.\" Copyright (c) 2006 Joseph Koshy.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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.\" This software is provided by Joseph Koshy ``as is'' and
.\" any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the
.\" implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose
.\" are disclaimed.  in no event shall Joseph Koshy be liable
.\" for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential
.\" damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods
.\" or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption)
.\" however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict
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.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd July 3, 2006
.Dt ELF_GETIDENT 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm elf_getident
.Nd return the initial bytes of a file
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libelf
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In libelf.h
.Ft char *
.Fn elf_getident "Elf *elf" "size_t *sz"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Function
.Fn elf_getident
returns a pointer to the initial bytes of the file for descriptor
.Ar elf .
.Pp
If argument
.Ar sz
is non-null, the size of the identification area returned is written
to the location pointed to by
.Ar sz .
This location is set to zero on errors.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Function
.Fn elf_getident
will return a non-NULL pointer to the initial bytes of the file if
successful, or NULL if an error condition is detected.
.Sh ERRORS
Function
.Fn elf_getident
can fail with the following errors:
.Bl -tag -width "[ELF_E_RESOURCE]"
.It Bq Er ELF_E_ARGUMENT
A NULL value was passed in for argument
.Ar elf .
.It Bq Er ELF_E_SEQUENCE
ELF descriptor
.Ar elf
was opened for writing and function
.Fn elf_getident
was called before a call to
.Xr elf_update 3 .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr elf 3 ,
.Xr elf32_getehdr 3 ,
.Xr elf64_getehdr 3 ,
.Xr elf_getarhdr 3 ,
.Xr elf_getbase 3 ,
.Xr elf_getflags 3 ,
.Xr elf_kind 3 ,
.Xr elf_rawfile 3 ,
.Xr elf_update 3 ,
.Xr gelf 3 ,
.Xr gelf_getclass 3 ,
.Xr gelf_getehdr 3