This parameter is significant if you need to build a binary that depends on other dynamic library. "rpath" means runtime path (to load dependent dynamic library).
And the very useful variable that we frequently used is "$ORIGIN" which means the path where your (link) target binary is loaded.
Assuming your target lib is libb.so and it depends on liba.so and their deployment structure is like:
<install_root>
|
libb.so
|
<sub_dir>
|
liba.so
You should supply below argument to your linker(i.e.g++):
-rpath,'$$ORIGIN/<sub_dir>'
# the above double '$' is necessary if it is written
# in makefile (for escape purpose).
For more information, check 'man ld'