Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 13:02:24 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What exactly does the "ELF" tag mean? Message-ID: <20011229120224.GC3776@raggedclown.net> In-Reply-To: <F1297KEZmWBqzRzTqVw0000861d@hotmail.com> References: <F1297KEZmWBqzRzTqVw0000861d@hotmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 01:18:26AM +0000, S Roberts wrote: > Hello, > Simple question, I'm sure. > > What exactly is this "ELF" tag I keep coming across when reviewing software > (eg: MySQL 3.23.47 FreeBSD 4.4 ELF (Intel))designed to run on FreeBSD? > Not that simple a question :) Executable files conform to a certain structure, basically a definition of how they are laid out. ELF is the acronym for one such structure that is used by FreeBSD and some other systems. The original Unix structure was called "a.out" (which is still the default name for the output of the C compiler). For various reasons this was changed, although there are still a.out type binaries in the wild. There are many others. Binary compatibility is still a way off... This is quite a complex subject... Next question ? try asking what big-endian and little-endian mean .. lol. -- Regards Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20011229120224.GC3776>