The absence of a centralized, up-to-date repository for the specification complicates matters. While some clarifications and consensus have been reached within the generic-abi group, accessing the latest, definitive text remains a challenge.
An interesting history of the ELF object file format. Useful article in and of itself but the links contained within are just as insightful.
The interesting thing about this article is that I didn’t realize ELF was another example of
xkcd 2347. The author has some ideas for remedying this which I think are feasible and I hope do get implemented. Something this important should be actively maintained.
Thanks for reading and as always, all comments, critiques and questions are highly appreciated. Here's a link to the
previous article response.