[ Thanks to Puru
Govind for this link. ]
“ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) is a standard file format
for most executables, shared libraries and object codes. This
format was originally developed and published by USL (Unix System
Laboratory) as part of ABI (Application Binary Interface) and now
it’s a widely accepted format in most UNIX variants.“This format was developed with a clear objective to provide the
developers a set of binary interface definitions that works on
multiple operating systems. This would reduce the need of recoding
and recompiling the code…”