Referenced Specifications
Linux Standard Base (LSB)
Go to the LSB specification archive.
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)
Go to the FHS specification archive.
Application Programming Interface (API) Standards
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- Single UNIX Specification version 4, The Open Group
- Single UNIX Specification version 3, The Open Group
- Single UNIX Specification version 2, The Open Group
DWARF Standards
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From the DWARF Standards Project
ELF and ABI Standards
The Executable and Linking Format (ELF) Specification describes the widely used executable file format. The Application Binary Interface (ABI) Specifications define Operating System and Application interfaces that are neccesary to construct an execution environment for applications.
- Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Portable Formats Specification, version 1.1. 1993 document containing an extract of the x86 ABI version 3.0, DWARF 2.0 draft and OMF
- Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Portable Formats Specification, version 1.2. 1995 document containing only the ELF Specification. This version breaks ELF into 3 seperate books, ELF, x86 psABI, and the Operating System Specific Specification for SVR4. This appears to be the most current TIS specification.
- System V ABI Edition 4.1. 1997 document containing the most recent ABI standard. This document is known as the Generic ABI (gABI) and must be used in conjunction with a Processor Suppliment aBI (psABI) document.
- System V ABI - DRAFT 24 April 2001. 2001 update to chapters 4 and 5 of the gABI. This version is one of several updates listed in draft status.
Processor Specific ELF documents
- System V Application Binary Interface Intel386 Architecture Processor Supplment, Fourth Edition
- Intel Itanium Processor specific ABI
- System V Application Binary Interface x86-64 Architecture Processor Supplement Draft Version 0.95 | v0.98 | v0.99
- System V Application Binary Interface MIPS RISC Processor Supplment, 3rd Edition
- System V Application Binary Interface PowerPC Processor Supplment. This is one of two known PPC ELF standards. This one was developed by SunSoft. The two versions are not identical, and applications can only conform to one or the other, while it seems possible for an implementation to support both simulaneously.
- ARM Processor Supplment
- Processor-Specific ELF Supplement for PA-RISC
- Motorola 8 and 16 bit Embedded ABI
Application Binary Interface (ABI) Specifications/Standards
- gLSB v1.2, Linux Standard Base
- archLSB-IA32 v1.2, Linux Standard Base
- archLSB-PPC32 v1.2, Linux Standard Base
- 3DNow! (AMD K6 & Athlon), AMD
- AMD Extensions to the 3DNow1 and MMX Instruction Set, AMD
- Linux for S/390 (32bit) ELF ABI Supplement, IBM
- Linux for zSeries (64bit) ELF ABI Supplement, IBM
- C++ ABI for Itanium, v1.86
- C++ ABI for Itanium, v1.83
- C++ ABI for Itanium, v1.75
- Intel Itanium Processor-Specific ABI
Related ABI Projects
Moblin was a mobile Linux project which offered a compliance model derived from LSB. The unofficial versions here correspond to the application/distribution checker code in the LSB project's version control.