SO File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Extension .so
Full Name Shared Object
Format Type Binary
MIME Type application/x-sharedlib
Used On Unix/Linux operating systems
Developer The ELF Standard Committee
Architecture Platform dependent (x86, x86_64, ARM, etc.)
Executable Yes, but designed to be dynamically linked
Linking Type Dynamic
File Signature 7F 45 4C 46 (ASCII: .ELF)
Byte Order Little Endian or Big Endian
Sections .text, .data, .bss, .rodata, etc.
Symbol Resolution Dynamic during runtime or loading
Use Cases Shared libraries for software applications
Advantages Reduces memory consumption and disk space
Security Features Executable Space Protection, ASLR support
Interoperability With other ELF files (executables or libraries)
Tools for Manipulation ld, ldd, readelf, objdump
Library Versioning Support for versioned symbols
Header Structure Defines entry point, ELF version, and program header table