elf_getident(3)

elf_getident3

Return the initial bytes of a file

Usage

#include <libelf.h>

char *

elf_getident(Elf *elf, size_t *sz);

Library

library “libelf”

Overview

Function elf_getident() returns a pointer to the initial bytes of the file for descriptor elf.

If argument sz is non-null, the size of the identification area returned is written to the location pointed to by sz. This location is set to zero on errors.

Return values

Function elf_getident() will return a non-NULL pointer to the initial bytes of the file if successful, or NULL if an error condition is detected.

Errors

Function elf_getident() can fail with the following errors:

[ELF_E_ARGUMENT]

A NULL value was passed in for argument elf.

[ELF_E_SEQUENCE]

ELF descriptor elf was opened for writing and function elf_getident() was called before a call to elf_update(3).

Releases

44 releases since FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE; the text changed 20 times.

  1. 7.0
  2. 7.1
  3. 7.2
  4. 7.3
  5. 7.4
  6. 8.0
  7. 8.1
  8. 8.2
  9. 8.3
  10. 8.4
  11. 9.0
  12. 9.1
  13. 9.2
  14. 9.3
  15. 10.0
  16. 10.1
  17. 10.2
  18. 10.3
  19. 10.4
  20. 11.0–12.0
  21. 12.1–16.0

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.