandardpath/gcc-4.7.2/lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00002ac12e3ff000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00002ac12e614000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00002ac12dc51000)

Looking at man ld, it states (under -rpath-link=dir) :

The linker uses the following search paths to locate required shared libraries:

1. Any directories specified by -rpath-link options.

2. Any directories specified by -rpath options. The difference between -rpath and -rpath-link is that directories specified by -rpath options are included in the executable and used at runtime, whereas the -rpath-link option is only effective at link time. Searching -rpath in this way is only supported by native linkers and cross linkers which have been configured with the --with-sysroot option.

3. On an ELF system, for native linkers, if the -rpath and -rpath-link options were not used, search the contents of the environment variable "LD_RUN_PATH".

4. On SunOS, if the -rpath option was not used, search any directories specified using -L options.

5. For a native linker, the search the contents of the environment variable "LD_LIBRARY_PATH".

6. For a native ELF linker, the directories in "DT_RUNPATH" or "DT_RPATH" of a shared library are searched for shared libraries needed by it. The "DT_RPATH" entries are ignored if "DT_RUNPATH" entries exist.

7. The default directories, normally /lib and /usr/lib.

8. For a native linker on an ELF system, if the file /etc/ld.so.conf exists, the list of directories found in that file.

   If the required shared library is not found, the linker will issue a warning and continue with the link.

It does not state the order in which the directories are searched. From my example above, it appears that /etc/ld.so.conf.d is searched before /usr/lib or /lib

QUESTION : what is the order in which linker searches for libraries (e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH, ld.so.conf.d, -rpath, -L)?