A whirlwind tutorial on creating teensy ELF executables for Linux (1999) (opens in new tab)

(muppetlabs.com)

59 pointsxtacy1y ago17 comments

17 comments

Shameless plug: write your program in C, get almost as little size overhead as in the Whirlwind turorial: https://github.com/pts/minilibc686 (libc, compiler, linker, settings)

dang1y ago

Related. Others?

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32524007 - Aug 2022 (10 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux (1999) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21846785 - Dec 2019 (22 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux (2005) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11709247 - May 2016 (5 comments)

Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745024 - Dec 2014 (13 comments)

The Teensy Files: Creating teensy ELF executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8642734 - Nov 2014 (7 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5016434 - Jan 2013 (14 comments)

Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875077 - Oct 2009 (16 comments)

3998-byte executable reduced to 45 bytes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68056 - Oct 2007 (10 comments)

jart1y ago

Plus if you want them to run on four OSes: https://justine.lol/sizetricks/#elf

cryne1y ago

I tried to replicate this on my 64 bit machine, so

  nasm -f elf64 tiny.s && ld -s tiny.o

  ; tiny.asm
  BITS 64
  GLOBAL _start
  SECTION .text
  _start:
                mov     eax, 1
                mov     ebx, 42  
                int     0x80

and this lands me at 4320 bytes! Why is there such a stark difference?

oguz-ismail1y ago

> Why is there such a stark difference?

Your linker must align the .text section to the page size (often 4096 bytes). If you open the binary with a hex editor you'll see lots of null padding.

yjftsjthsd-h1y ago

If that's a hard lower limit, then it really invites a different sort of code golf / demo to see how much functionality you can stuff into a 4K(ish) binary

2 more replies

le-mark1y ago

Does anyone recall an “intro to computing” style book that was available free online and starts with using the gas assembler and talked a lot about elf format executables? I lost the link a while ago and don’t recall the name.

tiu1y ago

You are probably thinking about Programming from the Ground Up by Jonathan Bartlett. There are many others in the same style though. He also has a newer book if I recall right.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ground-Up-Jonathan-Bartle...

https://download-mirror.savannah.gnu.org/releases/pgubook/

deater1y ago

for those excited about tiny ELF executables, or tiny programs in general, check out the Lovebyte size-coding demoparty happening next weekend. It's likely there will be a few tiny ELF entries there.

LegionMammal9781y ago

That's neat, I didn't know that there was much sizecoding activity with ELFs, except for the BGGP competitions [0]. (Mainly because it's not nearly as easy to output graphics than on all the old-school platforms, I'd imagine.) Does Lovebyte publish previous years' demos anywhere?

[0] https://binary.golf/

deater1y ago

I don't know if there's a good way to search for them. Most of the Lovebyte entries can be found on pouet or demozoo.org but I don't know if there's an easy way to filter out only Linux entries.

I've written a few sizecoded raspberry pi entries, there's even a writeup of one of them in tmp.out where I loaded some code into the ELF headers https://tmpout.sh/3/08.html

2 more replies

lifthrasiir1y ago

https://code.golf/ also has scoreboards for x86-64 Linux binaries.

hannob1y ago

Didn't know about that, will have to take a look.

I think I am the "inventor" of the first 64 and 32 byte intro competitions. (Just checked, we ran a 64 byte competition at the 0a000h 2002 and added 32 byte in 2003.) See https://0a000h.de/2002/ and https://0a000h.de/2003/ - releases are on scene.org

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17 comments

ptspts1y ago

Shameless plug: write your program in C, get almost as little size overhead as in the Whirlwind turorial: https://github.com/pts/minilibc686 (libc, compiler, linker, settings)

dang1y ago

Related. Others?

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32524007 - Aug 2022 (10 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux (1999) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21846785 - Dec 2019 (22 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux (2005) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11709247 - May 2016 (5 comments)

Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745024 - Dec 2014 (13 comments)

The Teensy Files: Creating teensy ELF executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8642734 - Nov 2014 (7 comments)

A Whirlwind Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5016434 - Jan 2013 (14 comments)

Tutorial on Creating Really Teensy ELF Executables for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=875077 - Oct 2009 (16 comments)

3998-byte executable reduced to 45 bytes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68056 - Oct 2007 (10 comments)

jart1y ago

Plus if you want them to run on four OSes: https://justine.lol/sizetricks/#elf

cryne1y ago

I tried to replicate this on my 64 bit machine, so

  nasm -f elf64 tiny.s && ld -s tiny.o

  ; tiny.asm
  BITS 64
  GLOBAL _start
  SECTION .text
  _start:
                mov     eax, 1
                mov     ebx, 42  
                int     0x80

and this lands me at 4320 bytes! Why is there such a stark difference?

oguz-ismail1y ago

> Why is there such a stark difference?

Your linker must align the .text section to the page size (often 4096 bytes). If you open the binary with a hex editor you'll see lots of null padding.

yjftsjthsd-h1y ago

If that's a hard lower limit, then it really invites a different sort of code golf / demo to see how much functionality you can stuff into a 4K(ish) binary

2 more replies

le-mark1y ago

tiu1y ago

You are probably thinking about Programming from the Ground Up by Jonathan Bartlett. There are many others in the same style though. He also has a newer book if I recall right.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ground-Up-Jonathan-Bartle...

https://download-mirror.savannah.gnu.org/releases/pgubook/

deater1y ago

for those excited about tiny ELF executables, or tiny programs in general, check out the Lovebyte size-coding demoparty happening next weekend. It's likely there will be a few tiny ELF entries there.

LegionMammal9781y ago

[0] https://binary.golf/

deater1y ago

I don't know if there's a good way to search for them. Most of the Lovebyte entries can be found on pouet or demozoo.org but I don't know if there's an easy way to filter out only Linux entries.

I've written a few sizecoded raspberry pi entries, there's even a writeup of one of them in tmp.out where I loaded some code into the ELF headers https://tmpout.sh/3/08.html

2 more replies

lifthrasiir1y ago

https://code.golf/ also has scoreboards for x86-64 Linux binaries.

hannob1y ago

Didn't know about that, will have to take a look.

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