ELF_RAND(3)

📦
version 0.197 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 ELF_RAND(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the elf_rand page from the Libelf Programmer's Manual — yes she's a libelf girlie and she's here to set your archive offsets. let's go 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

elf_rand — sets the offset for the next archive member in an ELF file. that's it, that's the job, and she does it flawlessly 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <libelf.h>

size_t elf_rand(Elf *elf, size_t offset);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea: elf_rand() sets the current archive member offset for the ELF archive descriptor elf to offset. slay.

this function is only valid when elf actually refers to an archive descriptor — like, its kind has to be ELF_K_AR, no cap. if it's not an archive, she's not the one, sorry 🫶

where do you even get archive member offsets from, you ask? from the Elf_Arsym array that elf_getarsym(3) hands you. iconic little handoff, honestly.

and if the archive header sitting at the offset you gave can't be parsed or validated? boom, 0 gets returned. no drama, just zero 😭

🌈 PARAMETERS 🌈

  • elf — a pointer to an ELF archive descriptor. give her the archive bestie.
  • offset — a byte offset to the archive header, which is you telling her the member position you want. main character coordinates ✨

💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

if everything goes off without a hitch, she returns the input offset right back at you. chef's kiss.

she returns 0 when:

  • elf is NULL
  • elf is not an archive descriptor
  • or an error happened while reading the member at offset

that 0 is giving "not today" 💀

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read those too, iykyk 📚

⭐ ATTRIBUTES ⭐

  • Interface: elf_rand()
  • Attribute: Thread safety
  • Value: MT-Safe

so yeah, thread-safe, she can hang with the whole group chat at once 🫶

🍓 REPORTING BUGS 🍓

found a bug? don't suffer in silence, tell the devs:

they wanna hear from you fr fr 🐛

and that's the whole page, bestie. Libelf, dated 2025-06-30 — she ate and left no crumbs. now go set some offsets 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from