NAME

ELF::Extract::Sections - Extract Raw Chunks of data from identifiable ELF Sections

VERSION

version 0.02020308

SYNOPSIS

use ELF::Extract::Sections;

# Create an extractor object for foo.so
my $extractor = ELF::Extract::Sections->new( file => '/path/to/foo.so' );

# Scan file for section data, returns a hash
my %sections  = ${ $extractor->sections };

# Retreive the section object for the comment section
my $data      = $sections{.comment};

# Print the stringified explanation of the section
print "$data";

# Get the raw bytes out of the section.
print $data->contents  # returns bytes

CAVEATS

1. Beta Software

This code is relatively new. It exists only as a best attempt at present until further notice. It has proved as practical for at least one application, and this is why the module exists. However, it can't be guaranteed it will work for whatever you want it to in all cases. Please report any bugs you find.

2. Feature Incomplete

This only presently has a very bare-bones functionality, which should however prove practical for most purposes. If you have any suggestions, please tell me via "report bugs". If you never seek, you'll never find.

3. Humans

This code is written by a human, and like all human code, it sucks. There will be bugs. Please report them.

PUBLIC ATTRIBUTES

-> file

Returns the file the section data is being created for.

-> sections

Returns a HashRef of the available sections.

-> scanner

Returns the name of the default scanner plug-in

PUBLIC METHODS

-> new ( file => FILENAME )

-> new ( file => FILENAME , scanner => 'Objdump' )

Creates A new Section Extractor object

-> sorted_sections ( field => SORT_BY )

-> sorted_sections ( field => SORT_BY, descending => DESCENDING )

Returns an ArrayRef sorted by the SORT_BY field. May be Ascending or Descending depending on requirements.

DESCENDING

Optional parameters. True for descending, False or absent for ascending.

SORT_BY

A String of the field to sort by. Valid options at present are

name

The Section Name

offset

The Sections offset relative to the start of the file.

size

The Size of the section.

PUBLIC ATTRIBUTE BUILDERS

These aren't really user serviceable, but they make your front end work.

-> _build_sections

PRIVATE ATTRIBUTES

-> _scanner_package

-> _scanner_instance

PRIVATE ATTRIBUTE BUILDERS

_build__scanner_package

-> _build__scanner_instance

PRIVATE_METHODS

-> _stash_record( HashRef, Str, Str )

-> _build_section_section( Str, Int, Int, File )

-> _build_section_table( HashRef )

-> _scan_guess_size

-> _scan_with_size

DEBUGGING

This library uses Log::Log4perl. To see more verbose processing notices, do this:

use Log::Log4perl qw( :easy );
Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);

For convenience to make sure you don't happen to miss this fact, we never initialize Log4perl ourselves, so it will spit the following message if you have not set it up:

Log4perl: Seems like no initialization happened. Forgot to call init()?

To suppress this, just do

use Log::Log4perl qw( :easy );

I request however you don't do that for modules intended to be consumed by others without good cause.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

AUTHOR

Kent Fredric <kentnl@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2009 by Kent Fredric.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.