what is a elf file

Elf: An ELF file is a type of executable file format used by many operating systems. It stands for Executable and Linkable Format and is designed to be compact, efficient, and easy to parse. In Linux, ELF is the standard file format for executables, shared libraries, and core dumps. ELF files contain information about the program's binary data, metadata, and symbols. They also store instructions on how to load the file into memory.