NAME

       elf_next - advance an ELF descriptor to the next archive member

SYNOPSIS

       #include <libelf.h>

       Elf_Cmd elf_next(Elf *elf);

DESCRIPTION

       Advance an ELF descriptor associated with an archive file to the next available archive member.

       ELF  descriptors  initialized  from  an  archive file can be used to retrieve ELF descriptors for archive
       members one  at  a  time  using  elf_begin(3).   elf_next(3)  updates  the  archive  descriptor  so  that
       elf_begin(3)  returns  the  ELF  descriptor  of the next member of the archive.  See the EXAMPLES section
       below.

RETURN VALUE

       If elf refers to an archive member, update the state of the parent archive ELF descriptor associated with
       elf so that the next archive member can be retrieved with elf_begin(3).  Return the Elf_Cmd that was used
       with elf_begin(3) to initialize elf.

       If elf was not initialized from an archive file or there are no more archive members, elf_next(3) returns
       ELF_C_NULL.

EXAMPLES

         /* Open the archive.  */
         fd = open (archive_name, O_RDONLY);
         if (fd == -1)
           {
             printf ("cannot open archive file `%s'", fname);
             exit (1);
           }

         /* Set the ELF version.  */
         elf_version (EV_CURRENT);

         /* Create an ELF descriptor for the archive.  */
         cmd = ELF_C_READ;
         elf = elf_begin (fd, cmd, NULL);
         if (elf == NULL)
           {
             printf ("cannot create ELF descriptor: %s\n", elf_errmsg (-1));
             exit (1);
           }

         /* Verify this is a descriptor for an archive.  */
         if (elf_kind (elf) != ELF_K_AR)
           {
             printf ("`%s' is not an archive\n", fname);
             exit (1);
           }

         /* Get the members of the archive one after the other.  */
         while ((subelf = elf_begin (fd, cmd, elf)) != NULL)
           {
             /* Process subelf here */
             [...]

             /* elf_next updates elf, the parent archive, so that the next call
                to elf_begin returns the next archive member.  */
             cmd = elf_next (subelf);
             if (elf_end (subelf) != 0)
               {
                 printf ("error while freeing sub-ELF descriptor: %s\n",
                         elf_errmsg (-1));
                 exit (1);
               }
           }

         elf_end (elf);
         close (fd);

SEE ALSO

       elf_begin(3), elf_rand(3), libelf(3), elf(5)

ATTRIBUTES

       ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                                                                   │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ elf_next()                                                                  │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <elfutils-devel@sourceware.org> or https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/.

Libelf                                             2025-06-06                                        ELF_NEXT(3)