xref: /freebsd/contrib/elftoolchain/libelf/gelf.3 (revision 86c9d9918f1db7cdd968b60f8902466887bcd9e9)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2006,2008 Joseph Koshy.  All rights reserved.
2.\"
3.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
4.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
5.\" are met:
6.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
7.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
8.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
9.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
10.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
11.\"
12.\" This software is provided by Joseph Koshy ``as is'' and
13.\" any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the
14.\" implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose
15.\" are disclaimed.  in no event shall Joseph Koshy be liable
16.\" for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential
17.\" damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods
18.\" or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption)
19.\" however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict
20.\" liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way
21.\" out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of
22.\" such damage.
23.\"
24.\" $Id: gelf.3 3195 2015-05-12 17:22:19Z emaste $
25.\"
26.Dd September 1, 2006
27.Os
28.Dt GELF 3
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm GElf
31.Nd class-independent API for ELF manipulation
32.Sh LIBRARY
33.Lb libelf
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.In gelf.h
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37This manual page describes a class independent API for manipulating
38ELF objects.
39This API allows an application to operate on ELF descriptors without
40needing to the know the ELF class of the descriptor.
41.Pp
42The GElf API may be used alongside the ELF API without restriction.
43.Ss GElf Data Structures
44The GElf API defines the following class-independent data structures:
45.Bl -tag -width GElf_Sxword
46.It Vt GElf_Addr
47A representation of ELF addresses.
48.It Vt GElf_Dyn
49A class-independent representation of ELF
50.Sy .dynamic
51section entries.
52.It Vt GElf_Ehdr
53A class-independent representation of an ELF Executable Header.
54.It Vt GElf_Half
55An unsigned 16 bit quantity.
56.It Vt GElf_Off
57A class-independent representation of a ELF offset.
58.It Vt GElf_Phdr
59A class-independent representation of an ELF Program Header Table
60entry.
61.It Vt GElf_Rel
62A class-independent representation of an ELF relocation entry.
63.It Vt GElf_Rela
64A class-independent representation of an ELF relocation entry with
65addend.
66.It Vt GElf_Shdr
67A class-independent representation of an ELF Section Header Table
68entry.
69.It Vt GElf_Sword
70A signed 32 bit quantity.
71.It Vt GElf_Sxword
72A signed 64 bit quantity.
73.It Vt GElf_Sym
74A class-independent representation of an ELF symbol table entry.
75.It Vt GElf_Word
76An unsigned 32 bit quantity.
77.It Vt GElf_Xword
78An unsigned 64 bit quantity.
79.El
80.Pp
81These data structures are sized to be compatible with the
82corresponding 64 bit ELF structures, and have the same internal
83structure as their 64 bit class-dependent counterparts.
84Class-dependent ELF structures are described in
85.Xr elf 5 .
86.Ss GElf Programming Model
87GElf functions always return a
88.Em copy
89of the underlying (class-dependent) ELF data structure.
90The programming model with GElf is as follows:
91.Bl -enum
92.It
93An application will retrieve data from an ELF descriptor using a
94.Fn gelf_get_*
95function.
96This will copy out data into a private
97.Vt GElf_*
98data structure.
99.It
100The application will work with its private copy of the GElf
101structure.
102.It
103Once done, the application copies the new values back to the
104underlying ELF data structure using the
105.Fn gelf_update_*
106functions.
107.It
108The application will then use the
109.Fn elf_flag*
110APIs to indicate to the ELF library that an ELF data structure is dirty.
111.El
112.Pp
113When updating an underlying 32 bit ELF data structure, the GElf
114routines will signal an error if a GElf value is out of range
115for the underlying ELF data type.
116.Ss Namespace use
117The GElf interface uses the following symbols:
118.Bl -tag
119.It GElf_*
120Class-independent data types.
121.It gelf_*
122For functions defined in the API set.
123.El
124.Ss GElf Programming APIs
125This section provides an overview of the GElf programming APIs.
126Further information is provided in the manual page of each function
127listed here.
128.Bl -tag
129.It "Allocating ELF Data Structures"
130.Bl -tag -compact
131.It Fn gelf_newehdr
132Allocate a new ELF Executable Header.
133.It Fn gelf_newphdr
134Allocate a new ELF Program Header Table.
135.El
136.It "Data Translation"
137.Bl -tag -compact
138.It Fn gelf_xlatetof
139Translate the native representation of an ELF data structure to its
140file representation.
141.It Fn gelf_xlatetom
142Translate from the file representation of an ELF data structure to a
143native representation.
144.El
145.It "Retrieving ELF Data"
146.Bl -tag -compact
147.It Fn gelf_getdyn
148Retrieve an ELF
149.Sy .dynamic
150table entry.
151.It Fn gelf_getehdr
152Retrieve an ELF Executable Header from the underlying ELF descriptor.
153.It Fn gelf_getphdr
154Retrieve an ELF Program Header Table entry from the underlying ELF descriptor.
155.It Fn gelf_getrel
156Retrieve an ELF relocation entry.
157.It Fn gelf_getrela
158Retrieve an ELF relocation entry with addend.
159.It Fn gelf_getshdr
160Retrieve an ELF Section Header Table entry from the underlying ELF descriptor.
161.It Fn gelf_getsym
162Retrieve an ELF symbol table entry.
163.El
164.It Queries
165.Bl -tag -compact
166.It Fn gelf_checksum
167Retrieves the ELF checksum for an ELF descriptor.
168.It Fn gelf_fsize
169Retrieves the size of the file representation of an ELF type.
170.It Fn gelf_getclass
171Retrieves the ELF class of an ELF descriptor.
172.El
173.It "Updating ELF Data"
174.Bl -tag -compact -width ".Fn gelf_update_shdr"
175.It Fn gelf_update_dyn
176Copy back an ELF
177.Sy .dynamic
178Table entry.
179.It Fn gelf_update_phdr
180Copy back an ELF Program Header Table entry.
181.It Fn gelf_update_rel
182Copy back an ELF relocation entry.
183.It Fn gelf_update_rela
184Copy back an ELF relocation with addend entry.
185.It Fn gelf_update_shdr
186Copy back an ELF Section Header Table entry.
187.It Fn gelf_update_sym
188Copy back an ELF symbol table entry.
189.El
190.El
191.Sh SEE ALSO
192.Xr elf 3 ,
193.Xr elf 5
194.Sh HISTORY
195The GELF(3) API first appeared in System V Release 4.
196This implementation of the API first appeared in
197.Fx 7.0 .
198.Sh AUTHORS
199The GElf API was implemented by
200.An Joseph Koshy Aq Mt jkoshy@FreeBSD.org .
201