Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderIt's possible to make the code slightly smaller, by relying on Linux zeroing registers when the program starts. That's part of the Linux ABI, and couldn't be changed without breaking programs, so it's safe to rely on. Reducing the size of the code allows embedding it in less of the header, giving more options for code layout.
Last November, I looked into this problem a bit more thoroughly, studying all the conditions that the Linux kernel actually checks. My conclusion was that the absolute smallest possible 64-bit ELF file in Linux was 80 bytes. (The smallest 32-bit ELF file was indeed 45 bytes, as in the original article.) This version was written to simply call _exit(0), but I recall that there are a few more opcode bytes to spare: 00000000: 7f45 4c46 b0e7 0f05 0000 0000 0000…
Shameless self-promotion: I think I hold the record (83 bytes) for the shortest hello-world Linux ELF executable: https://github.com/pts/mininasm/blob/master/demo/hello/hello...
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 292
- Total comments
- 41
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-10-11 | Tiny ELF Files for Linux: Revisited in 2021 | yalue | 6 | 0 |
| 2021-10-13 | Tiny ELF Files: Revisited in 2021First breakout · Best thread | zdw | 140 | 27 |
| 2023-07-10 | Tiny ELF Files: Revisited in 2021 | jandeboevrie | 105 | 12 |
| 2026-04-01 | The smallest ELF executable (2021)Latest 20+ point return | michelangelo | 41 | 2 |