ELIBMAX
Linux / POSIXERRORNotableProcessHIGH confidence
Too Many Shared Libraries
Production Risk
Rare on ELF systems; more common with legacy a.out binaries.
What this means
ELIBMAX (errno 82) is returned when an executable requires more shared libraries than the kernel can load simultaneously.
Why it happens
- 1Binary depends on more shared libraries than the kernel limit allows
- 2Usually a.out format limit; ELF does not have a fixed count limit in the same way
How to reproduce
execve() with too many .so dependencies.
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
execve("/opt/bloated-app/app", argv, envp);
// Returns -1, errno = ELIBMAX if too many .so depsexpected output
execve: Attempting to link in too many shared libraries (ELIBMAX)
Fix
Reduce shared library dependencies
WHEN When ELIBMAX is returned
Reduce shared library dependencies
# Check number of dependencies ldd /opt/bloated-app/app | wc -l # Consolidate libraries or use static linking for some
Why this works
Merging small libraries or using static linking for non-essential dependencies reduces the count.
Sources
Official documentation ↗
Linux Programmer Manual execve(2)
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