A (marginally) useful x86-64 ELF executable in 301 bytes
Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.
Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.
HN · launched Apr 6, 2026 · 65 upvotes (top 14%) · 0 views
Niche: code and binary analysis tools · 118 launches, 4 in the last 7 days ▼ -56% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 118 launches in code and binary analysis tools →
Could you build this?
No Hand-crafting a functional 301-byte x86-64 ELF executable requires elite assembly programming, ELF binary header hacking, and deep binary golf expertise that AI assistants cannot reliably hallucinate or generate.
What it would actually take: This requires low-level binary golf, hand-written x86-64 assembly, overlapping ELF header fields (e.g., using the program header overlapping the ELF header), and utilizing raw Linux syscalls with zero runtime overhead. Specialized knowledge in the Linux kernel ELF loader, x86-64 machine code encoding, and binary optimization is required to make every byte execute valid code.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: bat_mon - X11 battery monitor (50kB with GUI and JSON parser)
Concerns raised: Segmentation fault and ENOMEM errors on some systems, Excessive p_memsz value causing compatibility issues, Not standards-compliant ELF, tricks kernel into loading, Infinite loop on error with no user feedback, Kernel version dependent behavior
Feature requests: Print error message instead of infinite loop, Support multiple batteries with status display, Auto-generate one-liner install rule in Makefile
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 2942 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #364 of 2943 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 157 days after the earliest competitor.
- teatime-os · github · 2026-09-15 · 14 upvotes · similarity 0.59
- Iron · hn · 2026-05-27 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- nt52_amd64_embedded · github · 2026-10-25 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- Zero deps C++ ASR binary for Linux (0MB idle RAM, no daemons, Unix way) · hn · 2026-06-04 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- RealXV6 · hn · 2026-01-25 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- Unix for the Commodore 64? Open Source · hn · 2026-02-26 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- wg-ez · github · 2026-10-10 · 39 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- flashtex · github · 2026-09-12 · 52 upvotes · similarity 0.57
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.