What is the difference between ELF files and bin files

Question

The final images produced by compliers contain both bin file and extended loader format ELf file  what is the difference between the two   especially the utility of ELF file

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some resources    ELF for the ARM architecture http   infocenter arm com help topic com arm doc ihi0044d IHI0044D aaelf pdf ELF from wiki http   en wikipedia org wiki Executable and Linkable Format   ELF format is generally the default output of compiling   if you use GNU tool chains  you can translate it to binary format by using objcopy  such as     arm-elf-objcopy -O binary  elf-input-file   binary-output-file    or using fromELF utility built in most IDEs such as ADS though     fromelf -bin -o  binary-output-file   elf-input-file

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A Bin file is a pure binary file with no memory fix-ups or relocations  more than likely it has explicit instructions to be loaded at a specific memory address  Whereas      ELF files are Executable Linkable Format which consists of a symbol look-ups and relocatable table  that is  it can be loaded at any memory address by the kernel and automatically  all symbols used  are adjusted to the offset from that memory address where it was loaded into  Usually ELF files have a number of sections  such as  data    text    bss    to name but a few   it is within those sections where the run-time can calculate where to adjust the symbol s memory references dynamically at run-time

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I just want to correct a point here  ELF file is produced by the Linker  not the compiler    The Compiler mission ends after producing the object files    o  out of the source code files  Linker links all  o files together and produces the ELF

User · Answer

A bin file is just the bits and bytes that go into the rom or a particular address from which you will run the program   You can take this data and load it directly as is  you need to know what the base address is though as that is normally not in there   An elf file contains the bin information but it is surrounded by lots of other information  possible debug info  symbols  can distinguish code from data within the binary   Allows for more than one chunk of binary data  when you dump one of these to a bin you get one big bin file with fill data to pad it to the next block    Tells you how much binary you have and how much bss data is there that wants to be initialised to zeros  gnu tools have problems creating bin files correctly    The elf file format is a standard  arm publishes its enhancements variations on the standard   I recommend everyone writes an elf parsing program to understand what is in there  dont bother with a library  it is quite simple to just use the information and structures in the spec   Helps to overcome gnu problems in general creating  bin files as well as debugging linker scripts and other things that can help to mess up your bin or elf output

[arm] What is the difference between ELF files and bin files?

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