Executable and Linkable Format

File Format
Name	Executable and Linkable Format
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Executables Executable and Linkable Format
Extension(s)	(none), .elf, .o, .so, .mod
PRONOM	fmt/688, fmt/689, fmt/690, fmt/691

Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) is a file format used for executables, shared (dynamically linked) libraries, object code and core dumps.

The Wikipedia article has a long list of links to various specifications.

Format info

• Graphic showing header structure
• elf(5) manual page

Software

• GNU Binutils → objdump
• GNU Binutils → readelf

Links

• ELF101 - a Linux executable walkthrough
• Hacking GCN via OpenGL (it's got an ELF in it)