Binary comparison for linux executables (ELF)

[intersol]

I think it would be very nice to have a plugin for comparing executable files. Under linux the ELF excutable file format contains sections that are used by the dynamic loading. The plugin must ignore those sections in order to be able to say if the file is the same or not.

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~haungs/paper/node10.html contains full information about ELF file format. The plugin should be able to consider the "dynamic linking sections" as unimportant.

[Chris]

Re: Binary comparison for linux executables (ELF)

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll add this to our wish list for the future.

If you would like to try writing a plug-in for this yourself, we have example code at the bottom of our plug-ins page at: http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php?c=v2plugins

[chrroe]

Re: Binary comparison for RPM

Hi!

For my daily work it would be very helpful, when BC would be able to compare *.RPM files.

On one hand treat it like a zip archive, and on a further step compare the included extra informations like changelog, pre- and post-scripts, dependencies etc.


Bye
Christoph

[Chris]

Re: Binary comparison for RPM

Hello Christoph,

Thank you for the great suggestion!

I agree that comparison of RPM file contents is a very useful feature.

RPM comparison is on our wish list.

[krishna]

Please add my vote

"Yes, I could use it" -- where to click on submit vote, checking, checking ... nope. I would definitely find this useful.

I once had to write a script that stripped DSOs and ELF binaries in different ways to generate a report comparing symbol counts and section sizes, and having this as a Beyond Compare view would be very helpful. Viewing per-section checksum and symbol-list comparisons would also be particularly useful.

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4 has support to treat .RPM files as archives, which you can expand and view the internal files. Our trial is fully featured and available for testing this, here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php

[krishna]

I can't see the example code anymore. Also, is it possible to write one's own plugins for BC3 and above, or does "BC2 plugin" cover that?

[Aaron]

BC3 supports BC2 plug-ins, but BC4 does not. Instead, it uses a new format style called External Formats, which allow calling a separate program and using the return results back in BC4. Since both methods require developing a new View, this allows the external program to be more independent and not as directly tied to BC, but still can program it to tie back into BC4.

If you need BC2/BC3 information or more info on BC4, please email into [email protected] and we can send a sample plug-in or more info. Include a link back to this forum thread for our reference with your request.