ELF Object File Format

Version 4.3 DRAFT

This document describes the ELF (Executable and Linking Format) object file format. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the file format and its data representation. Chapters 2–6 describe the file header and the structures that pertain to building programs. Chapters 7 and 8 describe additional structures that are necessary to execute a program.

• Foreword

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. File Format
  • 1.2. Data Representation
  • 1.3. Extensibility
  • 1.4. Required Features
• 2. ELF Header
  • 2.1. Contents of the ELF Header
  • 2.2. ELF Identification
  • 2.3. Data Encoding
• 3. Sections
  • 3.1. Special Section Indexes
  • 3.2. Section Header Table Entry
  • 3.3. Section Type
  • 3.4. Section Flags
  • 3.5. The sh_link and sh_info Fields
  • 3.6. First Section Header Table Entry
  • 3.7. Compressed Sections
  • 3.8. Rules for Linking Unrecognized Sections
  • 3.9. Section Groups
  • 3.10. Special Sections
• 4. String Table
• 5. Symbol Table
  • 5.1. Symbol Table Entry
  • 5.2. Symbol Binding
  • 5.3. Symbol Type
  • 5.4. Symbol Visibility
  • 5.5. Section Index
  • 5.6. First Symbol Table Entry
  • 5.7. Symbol Value
• 6. Relocation
  • 6.1. Relocation Entry
  • 6.2. Relative Relocation Table
• 7. Program Loading
  • 7.1. Program Header Entry
  • 7.2. Segment Types
  • 7.3. Base Address
  • 7.4. Segment Permissions
  • 7.5. Segment Contents
  • 7.6. Note Sections
  • 7.7. Thread-Local Storage
• 8. Dynamic Linking
  • 8.1. Program Interpreter
  • 8.2. Dynamic Linker
  • 8.3. Dynamic Section
  • 8.4. Shared Object Dependencies
  • 8.5. Hash Table
  • 8.6. Initialization and Termination Functions

• Appendix A: Assigned Machine Values
• Appendix B: Assigned OSABI Values
• Appendix C: Revision History