Smallest Possible ELF Executable?

taviso writes "I recently stumbled across this paper (google cache), where the author investigates the smallest possible ELF executable on linux, some interesting stuff, and well worth a read. The author concludes, 'every single byte in this executable file can be accounted for and justified. How many executables have you created lately that you can say that about?'

Not good enough

[mesocyclone]

It isn't amazing until its also palindromic!

smallest elf execution

[Anonymous Coward]

I just heard the news on slashdot -- Frodo Baggins, the smallest elf, was just executed! No other details were available.

You disgust me...

[tuxedo-steve]

... wanting to execute the smallest possible elf. You Americans and your bloodsports. Barbarians.

If you guys go ahead with your cold-hearted plan to execute this elf, the Olsen twins better watch their backs next time they're in Ireland, if you catch my drift.

good, bloat sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux software is horribly bloated, like even "ls" is above 30k, thats just insane for a program thats supposed to just list files in a directory. About time someone did something about it.

I feel guilty

[Anonymous Coward]

This makes my new 100-gig hard drive seem WAY too big.

Smallest Posible Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Bloat...now a worldwide concept!

[Masque]

This guy clearly doesn't get the point!

67% of Americans are overweight. They can't account for most of the bites they use. By developing software that is just as bloated, the users feel good about themselves.

This kind of skinny programming is very insensitive to the fatass society we Americans live in! Hopefully the U.S. Congress hears of this soon, so that they may legislate this kind of software right off the face of the earth.

Masque, head of the Sensitive Programming Foundation*

[*A division of Maxtor Corporation; come check out our new 320GB drives, featuring room for tomorrow's applications...today.]

justification

[mbogosian]

every single byte in this executable file can be accounted for and justified

The author's sanity, however, cannot.

Re:Small virus catcher (for DOS)

[Trusty Penfold]

Some viruses wouldn't infect suspected goat files; files with 'obvious' sizes. AV researchers would get the virus to infect the files - since the contents were known beforehand any changes were due to the infection.

Of course this AV avoidance didn't work, as evidenced by the fact that viruses are now extinct and a footnote in the history of computer security.

Re:I feel guilty

[Kenshin]

Don't feel so bad, you could alays fill it up with porn. That's why they keep boosting the capacity.

Re: smallest elf execution

[Black Parrot]

> I just heard the news on slashdot -- Frodo Baggins, the smallest elf, was just executed! No other details were available.

In my own research I have discovered that the average Hobbit executable is barely half the size of the average Elf executable.

They're faster to run in a tight spot, too!

Re:Smallest Posible Post

[moonbender]

Wow, you even saved a byte by mis-spelling "Possible" - awesome!

Re:You disgust me...

[jdkincad]

And you think we would care if something happened to the Olsen twins?

Of course shortly thereafter...

[4minus0]

Linus wept.

linuxdoc.org
Chapter 11
Verse 35

ii

[anonymous coword]

Re:smallest elf execution

[mbogosian]

Frodo Baggins, the smallest elf, was just executed!

Unfortunately, the article was incorrect then. Frodo is a hobbit. Furthermore, he is far from the smallest hobbit.

However, he was executed. By two elves. By way of trampling.

Does that mean we can assume that ELF binaries run on Hobbits [microprocessor.sscc.ru]?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Re:Not good enough

[Anonymous Coward]

aibohphobia-the fear of palindromes. get it?

proccessing in today's world

[eng69]

The current state of elf proccessors demands an astounding amount of system resources. When combined with dwarf co processor, it provides for unparalleled carnie access.

Could be used to make "true" smaller.

[hey]

On Red Hat 8.0 I get:

$ wc -c /bin/true
9752 /bin/true

That's thousands of extra bytes - eek.

Re:good, bloat sucks

[mickwd]

Well it still manages to list files faster than my eyes can read them.

So don't expect me to do anything about it.

Re:Not good enough

[red_dragon]

Weird... I read that as "aibophobia", and thought it was the fear of electronic pets.

Any program can be written using one less byte

[shoppa]

It's a well known fact that

Any program can have at least one reduncdant byte removed or optimized away and still function

In fact, just apply this fact iteratively and you'll find that any program can be written in zero bytes!

auuugh!

[quarter]

where's your spoiler alert?!!?!?

Re:Any program can be written using one less byte

[Anonymous Coward]

furthermore, it is well known that any program will inevitably have at least one bug.

hence, we can deduce that *all programs can be reduced to a single byte... which won't work!*

Tiny Programs that Suck Memory

[duck_prime]

[...] I could write a very small program size wise that would drain your memory and crash your system, or make it slow down to a crawl.

Dammit Gates, I *told* you to stop posting here!

Re:smallest elf execution

[skaffen42]

I'm confused. Is this a troll or not?

Re:I feel guilty

[p3d0]

Porn jokes are the "imagine a beowulf cluster" for the 21st century.

Re:smallest elf execution

[mbogosian]

I'm confused. Is this a troll or not?

No. Trolls are completely different creatures from hobbits and elves.

Yes, yes. We all know Frodo was a hobbit. . .

[kfg]

not an elf.

Rumors of his being a fairy persist, however.

KFG

Re:Linux zealots.

[khuber]

45 bytes ought to be enough for anybody.

-Kevin

Job Security

[vena]

the real reason to obfuscate through efficiency! :)

26 bytes

[bcrowell]

Yeah, and now here's a thumb in the eye for all those C bigots and all those assembler bigots:

$ cat >a.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
exit(42);

$ chmod +x a.pl
$ ./a.pl
$ echo $?
42
$ ls -l a.pl
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bcrowell bcrowell 26 Oct 19 12:41 a.pl

Only takes up 26 bytes on my hard disk!

Re:No need to be smaller than 512 really...

[the way, what're you]

Unless, of course, you're using ReiserFS with tail packing turned on.

This should really be added to the Linux Gay Conspiracy.

Re:Excellent troll!

[ShavenYak]

Is that why it took Deep Thought so long to execute it?

Re:Even smaller

[ShavenYak]

On systems that automatically use /bin/sh on unknown files, the smallest possible shell script is:

w
Yes, a single character.

Actually, a zero-byte file will work as well. Granted, it doesn't do much. But at least it is guaranteed to be bug-free.

But wait a minute...

[soulctcher]

...nobody has yet said whether the smallest elf is executable or not? I would imagine that unless he's a water bear [microscopy-uk.org.uk], we're probably still going to be able to execute him.

What about emacs executables ?

[Billly Gates]

Its a much better os. I just wish I had a good editor on it.

Re:Any program can be written using one less byte

[Eythian]

Any program can have at least one reduncdant byte removed or optimized away and still function

Actually, I believe it is this:

Axioms:

1. Every program can be shrunk by at least one intsruction.
2. There is always one more bug.

From this, we can conclude that any program can be written as one byte that doesn't work.

O'Reilly True In Nutshell book

[truth_revealed]

This one went around the internet a thousand times already, but in case you haven't seen it:

True in a Nutshell [miketaylor.org.uk]

Re:Turbo Pascal

[taliver]

4 bytes! My family would dream of 4 bytes. We had to get up in the morning, defrag the file system, decrypt RSA-65 for 23 hours and then go back to the boot sector where we would be erased. And we had to do it all in 4 bits of space!

4 bytes. Hmph.