Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to A (marginally) useful x86-64 ELF executable in 466 bytes

Battery info program for x86-64 Linux laptops in 307 bytes of machine code - meribold/btry

This is a minimal x86-64 ELF executable program compressed to just 466 bytes. It demonstrates extreme code golf and low-level programming techniques, creating a functional binary well below typical executable sizes.… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. A (marginally) useful x86-64 ELF executable in 466 bytes launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1
A hash array-mapped trie implementation in C▲171
Long-simmering side project that is finally ready to see the light. HAMTs are a cool persistent data structure and implementing one has been a lot of fun. Beyond the code, there is likely some value in the extensive and largely complete implementation docs; basic benchmarks are linked in the README, too. Kind of aiming to be "the libavl for HAMTs". That is obviously a high and aspirational bar but a distinct possibility if it stirs up a little interest and/or contribution. Anyways, it's time for this to go out, collect feedback and maybe even some use outside of toy projects. Let me…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
2
PlanckForth – Bootstrapping an interpreter from handwritten 1kb binary▲132
Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun. - GitHub - nineties/planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
3
Xcc700: Self-hosting mini C compiler for ESP32 (Xtensa) in 700 lines▲154
Repo: https://github.com/valdanylchuk/xcc700 Hi Everyone! I just wrote my first compiler! - single pass, recursive descent, direct emission - generates REL ELF binaries, runnable using ESP-IDF elf_loader - very basic features only, just enough for self-hosting - treats the Xtensa CPU as a stack machine for simplicity, no register allocation / window usage - compilable on Mac, probably also Linux, can cross-compile for esp32 there - wrote for fun / cyberdeck project Sample output from esp32: xcc700.elf xcc700.c -o /d/cc.elf [ xcc700 ] BUILD COMPLETED >…
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
4E6
ExDOS 64-bit version source code release▲39
Hi! I'm just posting to announce the release of the source code of the 64-bit version of my hobby OS, ExDOS. My site is here: http://exdos.co.nf/ and my source code is on GitHub: https://github.com/omarrx024/exdos64 It's licensed under GNU GPL v3 and has many improvements over it's old 32-bit version. This one has a truly functional ACPI driver on real hardware, a window-based GUI, a real disk driver independent of BIOS, and some other things.
2016 · its alternatives →
5
Kern – container and resource runtime in a 1.5 MB binary, no daemon▲70
A fast, rootless sandbox and virtual resource runtime for any workload, including untrusted and AI-generated code. Daemonless: a real, kernel-enforced container in ~3.5 ms from an OCI image, out of one static binary - getkern/kern
Aug 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
6EL
Elfconv – Linux Apps to High-Performance WASM Binary Translator▲18
This post introduces elfconv, a binary translator that converts Linux applications into WebAssembly. repo: https://github.com/yomaytk/elfconv Recently, performance has improved dramatically. In our LINPACK benchmark, the Wasm generated from ELF/AArch64 by elfconv now runs at roughly 60–80% of the performance of the Wasm directly compiled from source code. This shows that elfconv can produce WebAssembly with practical, real‑world performance! Furthermore, compared to QEMU running in the browser, it achieves approximately 68× the performance. Benchmark test:…
2025 · medium.com · its alternatives →
7
Another ELF Analysis Toolkit▲62
Nyxelf simplifies static and dynamic analysis of ELF binaries, enabling you to extract valuable insights effortlessly. And can be used for vulnerability assessments, unpacking, syscall tracing, and memory analysis.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
8
A Fast, Malloc-Free C++14 Json Parser and Encoder▲98
Meta programming utilities for C++14. Merged in matt-42/lithium - matt-42/iod
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
9
Program Microcontrollers from Your Headphone jack▲107
Espruino is a JavaScript interpreter for microcontrollers. It can fit into devices with as little as 128kB Flash and 8kB RAM.
2014 · forum.espruino.com · its alternatives →
10
My microkernel-based OS built from scratch now has basic Unix commands▲69
This project contains no code from Linux, BSD, Minix, or any other OS. Everything up until this point is written entirely from scratch, including a pure microkernel (that only implements multiprocessor priority scheduling, memory management, and interprocess communication), a work-in-progress implementation of the standard C library, and a variety of servers that provide drivers and other essential OS functionality. At the time of writing this post, the servers provide drivers for the keyboard, NVMe SSDs (that works on real hardware), a Unix-like virtual file system (with a single root…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
11
ELF Injector▲39
The ELF Injector allows you to "inject" arbitrary-sized relocatable code chunks into ELF executables. The code chunks will run before the original entry point of the executable runs. Included in the project are sample chunks as well as a step-by-step tutorial on how it works. It's a mix of C and assembly and currently runs on 32-bit ARM though it's easy to port to other architectures.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
12
Compile for Arm at native speeds in an emulated system▲63
Runs AWS graviton2 images on intel, with native-speed compile times - valkmit/aws-graviton2-on-intel
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
13
PlanckForth: Bootstrapping an Interpreter from Handwritten 1KB Binary▲10
Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun. - GitHub - nineties/planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
14
An AVR based 8-bit Microcomputer▲43
DAN64 is a open software and open hardware project to build an 8-bit microcomputer using an AVR microcontroller.
2015 · usebox.net · its alternatives →
15
Zero deps C++ ASR binary for Linux (0MB idle RAM, no daemons, Unix way)▲5
Daemonless, ultra-lightweight (~2.1mb) speech recognition for Linux (no dependencies beyond pure C++23 and the Linux toolchain) - rccyx/asryx
Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
16BT
Byte – the game. How quickly can you translate 8-bit binary in 30s?▲6
2015 · ghostsnstuff.github.io · its alternatives →
17
Mini_gzip – embeddable, minimal, in-memory Gzip API▲21
Embeddable minimal in-memory GZIP decompression library for embedded systems - wkoszek/mini_gzip
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
18
HTTP server written in x64 assembly (x86-64)▲12
A minimalist HTTP server for Linux, written in x86_64 assembly - jcalvinowens/asmhttpd
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
19
Openemacs – a tiny emacs clone, ≤ 1024 LOC (C), based on kilo (BSD)▲8
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
20
ZXC – Asymmetric, +40% decode vs. LZ4 on ARM (C, BSD-3, Fuzzed)▲28
Hello HN, author here. I built ZXC, a lossless compression library designed specifically for "Write Once, Read Many" scenarios (Game assets, Firmware, App bundles). The Concept: Standard real-time codecs (LZ4, Snappy) are designed for symmetry. ZXC explores an asymmetric approach: it spends significantly more CPU cycles at compression time to generate a bitstream specifically structured for modern, wide-issue execution pipelines (maximizing Instruction Level Parallelism). Performance (Verified via lzbench integration): ZXC was merged into the official lzbench repository monday. ARM64 (Apple…
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
21
I made a set of tools to write kernel prototypes.▲8
This is a personal project I've been working on and off for the past few years. It's a set of tools that have allowed me to prototype quickly small (and increasingly bigger) kernels, and create userspace programs to interact with them. Supports riscv64, amd64 and i386. The intel port has been tested and used on real hardware, from big dual-socket Xeon machines to an old X220. It is all C, I have plan to make rust bindings for the kernel library. But again, they're plans at this stage. Porting to new architectures is relatively simple, a basic port to riscv took me a couple of weeks of…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
22
Outperforming VByte for Large Integers Using Phi-Encoding▲15
Properties of a Novel Binary Representation of Integers using Base-𝜙 - irradix/paper.md at main · DOSAYGO-STUDIO/irradix
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
23
Local-first firmware analyzer using WebAssembly▲8
Hi HN, I just wanted to share what I have been working on for the past few months: A firmware analyzer for embedded Linux systems that helps uncovering security issues running entirely in the browser. This is a very early Alpha. It is going to be rough around the edges. But I think it provides quite a lot of value already. So please go ahead and drop a firmware (only .tar rootfs archives for now) and try to break it :)
Mar 2026 · xray.boldwark.com · its alternatives →
24
A distributed computing Linux distro with batteries included▲7
2022 · old.reddit.com · its alternatives →

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