Executable and Linkable Format - Applications

Applications

The ELF format has replaced older executable formats in various environments. It has replaced a.out and COFF formats in Unix-like operating systems:

• Linux
• Solaris
• IRIX
• FreeBSD
• NetBSD
• OpenBSD
• DragonFly BSD
• Syllable
• HP-UX (except for 32-bit PA-RISC programs which continue to use SOM)
• QNX Neutrino
• MINIX

ELF has also seen some adoption in non-Unix operating systems, such as:

• OpenVMS, in its Itanium version
• BeOS Revision 4 and later for x86 based computers (where it replaced the Portable Executable format; the PowerPC version stayed with Preferred Executable Format).
• Haiku, the open source reimplementation of BeOS.

Some game consoles also use ELF:

• PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3
• GP2X.
• Dreamcast
• GameCube, Wii

Other operating systems running on PowerPC using ELF:

• AmigaOS 4, the ELF executable has replaced the previous EHF (Extended Hunk Format) which was used on Amigas equipped with PPC processor expansion cards.
• MorphOS
• AROS

Some operating systems for mobile phones and mobile devices use ELF:

• Symbian OS v9 uses E32Image format that is based on the ELF file format;
• Sony Ericsson, for example, the W800i, W610, W300, etc.
• Siemens, the SGOLD and SGOLD2 platforms: from Siemens C65 to S75 and BenQ-Siemens E71/EL71);
• Motorola, for example, the E398, SLVR L7, v360, v3i (and all phone LTE2 which has the patch applied)
• Bada (operating system), for example, the Samsung Wave S8500.

Some phones can run ELF files through the use of a patch that adds assembly code to the main firmware (known as the ELFPack, in the underground modding culture).

The ELF file format is also used with the Atmel AVR (8-bit), AVR32 and with Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller architectures.