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00000080  01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000a0  0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000b0  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

80 0: sh_name = 01 00 00 00: index 1 in the .shstrtab string table
Here, 1 says the name of this section starts at the first character of that section, and ends at the first NUL character, making up the string .data.
.data is one of the section names which has a predefined meaning according to www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.strtab.html:
These sections hold initialized data that contribute to the program's memory image.

80 4: sh_type = 01 00 00 00: SHT_PROGBITS: the section content is not specified by ELF, only by how the program interprets it. Normal since a .data section.
80 8: sh_flags = 03 7x 00: SHF_WRITE and SHF_ALLOC: www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#sh_flags, as required from a .data section
90 0: sh_addr = 8x 00: TODO: standard says:
If the section will appear in the memory image of a process, this member gives the address at which the section's first byte should reside. Otherwise, the member contains 0.
but I don't understand it very well yet.
90 8: sh_offset = 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 = 0x200: number of bytes from the start of the program to the first byte in this section
a0 0: sh_size = 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
If we take 0xD bytes starting at sh_offset 200, we see:
```
00000200  48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f  72 6c 64 21 0a 00        |Hello world!..  |
```
AHA! So our "Hello world!" string is in the data section like we told it to be on the NASM.
Once we graduate from hd, we will look this up like:
```
readelf -x .data hello_world.o
```
which outputs:
```
Hex dump of section '.data':
  0x00000000 48656c6c 6f20776f 726c6421 0a       Hello world!.
```
NASM sets decent properties for that section because it treats .data magically: www.nasm.us/doc/nasmdoc7.html#section-7.9.2
Also note that this was a bad section choice: a good C compiler would put the string in .rodata instead, because it is read-only and it would allow for further OS optimizations.
- a0 8: sh_link and sh_info = 8x 0: do not apply to this section type. www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#special_sections
- b0 0: sh_addralign = 04 = TODO: why is this alignment necessary? Is it only for sh_addr, or also for symbols inside sh_addr?
- b0 8: sh_entsize = 00 = the section does not contain a table. If != 0, it means that the section contains a table of fixed size entries. In this file, we see from the readelf output that this is the case for the .symtab and .rela.text sections.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Dynamic linking sections by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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This program did not have certain dynamic linking related sections because we linked it minimally with ld.

However, if you compile a C hello world with GCC 8.2:

gcc -o main.out main.c

some other interesting sections would appear.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Global file structure by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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An ELF file contains the following parts:

ELF header. Points to the position of the section header table and the program header table.
Section header table (optional on executable). Each has e_shnum section headers, each pointing to the position of a section.
N sections, with N <= e_shnum (optional on executable)
Program header table (only on executable). Each has e_phnum program headers, each pointing to the position of a segment.
N segments, with N <= e_phnum (only on executable)

The order of those parts is not fixed: the only fixed thing is the ELF header that must be the first thing on the file: Generic docs say:

Although the figure shows the program header table immediately after the ELF header, and the section header table following the sections, actual files may differ. Moreover, sections and segments have no specified order. Only the ELF header has a fixed position in the file.

In pictures: sample object file with three sections:

            +-------------------+
            | ELF header        |---+
+---------> +-------------------+   | e_shoff
|           |                   |<--+
| Section   | Section header 0  |
|           |                   |---+ sh_offset
| Header    +-------------------+   |
|           | Section header 1  |---|--+ sh_offset
| Table     +-------------------+   |  |
|           | Section header 2  |---|--|--+
+---------> +-------------------+   |  |  |
            | Section 0         |<--+  |  |
            +-------------------+      |  | sh_offset
            | Section 1         |<-----+  |
            +-------------------+         |
            | Section 2         |<--------+
            +-------------------+

But nothing (except sanity) prevents the following topology:

            +-------------------+
            | ELF header        |---+ e_shoff
            +-------------------+   |
            | Section 1         |<--|--+
+---------> +-------------------+   |  |
|           |                   |<--+  | sh_offset
| Section   | Section header 0  |      |
|           |                   |------|---------+
| Header    +-------------------+      |         |
|           | Section header 1  |------+         |
| Table     +-------------------+                |
|           | Section header 2  |---+            | sh_offset
+---------> +-------------------+   | sh_offset  |
            | Section 2         |<--+            |
            +-------------------+                |
            | Section 0         |<---------------+
            +-------------------+

But some newbies may prefer PNGs :-)

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Specula Melitensis Encyclica by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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"Specula Melitensis Encyclica," or more simply the "Encyclical of Malta," refers to a document issued by the Catholic Church, specifically related to Malta. However, it is important to clarify that there doesn't seem to be a widely recognized or well-documented encyclical by that precise title that is known in the broader context of Catholic doctrine or encyclical literature.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Index 0 section by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Contained in bytes 0x40 to 0x7F.

The first section is always magic: www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html says:

If the number of sections is greater than or equal to SHN_LORESERVE (0xff00), e_shnum has the value SHN_UNDEF (0) and the actual number of section header table entries is contained in the sh_size field of the section header at index 0 (otherwise, the sh_size member of the initial entry contains 0).

There are also other magic sections detailed in Figure 4-7: Special Section Indexes.

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Turris Babel by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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Florence van Straten by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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Florence van Straten is known for her work as a Dutch actress and television presenter. She has appeared in various television shows and films, gaining recognition in the entertainment industry. Additionally, she may have made contributions to Dutch culture through her performances and public appearances. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, it would be best to check recent sources or news articles.

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Glasgow Haskell Compiler by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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The Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) is a state-of-the-art open-source compiler for the Haskell programming language. Developed primarily by the Glasgow Haskell Compiler team at the University of Glasgow, GHC is the most widely used Haskell compiler and is known for its performance, advanced features, and extensive libraries.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Minimal ELF file by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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It is non-trivial to determine what is the smallest legal ELF file, or the smaller one that will do something trivial in Linux.

Some impressive attempts:

In this example we will consider a saner hello world example that will better capture real life cases.

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Version of the Hebrew Bible by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Fred Singer by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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Fred Singer (1924–2020) was an American theoretical physicist and a prominent figure in climate change debates. He was known for his work in various fields, including atmospheric physics and environmental science. Singer was a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and held various positions in academia and government throughout his career. Singer is perhaps best known for his skepticism about the extent and causes of global warming, advocating for a more cautious interpretation of climate data.

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Garth Paltridge by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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Garth Paltridge is an Australian atmospheric scientist known for his work in climate science and his critical views on the prevailing consensus regarding climate change. He has contributed to the field through research, publications, and public commentary. Paltridge has been a vocal advocate for skepticism regarding certain climate change models and policies, and he often emphasizes the complexity of climate systems and the uncertainties that exist in climate projections. His views have sparked discussions and debates within the scientific community and among the public regarding climate change discourse.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Object hd by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Running:

hd hello_world.o

gives:

00000000  7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.ELF............|
00000010  01 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..>.............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........@.......|
00000030  00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00  00 00 40 00 07 00 03 00  |....@.....@.....|
00000040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000080  01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000a0  0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000b0  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000c0  07 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  10 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000e0  27 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |'...............|
000000f0  10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000100  0d 00 00 00 03 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000110  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  40 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........@.......|
00000120  32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |2...............|
00000130  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000140  17 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  80 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000160  a8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  05 00 00 00 06 00 00 00  |................|
00000170  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000180  1f 00 00 00 03 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000190  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  30 03 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........0.......|
000001a0  34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |4...............|
000001b0  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001c0  27 00 00 00 04 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |'...............|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  70 03 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........p.......|
000001e0  18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  04 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |................|
000001f0  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000200  48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f  72 6c 64 21 0a 00 00 00  |Hello world!....|
00000210  b8 01 00 00 00 bf 01 00  00 00 48 be 00 00 00 00  |..........H.....|
00000220  00 00 00 00 ba 0d 00 00  00 0f 05 b8 3c 00 00 00  |............<...|
00000230  bf 00 00 00 00 0f 05 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000240  00 2e 64 61 74 61 00 2e  74 65 78 74 00 2e 73 68  |..data..text..sh|
00000250  73 74 72 74 61 62 00 2e  73 79 6d 74 61 62 00 2e  |strtab..symtab..|
00000260  73 74 72 74 61 62 00 2e  72 65 6c 61 2e 74 65 78  |strtab..rela.tex|
00000270  74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |t...............|
00000280  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000290  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 04 00 f1 ff  |................|
000002a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000002b0  00 00 00 00 03 00 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000002c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 03 00 02 00  |................|
000002d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000002e0  11 00 00 00 00 00 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000002f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  1d 00 00 00 00 00 f1 ff  |................|
00000300  0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000310  2d 00 00 00 10 00 02 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |-...............|
00000320  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000330  00 68 65 6c 6c 6f 5f 77  6f 72 6c 64 2e 61 73 6d  |.hello_world.asm|
00000340  00 68 65 6c 6c 6f 5f 77  6f 72 6c 64 00 68 65 6c  |.hello_world.hel|
00000350  6c 6f 5f 77 6f 72 6c 64  5f 6c 65 6e 00 5f 73 74  |lo_world_len._st|
00000360  61 72 74 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |art.............|
00000370  0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 02 00 00 00  |................|
00000380  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000390

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / PT_INTERP by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Contains the path to the dynamic loader, i.e. /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 in Ubuntu 18.10. Explained at: stackoverflow.com/questions/8040631/checking-if-a-binary-compiled-with-static/55664341#55664341

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Gavin Schmidt by

Wikipedia Bot 0  1970-01-01

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Gavin Schmidt is a prominent climate scientist known for his work in climate modeling and research. He is the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and has contributed significantly to understanding climate change and its impacts. Schmidt is also involved in public communication about climate science, helping to bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding. He regularly engages in discussions regarding climate policy, predictions, and the importance of addressing climate change.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / .rel.text by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Besides sh_type == SHT_RELA, there also exists SHT_REL, which would have section name .text.rel (not present in this object file).

Those represent the same struct, but without the addend, e.g.:

typedef struct {
    Elf64_Addr  r_offset;
    Elf64_Xword r_info;
} Elf64_Rela;

The ELF standard says that in many cases the both can be used, and it is just a matter of convenience.

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ELF Hello World Tutorial / Section header table by

Ciro Santilli 37  Updated 2025-07-01  +Created 1970-01-01

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Array of Elf64_Shdr structs.

Each entry contains metadata about a given section.

e_shoff of the ELF header gives the starting position, 0x40 here.

e_shentsize and e_shnum from the ELF header say that we have 7 entries, each 0x40 bytes long.

So the table takes bytes from 0x40 to 0x40 + 7 + 0x40 - 1 = 0x1FF.

Some section names are reserved for certain section types: www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#special_sections e.g. .text requires a SHT_PROGBITS type and SHF_ALLOC + SHF_EXECINSTR

Running:

readelf -S hello_world.o

outputs:

There are 7 section headers, starting at offset 0x40:

Section Headers:
  [Nr] Name              Type             Address           Offset
       Size              EntSize          Flags  Link  Info  Align
  [ 0]                   NULL             0000000000000000  00000000
       0000000000000000  0000000000000000           0     0     0
  [ 1] .data             PROGBITS         0000000000000000  00000200
       000000000000000d  0000000000000000  WA       0     0     4
  [ 2] .text             PROGBITS         0000000000000000  00000210
       0000000000000027  0000000000000000  AX       0     0     16
  [ 3] .shstrtab         STRTAB           0000000000000000  00000240
       0000000000000032  0000000000000000           0     0     1
  [ 4] .symtab           SYMTAB           0000000000000000  00000280
       00000000000000a8  0000000000000018           5     6     4
  [ 5] .strtab           STRTAB           0000000000000000  00000330
       0000000000000034  0000000000000000           0     0     1
  [ 6] .rela.text        RELA             0000000000000000  00000370
       0000000000000018  0000000000000018           4     2     4
Key to Flags:
  W (write), A (alloc), X (execute), M (merge), S (strings), l (large)
  I (info), L (link order), G (group), T (TLS), E (exclude), x (unknown)
  O (extra OS processing required) o (OS specific), p (processor specific)

The struct represented by each entry is:

typedef struct {
    Elf64_Word  sh_name;
    Elf64_Word  sh_type;
    Elf64_Xword sh_flags;
    Elf64_Addr  sh_addr;
    Elf64_Off   sh_offset;
    Elf64_Xword sh_size;
    Elf64_Word  sh_link;
    Elf64_Word  sh_info;
    Elf64_Xword sh_addralign;
    Elf64_Xword sh_entsize;
} Elf64_Shdr;

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 Pinned article: ourbigbook/introduction-to-the-ourbigbook-project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.

Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!

Video 1.

Intro to OurBigBook

. Source.

We have two killer features:

topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
Figure 1.
Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
Video 2.
OurBigBook Web topics demo
. Source.
local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
Figure 2.
You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either OurBigBook.com or as a static website
.
Figure 3.
Visual Studio Code extension installation
.
Figure 4.
Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
.
Figure 5.
Web editor
. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
Video 3.
Edit locally and publish demo
. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
Video 4.
OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
. Source.
Internal cross file references done right:
Infinitely deep tables of contents:
Figure 6.
Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
.
Live URL: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate
Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade

All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook

Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com

Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact

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