ELF & ABI

ELF parsing and the OS/ABI detection that selects a process personality during exec().

src/elf.rs

ELF executables

A minimal, zero-copy ELF reader used by the kernel loader. It validates the ELF magic, class (32- vs 64-bit) and architecture, then exposes iterators over sections, program-header segments, and the symbol table.

The reader borrows the raw image (&[u8]) and reinterprets header records in place — no parsing into owned structures, no allocation beyond error strings. This keeps it usable very early in boot.

Relationship to personalities

The byte e_ident[EI_OSABI] in the ELF header is the primary signal used to pick a process [crate::syscall_handler::Personality] during exec() (see the Zig helper personality.fromElfOsAbi). ELFOSABI_NONE (0) and ELFOSABI_LINUX (3) map to the Linux personality; the various BSD OS/ABI values map to their respective personalities; anything unknown falls back to the native kernel ABI.

Elf struct

struct Elf { /* … */ }

An ELF executable

Elf<'a>::from fn

fn from(data : &'a [u8]) -> Result<Elf<'a>, String>

Create a ELF executable from data

Elf<'a>::sections fn

fn sections(&'a self) -> ElfSections<'a>

Iterate the ELF section headers (e_shnum entries at e_shoff).

Elf<'a>::symbols fn

fn symbols(&'a self) -> Option<ElfSymbols<'a>>

Return an iterator over the symbol table (SHT_SYMTAB), if present.

ElfSections struct

struct ElfSections { /* … */ }

Iterator over an ELF image's section headers.

ElfSegments struct

struct ElfSegments { /* … */ }

Iterator over an ELF image's program-header segments (the load map).

ElfSymbols struct

struct ElfSymbols { /* … */ }

Iterator over the entries of an ELF symbol table section.