NAME

       elf-arch - recognize architecture of an ELF executable/shlib

SYNOPSIS

       elf-arch <file>
              says the arch of given binary

       elf-arch -a <arch> <file>
              checks if <file> matches ABI <arch>

DESCRIPTION

       elf-arch  detects  the  kernel  ABI  needed to run a given binary, and prints its Debian arch name.  This
       doesn't necessarily mean the arch can actually run that program/library: markings available  in  the  ELF
       header  are  pretty  much  restricted  to  just  word  width,  endianness  and  instruction  set  family.
       Architectures can also differ by the set of syscalls they use (although these can usually  be  mixed)  or
       required  CPU  instructions;  you  can't generally distinguish between those other than trying to run the
       program.

       The difference usually shows in the kernel refusing to run a binary  vs  executing  it  and  crashing  at
       runtime.

       Thus, as far as ELF markings are concerned, there's often a set of Debian architectures which are aliases
       for the same kernel arch.

   -a <arch>
       With this option, elf-arch instead of printing the detected architecture will check if <arch> matches one
       of  aliases  for the file, and return an exit code: 0 if there's a plausible match, non-zero if the given
       arch won't even try executing that file.

                                                                                                     elf-arch(1)