[Gllug] ELF, LSB [...] , stripped

[Dylan]

Firstly, please do not start a new thread by replying to a mail - send a new 
mail instead!

On Saturday 19 October 2002 22:09, Pavel Bradut Boghita wrote:
> I've been playing with some commands on my system and wondered about the
> output to the file command bellow.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> user at machine:/bin$ file /bin/ls
> /bin/ls: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1
> (SYSV),dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I was wondering if someone could give me a short explanation of what this
> means, just enough to have an idea. I searched google for ELF and LSB but I
> only found stuff which goes on about converting from SVR4 to ELF... anyway
> I understood that ELF is some way to package (compile) binaries... !?

Dunno, someone else will, no doubt

> - LSB I don't know what it means, a type of executable perhaps ?

Compliant with the Linux Standard base, probably - www.linuxbase.org

> - Intel 80386 - the minimum type of processor which can run it ?

yes, ish - the processor the binary was compiled for. Whether or not it runs 
on a 'higer' processor (or compatible) is not a clear cut matter, but usually 
it's not a problem.

> - version 1 (SYSV) - no idea
> - dynamically linked - there are links somewhere pointing to /bin/ls ?

No, the links are from ls to external dynamic libraries (like glibc, no doubt) 
just like it says "uses shared libraries".

> - stripped - no idea

Debugging and symbolic information has been taken out of the file to make it 
smaller - this info is only needed during development (usually)

Dylan

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