1*ec8f24b7SThomas Gleixner# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only 2006477f4SChristoph Hellwig 3006477f4SChristoph Hellwigmenu "Executable file formats" 4006477f4SChristoph Hellwig 51da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_ELF 61da177e4SLinus Torvalds bool "Kernel support for ELF binaries" 7a687a533SArnd Bergmann depends on MMU 8f43edca7SRalf Baechle select ELFCORE 91da177e4SLinus Torvalds default y 101da177e4SLinus Torvalds ---help--- 111da177e4SLinus Torvalds ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) is a format for libraries and 121da177e4SLinus Torvalds executables used across different architectures and operating 131da177e4SLinus Torvalds systems. Saying Y here will enable your kernel to run ELF binaries 141da177e4SLinus Torvalds and enlarge it by about 13 KB. ELF support under Linux has now all 151da177e4SLinus Torvalds but replaced the traditional Linux a.out formats (QMAGIC and ZMAGIC) 161da177e4SLinus Torvalds because it is portable (this does *not* mean that you will be able 171da177e4SLinus Torvalds to run executables from different architectures or operating systems 181da177e4SLinus Torvalds however) and makes building run-time libraries very easy. Many new 191da177e4SLinus Torvalds executables are distributed solely in ELF format. You definitely 201da177e4SLinus Torvalds want to say Y here. 211da177e4SLinus Torvalds 221da177e4SLinus Torvalds Information about ELF is contained in the ELF HOWTO available from 231da177e4SLinus Torvalds <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>. 241da177e4SLinus Torvalds 251da177e4SLinus Torvalds If you find that after upgrading from Linux kernel 1.2 and saying Y 261da177e4SLinus Torvalds here, you still can't run any ELF binaries (they just crash), then 271da177e4SLinus Torvalds you'll have to install the newest ELF runtime libraries, including 281da177e4SLinus Torvalds ld.so (check the file <file:Documentation/Changes> for location and 291da177e4SLinus Torvalds latest version). 301da177e4SLinus Torvalds 31b9d36d5dSRoland McGrathconfig COMPAT_BINFMT_ELF 32b9d36d5dSRoland McGrath bool 334cea5cebSAlexey Dobriyan depends on COMPAT && BINFMT_ELF 34f43edca7SRalf Baechle select ELFCORE 35b9d36d5dSRoland McGrath 36774c105eSPaul Burtonconfig ARCH_BINFMT_ELF_STATE 37774c105eSPaul Burton bool 38774c105eSPaul Burton 391da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_ELF_FDPIC 401da177e4SLinus Torvalds bool "Kernel support for FDPIC ELF binaries" 41382e67aeSNicolas Pitre default y if !BINFMT_ELF 42a687a533SArnd Bergmann depends on (ARM || (SUPERH32 && !MMU) || C6X) 43f43edca7SRalf Baechle select ELFCORE 441da177e4SLinus Torvalds help 451da177e4SLinus Torvalds ELF FDPIC binaries are based on ELF, but allow the individual load 461da177e4SLinus Torvalds segments of a binary to be located in memory independently of each 471da177e4SLinus Torvalds other. This makes this format ideal for use in environments where no 481da177e4SLinus Torvalds MMU is available as it still permits text segments to be shared, 491da177e4SLinus Torvalds even if data segments are not. 501da177e4SLinus Torvalds 511da177e4SLinus Torvalds It is also possible to run FDPIC ELF binaries on MMU linux also. 521da177e4SLinus Torvalds 53f43edca7SRalf Baechleconfig ELFCORE 54f43edca7SRalf Baechle bool 55f43edca7SRalf Baechle help 56f43edca7SRalf Baechle This option enables kernel/elfcore.o. 57f43edca7SRalf Baechle 58656eb2cdSRoland McGrathconfig CORE_DUMP_DEFAULT_ELF_HEADERS 59656eb2cdSRoland McGrath bool "Write ELF core dumps with partial segments" 6089502155SRoland McGrath default y 612d96d105SDavid Brownell depends on BINFMT_ELF && ELF_CORE 62656eb2cdSRoland McGrath help 63656eb2cdSRoland McGrath ELF core dump files describe each memory mapping of the crashed 64656eb2cdSRoland McGrath process, and can contain or omit the memory contents of each one. 65656eb2cdSRoland McGrath The contents of an unmodified text mapping are omitted by default. 66656eb2cdSRoland McGrath 67656eb2cdSRoland McGrath For an unmodified text mapping of an ELF object, including just 68656eb2cdSRoland McGrath the first page of the file in a core dump makes it possible to 69656eb2cdSRoland McGrath identify the build ID bits in the file, without paying the i/o 70656eb2cdSRoland McGrath cost and disk space to dump all the text. However, versions of 71656eb2cdSRoland McGrath GDB before 6.7 are confused by ELF core dump files in this format. 72656eb2cdSRoland McGrath 73656eb2cdSRoland McGrath The core dump behavior can be controlled per process using 74656eb2cdSRoland McGrath the /proc/PID/coredump_filter pseudo-file; this setting is 75656eb2cdSRoland McGrath inherited. See Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt for details. 76656eb2cdSRoland McGrath 77656eb2cdSRoland McGrath This config option changes the default setting of coredump_filter 7889502155SRoland McGrath seen at boot time. If unsure, say Y. 79656eb2cdSRoland McGrath 802535e0d7SJosh Triplettconfig BINFMT_SCRIPT 812535e0d7SJosh Triplett tristate "Kernel support for scripts starting with #!" 822535e0d7SJosh Triplett default y 832535e0d7SJosh Triplett help 842535e0d7SJosh Triplett Say Y here if you want to execute interpreted scripts starting with 852535e0d7SJosh Triplett #! followed by the path to an interpreter. 862535e0d7SJosh Triplett 872535e0d7SJosh Triplett You can build this support as a module; however, until that module 882535e0d7SJosh Triplett gets loaded, you cannot run scripts. Thus, if you want to load this 892535e0d7SJosh Triplett module from an initramfs, the portion of the initramfs before loading 902535e0d7SJosh Triplett this module must consist of compiled binaries only. 912535e0d7SJosh Triplett 922535e0d7SJosh Triplett Most systems will not boot if you say M or N here. If unsure, say Y. 932535e0d7SJosh Triplett 941da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_FLAT 953202e181SAdrian Bunk bool "Kernel support for flat binaries" 96d782e426SNicolas Pitre depends on !MMU || ARM || M68K 971da177e4SLinus Torvalds help 981da177e4SLinus Torvalds Support uClinux FLAT format binaries. 991da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1001da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_ZFLAT 1011da177e4SLinus Torvalds bool "Enable ZFLAT support" 1021da177e4SLinus Torvalds depends on BINFMT_FLAT 1031da177e4SLinus Torvalds select ZLIB_INFLATE 1041da177e4SLinus Torvalds help 1051da177e4SLinus Torvalds Support FLAT format compressed binaries 1061da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1071da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_SHARED_FLAT 1081da177e4SLinus Torvalds bool "Enable shared FLAT support" 1091da177e4SLinus Torvalds depends on BINFMT_FLAT 1101da177e4SLinus Torvalds help 1111da177e4SLinus Torvalds Support FLAT shared libraries 1121da177e4SLinus Torvalds 113e17c6d56SDavid Woodhouseconfig HAVE_AOUT 114e17c6d56SDavid Woodhouse def_bool n 115e17c6d56SDavid Woodhouse 1161da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_AOUT 1171da177e4SLinus Torvalds tristate "Kernel support for a.out and ECOFF binaries" 118e17c6d56SDavid Woodhouse depends on HAVE_AOUT 1191da177e4SLinus Torvalds ---help--- 1201da177e4SLinus Torvalds A.out (Assembler.OUTput) is a set of formats for libraries and 1211da177e4SLinus Torvalds executables used in the earliest versions of UNIX. Linux used 1221da177e4SLinus Torvalds the a.out formats QMAGIC and ZMAGIC until they were replaced 1231da177e4SLinus Torvalds with the ELF format. 1241da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1251da177e4SLinus Torvalds The conversion to ELF started in 1995. This option is primarily 1261da177e4SLinus Torvalds provided for historical interest and for the benefit of those 1271da177e4SLinus Torvalds who need to run binaries from that era. 1281da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1291da177e4SLinus Torvalds Most people should answer N here. If you think you may have 1301da177e4SLinus Torvalds occasional use for this format, enable module support above 1311da177e4SLinus Torvalds and answer M here to compile this support as a module called 1321da177e4SLinus Torvalds binfmt_aout. 1331da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1341da177e4SLinus Torvalds If any crucial components of your system (such as /sbin/init 1351da177e4SLinus Torvalds or /lib/ld.so) are still in a.out format, you will have to 1361da177e4SLinus Torvalds say Y here. 1371da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1381da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig OSF4_COMPAT 1391da177e4SLinus Torvalds bool "OSF/1 v4 readv/writev compatibility" 1401da177e4SLinus Torvalds depends on ALPHA && BINFMT_AOUT 1411da177e4SLinus Torvalds help 1421da177e4SLinus Torvalds Say Y if you are using OSF/1 binaries (like Netscape and Acrobat) 1431da177e4SLinus Torvalds with v4 shared libraries freely available from Compaq. If you're 1441da177e4SLinus Torvalds going to use shared libraries from Tru64 version 5.0 or later, say N. 1451da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1461da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_EM86 1471da177e4SLinus Torvalds tristate "Kernel support for Linux/Intel ELF binaries" 1481da177e4SLinus Torvalds depends on ALPHA 1491da177e4SLinus Torvalds ---help--- 1501da177e4SLinus Torvalds Say Y here if you want to be able to execute Linux/Intel ELF 1511da177e4SLinus Torvalds binaries just like native Alpha binaries on your Alpha machine. For 1521da177e4SLinus Torvalds this to work, you need to have the emulator /usr/bin/em86 in place. 1531da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1541da177e4SLinus Torvalds You can get the same functionality by saying N here and saying Y to 1551da177e4SLinus Torvalds "Kernel support for MISC binaries". 1561da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1571da177e4SLinus Torvalds You may answer M to compile the emulation support as a module and 1581da177e4SLinus Torvalds later load the module when you want to use a Linux/Intel binary. The 1591da177e4SLinus Torvalds module will be called binfmt_em86. If unsure, say Y. 1601da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1611da177e4SLinus Torvaldsconfig BINFMT_MISC 1621da177e4SLinus Torvalds tristate "Kernel support for MISC binaries" 1631da177e4SLinus Torvalds ---help--- 1641da177e4SLinus Torvalds If you say Y here, it will be possible to plug wrapper-driven binary 1651da177e4SLinus Torvalds formats into the kernel. You will like this especially when you use 1661da177e4SLinus Torvalds programs that need an interpreter to run like Java, Python, .NET or 1671da177e4SLinus Torvalds Emacs-Lisp. It's also useful if you often run DOS executables under 1681da177e4SLinus Torvalds the Linux DOS emulator DOSEMU (read the DOSEMU-HOWTO, available from 1691da177e4SLinus Torvalds <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>). Once you have 1701da177e4SLinus Torvalds registered such a binary class with the kernel, you can start one of 1711da177e4SLinus Torvalds those programs simply by typing in its name at a shell prompt; Linux 1721da177e4SLinus Torvalds will automatically feed it to the correct interpreter. 1731da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1741da177e4SLinus Torvalds You can do other nice things, too. Read the file 17534962fb8SMauro Carvalho Chehab <file:Documentation/admin-guide/binfmt-misc.rst> to learn how to use this 1768c27ceffSMauro Carvalho Chehab feature, <file:Documentation/admin-guide/java.rst> for information about how 1778c27ceffSMauro Carvalho Chehab to include Java support. and <file:Documentation/admin-guide/mono.rst> for 1781da177e4SLinus Torvalds information about how to include Mono-based .NET support. 1791da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1801da177e4SLinus Torvalds To use binfmt_misc, you will need to mount it: 1811da177e4SLinus Torvalds mount binfmt_misc -t binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc 1821da177e4SLinus Torvalds 1831da177e4SLinus Torvalds You may say M here for module support and later load the module when 1841da177e4SLinus Torvalds you have use for it; the module is called binfmt_misc. If you 1851da177e4SLinus Torvalds don't know what to answer at this point, say Y. 186046d662fSAlex Kelly 187046d662fSAlex Kellyconfig COREDUMP 188046d662fSAlex Kelly bool "Enable core dump support" if EXPERT 189046d662fSAlex Kelly default y 190046d662fSAlex Kelly help 191046d662fSAlex Kelly This option enables support for performing core dumps. You almost 192046d662fSAlex Kelly certainly want to say Y here. Not necessary on systems that never 193046d662fSAlex Kelly need debugging or only ever run flawless code. 194006477f4SChristoph Hellwig 195006477f4SChristoph Hellwigendmenu 196