elf_loader
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A Rust library providing async loading interface to load and relocate ELF dynamic libraries from memory/files.
Capabilities
✨ Works in no_std environments ✨
This crate provides an elf loading interface which does not use any std
features, so it can be used in no_std environments such as kernels and embedded device.
✨ Fast speed ✨
This crate makes full use of some features of rust and can generate code with excellent performance.
✨ Very easy to port and has good extensibility ✨
If you want to port this crate, you only need to implement the Mmap trait for your platform. And you can use hook functions to implement additional functionality based on this crate.
✨ Tiny library with few dependencies ✨
With minimal features, this crate only depends on the elf, cfg-if, and bitflags crates.
Usage
It implements the general steps for loading ELF files and leaves extension interfaces, allowing users to implement their own customized loaders.
Example
mini-loader
This repository provides an example of a mini-loader implemented using elf_loader. The miniloader can load PIE files and currently only supports x86_64 .
Load ls:
$ cargo build --release -p mini-loader --target=x86_64-unknown-none
$ ./mini-loader /bin/ls
It should be noted that mini-loader must be compiled with the release parameter.
dlopen-rs
dlopen-rs is also implemented based on the elf_loader library. It implements the functionality of dlopen, allowing dynamic libraries to be opened at runtime.
TODO
- Support more CPU instruction sets (currently only supports AArch64, Riscv64, X86-64).
- Improve support for DT_FLAGS flag bits.
- Implement the ElfObject trait for TcpStream to enable elf_loader to load dynamic libraries directly via TcpStream, achieving a "streaming" loading effect.
- Improve comments and documentation.
- Add examples (e.g., an example of loading dynamic libraries using an asynchronous interface).
- Add support for more instruction sets in the example mini-loader.
...
Supplement
If you encounter any issues during use, feel free to raise them on GitHub. We warmly welcome everyone to contribute code to help improve the functionality of elf_loader. 😊