FELF: single-file Linux binaries without FUSE or root
With Claude's help, the maker built a format that works out every shared library a program needs at pack time and bundles them, with their own glibc and a patched dynamic linker, into one executable that runs on other distros.
Credits
Earliest dated source:
The full story
FELF, short for Fat ELF, turns an existing Linux program into one executable that carries every shared library it needs, plus its own glibc and dynamic linker. The result runs on any Linux of the same architecture with no FUSE, no root, no runtime to install and nothing extracted to disk.
The maker, a long-time Nix user, was tired of the usual options: copied binaries that fail on a different glibc, static linking that fights NSS and dlopen, AppImages that need FUSE, and Flatpaks or containers that need a runtime first. With Claude's help they built a packer that works out a program's libraries at pack time. Packing git, for example, gives a 7.8 MB file that still runs with an empty environment.
How it was done
Tools
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Sources
From the maker's own write-up or code. We summarise what they report; we haven't tested it ourselves.
- Hacker News: Show HN: FELF – AppImage-like single binaries without FUSE, root, or a runtimeRepository account: Rucadi
The FELF repository, with the reasons for the format, usage and examples.
- Hacker News discussion (4 points)HN submitter: RucadiPosted