Executable and Linking Format

The object files created by the Oracle Solaris SPARC assembler are Executable and Linking Format (ELF) files. These relocatable ELF files hold code and data suitable for linking with other object files to create an executable or a shared object file, and are the assembler normal output. The assembler can also write information to standard output (for example, under the -S option) and to standard error (for example, under the -V option). The SPARC assembler creates a default output file when standard input or multiple files are used.

The ELF object file format consists various component features, including:

• Header

• Sections

• Locations

• Addresses

• Relocation tables

• Symbol tables

• String tables

This chapter is just a summary of the ELF features. For complete details on the ELF format, see Chapter 12, Object File Format, in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Linkers and Libraries Guide.