readelf
readelf is a command-line utility for displaying information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) files, which are the standard binary format for executables, object code, shared libraries, and core dumps on Unix-like systems such as Linux. It is part of the GNU Binutils package and provides detailed insights into the structure, sections, headers, symbols, and other metadata of ELF files, helping developers analyze and debug compiled programs.
Developers should learn and use readelf when working with low-level system programming, debugging, or reverse engineering on Unix-like platforms, as it is essential for examining ELF binaries to understand their layout, dependencies, and behavior. It is particularly useful for tasks like verifying compiler outputs, analyzing shared library dependencies, inspecting symbol tables, or diagnosing linking issues in C/C++ projects.