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GELF(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual GELF(3)
NAME
gelf - class-independent API for ELF manipulation
LIBRARY
ELF Access Library (libelf, -lelf)
SYNOPSIS
#include <gelf.h>
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes a class independent API for manipulating ELF
objects. This API allows an application to operate on ELF descriptors
without needing to the know the ELF class of the descriptor.
The GElf API may be used alongside the ELF API without restriction.
GElf Data Structures
The GElf API defines the following class-independent data structures:
GElf_Addr A representation of ELF addresses.
GElf_Chdr A class-independent representation of an ELF Compression
Header.
GElf_Dyn A class-independent representation of ELF .dynamic section
entries.
GElf_Ehdr A class-independent representation of an ELF Executable
Header.
GElf_Half An unsigned 16 bit quantity.
GElf_Off A class-independent representation of a ELF offset.
GElf_Phdr A class-independent representation of an ELF Program Header
Table entry.
GElf_Rel A class-independent representation of an ELF relocation
entry.
GElf_Rela A class-independent representation of an ELF relocation
entry with addend.
GElf_Shdr A class-independent representation of an ELF Section Header
Table entry.
GElf_Sword A signed 32 bit quantity.
GElf_Sxword A signed 64 bit quantity.
GElf_Sym A class-independent representation of an ELF symbol table
entry.
GElf_Word An unsigned 32 bit quantity.
GElf_Xword An unsigned 64 bit quantity.
ELF data structure. The programming model with GElf is as follows:
1. An application will retrieve data from an ELF descriptor using a
gelf_get_*() function. This will copy out data into a private
GElf_* data structure.
2. The application will work with its private copy of the GElf
structure.
3. Once done, the application copies the new values back to the
underlying ELF data structure using the gelf_update_*() functions.
4. The application will then use the elf_flag*() APIs to indicate to
the ELF library that an ELF data structure is dirty.
When updating an underlying 32 bit ELF data structure, the GElf routines
will signal an error if a GElf value is out of range for the underlying
ELF data type.
Namespace use
The GElf interface uses the following symbols:
GElf_* Class-independent data types.
gelf_* For functions defined in the API set.
GElf Programming APIs
This section provides an overview of the GElf programming APIs. Further
information is provided in the manual page of each function listed here.
Allocating ELF Data Structures
gelf_newehdr()
Allocate a new ELF Executable Header.
gelf_newphdr()
Allocate a new ELF Program Header Table.
Data Translation
gelf_xlatetof()
Translate the native representation of an ELF data
structure to its file representation.
gelf_xlatetom()
Translate from the file representation of an ELF data
structure to a native representation.
Retrieving ELF Data
gelf_getchdr()
Retrieve an ELF Compression Header from the underlying
ELF descriptor.
gelf_getdyn()
Retrieve an ELF .dynamic table entry.
gelf_getehdr()
Retrieve an ELF Executable Header from the underlying ELF
descriptor.
gelf_getphdr()
Retrieve an ELF Program Header Table entry from the
underlying ELF descriptor.
gelf_getrel()
Retrieve an ELF relocation entry.
gelf_getrela()
Queries
gelf_checksum()
Retrieves the ELF checksum for an ELF descriptor.
gelf_fsize()
Retrieves the size of the file representation of an ELF
type.
gelf_getclass()
Retrieves the ELF class of an ELF descriptor.
Updating ELF Data
gelf_update_dyn()
Copy back an ELF .dynamic Table entry.
gelf_update_phdr()
Copy back an ELF Program Header Table entry.
gelf_update_rel()
Copy back an ELF relocation entry.
gelf_update_rela()
Copy back an ELF relocation with addend entry.
gelf_update_shdr()
Copy back an ELF Section Header Table entry.
gelf_update_sym()
Copy back an ELF symbol table entry.
SEE ALSO
elf(3), elf(5)
HISTORY
The gelf API first appeared in AT&T System V Release 4 UNIX. This
implementation of the API first appeared in FreeBSD 7.0.
AUTHORS
The GElf API was implemented by Joseph Koshy <jkoshy@FreeBSD.org>.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 October 23, 2020 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11