lself

A command-line tool for listing and inspecting ELF files. It works similarly to ls but targets ELF binaries — it can scan directories, filter by architecture, type, linked libraries, or symbols, and display relevant ELF metadata.

Features

• List ELF files from one or more paths
• Recursively scan directories
• Filter by architecture (x86, x86_64, arm, aarch64, ...)
• Filter by ELF type (executable, shared library, relocatable, core, ...)
• Filter by linked library
• Filter by symbol name and type (function, object, or any)
• Display architecture, type, and linked libraries per file
• Colorized output
• Bash completion support
• Configuration file support (~/.lselfrc)

Usage

lself [options] <input paths...>

Options

Option	Description
-l<lib>, --lib <lib>	Filter by linked library (e.g., -lfoo, --lib libfoo)
-a, --arch <arch>	Filter by architecture (e.g., x86, x86_64, arm, aarch64)
-t, --type <type>	Filter by ELF type (see types below)
-s, --symbol <t:?sym>	Filter by symbol name, optionally with type prefix
--strict	Only match the exact type (don't treat ET_EXEC as matching ET_DYN and vice versa)
-T, --test	Test mode: return 0 if all inputs are valid ELF files
-R, --recursive	Recursively search directories
-d, --depth <n>	Set recursion depth (default: 1)
-I, --ignore <pattern>	Ignore files matching a wildcard pattern
-L, --list	Print in list format
-P, --full-path	Print relative path instead of just filename
--real-path	Print real (resolved) path
-F, --pretty	Pretty format (only with --list)
--no-color	Disable colorized output
-1	Print only the filename (no path)
--show-arch=y|n	Show architecture in output (default: yes)
--show-type=y|n	Show ELF type in output (default: yes)
--show-libs=y|n|m	Show linked libraries (default: yes; m = only if matching filter)
--show-symbols=y|n|m	Show symbols (default: m; m = only if matching filter) (used only with --pretty and --list)
-v, --verbose	Enable verbose output
--config <file>	Use specified config file
--no-config	Don't load ~/.lselfrc
--version	Show version information
-h, --help	Show help message

ELF Types

Value	Description
relocatable, rel, r	Relocatable object file
executable, exec, e	Executable file
dynamic, dyn, d	Dynamically linked file
shared, s	Shared library
core, c	Core dump
all, a	Any type

Symbol Types (for --symbol)

Prefix	Description
func:, f:	Function symbol
object:, obj:, o:	Object symbol
any:, a:	Any symbol type

Examples:

# Show all ELF files in /usr/bin
lself /usr/bin

# Show ELF files in /usr/bin in list mode (elf type, elf machine, file name)
lself /usr/bin -L

#Show ELF files in List mode using pretty format
self /usr/bin/openssl /usr/bin/ssh -L --pretty

# List 64-bit executables linked against libpthread
lself --arch x86_64 --type exec --lib libpthread /usr/bin

#Or short for library (like in C linker)
lself --arch x86_64 --type exec -lpthread /usr/bin

# Recursively find shared libraries containing a function named "malloc"
lself -R --type shared --symbol func:malloc /usr/lib

# Test if a file is a valid ELF
lself --test ./mybinary

Building

Requirements

• GCC (or any C compiler)
• make
• Standard C library with ELF headers (<elf.h>)

Build

make

This builds the lself binary and the lself_completion.bash autocompletion script using a static libelfctx.a by default.

Build options

Variable	Default	Description
RELEASE	1	Set to 0 for a debug build (-Og -g)
USE_SHARED_LIBS	0	Set to 1 to build and link against libelfctx.so instead of the static library
PREFIX	/usr	Installation prefix
EXECUTABLE	lself	Name of the output binary
V	0	Set to 1 for verbose build output

Example — debug build:

make RELEASE=0

Example — build with shared library:

make USE_SHARED_LIBS=1

Install

#Only for PREFIX=/usr, run without sudo if you have the permissions to install to the target path
sudo make install 

Installs:

• lself binary to $(PREFIX)/bin/ -> default: /usr/bin
• lself_completion.bash to $(PREFIX)/share/bash-completion/completions/lself -> default: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/lself
• libelfctx.so to $(PREFIX)/lib/ (only when USE_SHARED_LIBS=1)

Custom prefix example:

sudo make install PREFIX=/usr/local

Clean

make clean

Bash Completion

After installing, reload your shell or source the completion script manually:

source /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/lself

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE for details.