The gnu Binary Utilities

(GNU Binutils)
Version 2.40

January 2023

Roland H. Pesch
Jeffrey M. Osier
Cygnus Support
 Cygnus Support
Texinfo 2021-04-25.21

Copyright c 1991-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of
the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the
Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with
no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free
Documentation License”.
 i

Table of Contents

1 ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Controlling ar on the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Controlling ar with a Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 ld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3 nm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 objcopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5 objdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

6 ranlib. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

7 size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

8 strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

9 strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

10 c++filt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

11 addr2line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

12 windmc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

13 windres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

14 dlltool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
14.1 The format of the dlltool .def file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

15 readelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

16 elfedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
 ii

17 Common Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

18 Selecting the Target System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

18.1 Target Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
18.2 Architecture Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

19 debuginfod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

20 Reporting Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
20.1 Have You Found a Bug? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
20.2 How to Report Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License . . 97

Binutils Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

 1

1 ar
ar [-]p[mod] [--plugin name] [--target bfdname] [--output dirname] [--record-libdeps lib-
deps] [relpos] [count] archive [member...]
ar -M [ <mri-script ]
The gnu ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An archive is a single
file holding a collection of other files in a structure that makes it possible to retrieve the
original individual files (called members of the archive).
The original files’ contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and group are pre-
served in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.
gnu ar can maintain archives whose members have names of any length; however, de-
pending on how ar is configured on your system, a limit on member-name length may be
imposed for compatibility with archive formats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the
limit is often 15 characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typical of
formats related to coff).
ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are most often used as
libraries holding commonly needed subroutines. Since libraries often will depend on other
libraries, ar can also record the dependencies of a library when the --record-libdeps
option is specified.
ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object modules in the archive
when you specify the modifier ‘s’. Once created, this index is updated in the archive
whenever ar makes a change to its contents (save for the ‘q’ update operation). An archive
with such an index speeds up linking to the library, and allows routines in the library to
call each other without regard to their placement in the archive.
You may use ‘nm -s’ or ‘nm --print-armap’ to list this index table. If an archive lacks
the table, another form of ar called ranlib can be used to add just the table.
gnu ar can optionally create a thin archive, which contains a symbol index and references
to the original copies of the member files of the archive. This is useful for building libraries
for use within a local build tree, where the relocatable objects are expected to remain
available, and copying the contents of each object would only waste time and space.
An archive can either be thin or it can be normal. It cannot be both at the same time.
Once an archive is created its format cannot be changed without first deleting it and then
creating a new archive in its place.
Thin archives are also flattened, so that adding one thin archive to another thin archive
does not nest it, as would happen with a normal archive. Instead the elements of the first
archive are added individually to the second archive.
The paths to the elements of the archive are stored relative to the archive itself.
gnu ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities. You can control its
activity using command-line options, like the different varieties of ar on Unix systems; or,
if you specify the single command-line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied
via standard input, like the MRI “librarian” program.
Chapter 1: ar 2

1.1 Controlling ar on the Command Line

ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod] [--plugin name] [--target bfdname] [--output dirname] [--record-
libdeps libdeps] [--thin] [relpos] [count] archive [member...]
When you use ar in the Unix style, ar insists on at least two arguments to execute: one
keyletter specifying the operation (optionally accompanied by other keyletters specifying
modifiers), and the archive name to act on.
Most operations can also accept further member arguments, specifying particular files
to operate on.
gnu ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in any order,
within the first command-line argument.
If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.
The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of the following, but
you must specify only one of them:
‘d’ Delete modules from the archive. Specify the names of modules to be deleted
as member . . . ; the archive is untouched if you specify no files to delete.
If you specify the ‘v’ modifier, ar lists each module as it is deleted.
‘m’ Use this operation to move members in an archive.
The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how programs
are linked using the library, if a symbol is defined in more than one member.
If no modifiers are used with m, any members you name in the member ar-
guments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use the ‘a’, ‘b’, or ‘i’
modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.
‘p’ Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output file. If the
‘v’ modifier is specified, show the member name before copying its contents to
standard output.
If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive are printed.
‘q’ Quick append ; Historically, add the files member . . . to the end of archive,
without checking for replacement.
The modifiers ‘a’, ‘b’, and ‘i’ do not affect this operation; new members are
always placed at the end of the archive.
The modifier ‘v’ makes ar list each file as it is appended.
Since the point of this operation is speed, implementations of ar have the option
of not updating the archive’s symbol table if one exists. Too many different
systems however assume that symbol tables are always up-to-date, so gnu ar
will rebuild the table even with a quick append.
Note - gnu ar treats the command ‘qs’ as a synonym for ‘r’ - replacing already
existing files in the archive and appending new ones at the end.
‘r’ Insert the files member . . . into archive (with replacement). This operation
differs from ‘q’ in that any previously existing members are deleted if their
names match those being added.
Chapter 1: ar 3

If one of the files named in member . . . does not exist, ar displays an error
message, and leaves undisturbed any existing members of the archive matching
that name.
By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you may use one
of the modifiers ‘a’, ‘b’, or ‘i’ to request placement relative to some existing
member.
The modifier ‘v’ used with this operation elicits a line of output for each file
inserted, along with one of the letters ‘a’ or ‘r’ to indicate whether the file was
appended (no old member deleted) or replaced.
‘s’ Add an index to the archive, or update it if it already exists. Note this command
is an exception to the rule that there can only be one command letter, as it is
possible to use it as either a command or a modifier. In either case it does the
same thing.
‘t’ Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the files listed in
member . . . that are present in the archive. Normally only the member name
is shown, but if the modifier ‘O’ is specified, then the corresponding offset of
the member is also displayed. Finally, in order to see the modes (permissions),
timestamp, owner, group, and size the ‘v’ modifier should be included.
If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are listed.
If there is more than one file with the same name (say, ‘fie’) in an archive (say
‘b.a’), ‘ar t b.a fie’ lists only the first instance; to see them all, you must ask
for a complete listing—in our example, ‘ar t b.a’.
‘x’ Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the ‘v’ mod-
ifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as it extracts it.
If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are extracted.
Files cannot be extracted from a thin archive, and there are restrictions on
extracting from archives created with P: The paths must not be absolute, may
not contain .., and any subdirectories in the paths must exist. If it is desired
to avoid these restrictions then used the --output option to specify an output
directory.
A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to specify varia-
tions on an operation’s behavior:
‘a’ Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier
‘a’, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos
argument, before the archive specification.
‘b’ Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier
‘b’, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos
argument, before the archive specification. (same as ‘i’).
‘c’ Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it did not exist,
when you request an update. But a warning is issued unless you specify in
advance that you expect to create it, by using this modifier.
Chapter 1: ar 4

‘D’ Operate in deterministic mode. When adding files and the archive index use
zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file modes for all files.
When this option is used, if ar is used with identical options and identical input
files, multiple runs will create identical output files regardless of the input files’
owners, groups, file modes, or modification times.
If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then
this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the ‘U’ modifier, below.
‘f’ Truncate names in the archive. gnu ar will normally permit file names of any
length. This will cause it to create archives which are not compatible with the
native ar program on some systems. If this is a concern, the ‘f’ modifier may
be used to truncate file names when putting them in the archive.
‘i’ Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier
‘i’, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos
argument, before the archive specification. (same as ‘b’).
‘l’ Specify dependencies of this library. The dependencies must immediately follow
this option character, must use the same syntax as the linker command line, and
must be specified within a single argument. I.e., if multiple items are needed,
they must be quoted to form a single command line argument. For example ‘L
"-L/usr/local/lib -lmydep1 -lmydep2"’
‘N’ Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple entries in the
archive with the same name. Extract or delete instance count of the given
name from the archive.
‘o’ Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If you do not
specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive are stamped with the time
of extraction.
‘O’ Display member offsets inside the archive. Use together with the ‘t’ option.
‘P’ Use the full path name when matching or storing names in the archive. Archives
created with full path names are not POSIX compliant, and thus may not work
with tools other than up to date gnu tools. Modifying such archives with gnu
ar without using P will remove the full path names unless the archive is a thin
archive. Note that P may be useful when adding files to a thin archive since r
without P ignores the path when choosing which element to replace. Thus
ar rcST archive.a subdir/file1 subdir/file2 file1
will result in the first subdir/file1 being replaced with file1 from the current
directory. Adding P will prevent this replacement.
‘s’ Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing one, even if no
other change is made to the archive. You may use this modifier flag either with
any operation, or alone. Running ‘ar s’ on an archive is equivalent to running
‘ranlib’ on it.
‘S’ Do not generate an archive symbol table. This can speed up building a large
library in several steps. The resulting archive can not be used with the linker.
In order to build a symbol table, you must omit the ‘S’ modifier on the last
execution of ‘ar’, or you must run ‘ranlib’ on the archive.
Chapter 1: ar 5

‘T’ Deprecated alias for --thin. T is not recommended because in many ar imple-
mentations T has a different meaning, as specified by X/Open System Interface.
‘u’ Normally, ‘ar r’. . . inserts all files listed into the archive. If you would like
to insert only those of the files you list that are newer than existing members
of the same names, use this modifier. The ‘u’ modifier is allowed only for the
operation ‘r’ (replace). In particular, the combination ‘qu’ is not allowed, since
checking the timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation
‘q’.
‘U’ Do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the ‘D’ modi-
fier, above: added files and the archive index will get their actual UID, GID,
timestamp, and file mode values.
This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-
deterministic-archives.
‘v’ This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation. Many operations
display additional information, such as filenames processed, when the modifier
‘v’ is appended.
‘V’ This modifier shows the version number of ar.
The ar program also supports some command-line options which are neither modifiers
nor actions, but which do change its behaviour in specific ways:
‘--help’ Displays the list of command-line options supported by ar and then exits.
‘--version’
Displays the version information of ar and then exits.
‘-X32_64’ ar ignores an initial option spelled ‘-X32_64’, for compatibility with AIX. The
behaviour produced by this option is the default for gnu ar. ar does not
support any of the other ‘-X’ options; in particular, it does not support -X32
which is the default for AIX ar.
‘--plugin name’
The optional command-line switch --plugin name causes ar to load the plugin
called name which adds support for more file formats, including object files
with link-time optimization information.
This option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support
enabled.
If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled then ar
iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the
first plugin that claims the object in question is used.
Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld’s -plugin
option. In order to make ar use the linker plugin it must be copied into the
${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. For GCC based compilations the linker
plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. For Clang based compilations it is
called LLVMgold.so. The GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with
earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one.
Chapter 1: ar 6

‘--target target’
The optional command-line switch --target bfdname specifies that the archive
members are in an object code format different from your system’s default
format. See See Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
‘--output dirname’
The --output option can be used to specify a path to a directory into which
archive members should be extracted. If this option is not specified then the
current directory will be used.
Note - although the presence of this option does imply a x extraction operation
that option must still be included on the command line.
‘--record-libdeps libdeps’
The --record-libdeps option is identical to the l modifier, just handled in
long form.
‘--thin’ Make the specified archive a thin archive. If it already exists and is a regular
archive, the existing members must be present in the same directory as archive.

1.2 Controlling ar with a Script

ar -M [ <script ]
If you use the single command-line option ‘-M’ with ar, you can control its operation
with a rudimentary command language. This form of ar operates interactively if standard
input is coming directly from a terminal. During interactive use, ar prompts for input (the
prompt is ‘AR >’), and continues executing even after errors. If you redirect standard input
to a script file, no prompts are issued, and ar abandons execution (with a nonzero exit
code) on any error.
The ar command language is not designed to be equivalent to the command-line options;
in fact, it provides somewhat less control over archives. The only purpose of the command
language is to ease the transition to gnu ar for developers who already have scripts written
for the MRI “librarian” program.
The syntax for the ar command language is straightforward:
• commands are recognized in upper or lower case; for example, LIST is the same as
list. In the following descriptions, commands are shown in upper case for clarity.
• a single command may appear on each line; it is the first word on the line.
• empty lines are allowed, and have no effect.
• comments are allowed; text after either of the characters ‘*’ or ‘;’ is ignored.
• Whenever you use a list of names as part of the argument to an ar command, you can
separate the individual names with either commas or blanks. Commas are shown in
the explanations below, for clarity.
• ‘+’ is used as a line continuation character; if ‘+’ appears at the end of a line, the text
on the following line is considered part of the current command.
Here are the commands you can use in ar scripts, or when using ar interactively. Three
of them have special significance:
OPEN or CREATE specify a current archive, which is a temporary file required for most of
the other commands.
Chapter 1: ar 7

SAVE commits the changes so far specified by the script. Prior to SAVE, commands affect
only the temporary copy of the current archive.
ADDLIB archive
ADDLIB archive (module, module, ... module)
Add all the contents of archive (or, if specified, each named module from
archive) to the current archive.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
ADDMOD member, member, ... member
Add each named member as a module in the current archive.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
CLEAR Discard the contents of the current archive, canceling the effect of any operations
since the last SAVE. May be executed (with no effect) even if no current archive
is specified.
CREATE archive
Creates an archive, and makes it the current archive (required for many other
commands). The new archive is created with a temporary name; it is not actu-
ally saved as archive until you use SAVE. You can overwrite existing archives;
similarly, the contents of any existing file named archive will not be destroyed
until SAVE.
DELETE module, module, ... module
Delete each listed module from the current archive; equivalent to ‘ar -d
archive module ... module’.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
DIRECTORY archive (module, ... module)
DIRECTORY archive (module, ... module) outputfile
List each named module present in archive. The separate command VERBOSE
specifies the form of the output: when verbose output is off, output is like that
of ‘ar -t archive module...’. When verbose output is on, the listing is like
‘ar -tv archive module...’.
Output normally goes to the standard output stream; however, if you specify
outputfile as a final argument, ar directs the output to that file.
END Exit from ar, with a 0 exit code to indicate successful completion. This com-
mand does not save the output file; if you have changed the current archive
since the last SAVE command, those changes are lost.
EXTRACT module, module, ... module
Extract each named module from the current archive, writing them into the
current directory as separate files. Equivalent to ‘ar -x archive module...’.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
LIST Display full contents of the current archive, in “verbose” style regardless of the
state of VERBOSE. The effect is like ‘ar tv archive’. (This single command is
a gnu ar enhancement, rather than present for MRI compatibility.)
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
Chapter 1: ar 8

OPEN archive
Opens an existing archive for use as the current archive (required for many
other commands). Any changes as the result of subsequent commands will not
actually affect archive until you next use SAVE.
REPLACE module, module, ... module
In the current archive, replace each existing module (named in the REPLACE ar-
guments) from files in the current working directory. To execute this command
without errors, both the file, and the module in the current archive, must exist.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
VERBOSE Toggle an internal flag governing the output from DIRECTORY. When the flag
is on, DIRECTORY output matches output from ‘ar -tv ’. . . .
SAVE Commit your changes to the current archive, and actually save it as a file with
the name specified in the last CREATE or OPEN command.
Requires prior use of OPEN or CREATE.
 9

2 ld
The gnu linker ld is now described in a separate manual. See Section “Overview” in Using
LD: the gnu linker.
 10

3 nm
nm [-A|-o|--print-file-name]
[-a|--debug-syms]
[-B|--format=bsd]
[-C|--demangle[=style]]
[-D|--dynamic]
[-fformat|--format=format]
[-g|--extern-only]
[-h|--help]
[--ifunc-chars=CHARS]
[-j|--format=just-symbols]
[-l|--line-numbers] [--inlines]
[-n|-v|--numeric-sort]
[-P|--portability]
[-p|--no-sort]
[-r|--reverse-sort]
[-S|--print-size]
[-s|--print-armap]
[-t radix|--radix=radix]
[-u|--undefined-only]
[-U|--defined-only]
[-V|--version]
[-W|--no-weak]
[-X 32_64]
[--no-demangle]
[--no-recurse-limit|--recurse-limit]]
[--plugin name]
[--size-sort]
[--special-syms]
[--synthetic]
[--target=bfdname]
[--unicode=method]
[--with-symbol-versions]
[--without-symbol-versions]
[objfile...]

gnu nm lists the symbols from object files objfile . . . . If no object files are listed as
arguments, nm assumes the file a.out.
For each symbol, nm shows:
• The symbol value, in the radix selected by options (see below), or hexadecimal by
default.
• The symbol type. At least the following types are used; others are, as well, depending
on the object file format. If lowercase, the symbol is usually local; if uppercase, the
symbol is global (external). There are however a few lowercase symbols that are shown
for special global symbols (u, v and w).

A The symbol’s value is absolute, and will not be changed by further linking.

B
b The symbol is in the BSS data section. This section typically contains
zero-initialized or uninitialized data, although the exact behavior is system
dependent.
Chapter 3: nm 11

C
c The symbol is common. Common symbols are uninitialized data. When
linking, multiple common symbols may appear with the same name. If the
symbol is defined anywhere, the common symbols are treated as undefined
references. For more details on common symbols, see the discussion of –
warn-common in Section “Linker options” in The GNU linker. The lower
case c character is used when the symbol is in a special section for small
commons.
D
d The symbol is in the initialized data section.
G
g The symbol is in an initialized data section for small objects. Some object
file formats permit more efficient access to small data objects, such as a
global int variable as opposed to a large global array.
i For PE format files this indicates that the symbol is in a section specific
to the implementation of DLLs.
For ELF format files this indicates that the symbol is an indirect function.
This is a GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol types. It
indicates a symbol which if referenced by a relocation does not evaluate to
its address, but instead must be invoked at runtime. The runtime execution
will then return the value to be used in the relocation.
Note - the actual symbols display for GNU indirect symbols is controlled by
the --ifunc-chars command line option. If this option has been provided
then the first character in the string will be used for global indirect function
symbols. If the string contains a second character then that will be used
for local indirect function symbols.
I The symbol is an indirect reference to another symbol.
N The symbol is a debugging symbol.
n The symbol is in the read-only data section.
p The symbol is in a stack unwind section.
R
r The symbol is in a read only data section.
S
s The symbol is in an uninitialized or zero-initialized data section for small
objects.
T
t The symbol is in the text (code) section.
U The symbol is undefined.
u The symbol is a unique global symbol. This is a GNU extension to the
standard set of ELF symbol bindings. For such a symbol the dynamic
linker will make sure that in the entire process there is just one symbol
with this name and type in use.
Chapter 3: nm 12

V
v The symbol is a weak object. When a weak defined symbol is linked with
a normal defined symbol, the normal defined symbol is used with no error.
When a weak undefined symbol is linked and the symbol is not defined, the
value of the weak symbol becomes zero with no error. On some systems,
uppercase indicates that a default value has been specified.
W
w The symbol is a weak symbol that has not been specifically tagged as a
weak object symbol. When a weak defined symbol is linked with a normal
defined symbol, the normal defined symbol is used with no error. When a
weak undefined symbol is linked and the symbol is not defined, the value
of the symbol is determined in a system-specific manner without error. On
some systems, uppercase indicates that a default value has been specified.
- The symbol is a stabs symbol in an a.out object file. In this case, the next
values printed are the stabs other field, the stabs desc field, and the stab
type. Stabs symbols are used to hold debugging information.
? The symbol type is unknown, or object file format specific.
• The symbol name. If a symbol has version information associated with it, then the
version information is displayed as well. If the versioned symbol is undefined or hidden
from linker, the version string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded
by an @ character. For example ‘foo@VER_1’. If the version is the default version to
be used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol, then it is displayed as a
suffix preceded by two @ characters. For example ‘foo@@VER_2’.
The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent.
-A
-o
--print-file-name
Precede each symbol by the name of the input file (or archive member) in which
it was found, rather than identifying the input file once only, before all of its
symbols.
-a
--debug-syms
Display all symbols, even debugger-only symbols; normally these are not listed.
-B The same as --format=bsd (for compatibility with the MIPS nm).
-C
--demangle[=style]
Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. Besides re-
moving any initial underscore prepended by the system, this makes C++ func-
tion names readable. Different compilers have different mangling styles. The
optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an appropriate de-
mangling style for your compiler. See Chapter 10 [c++filt], page 60, for more
information on demangling.
Chapter 3: nm 13

--no-demangle
Do not demangle low-level symbol names. This is the default.
--recurse-limit
--no-recurse-limit
--recursion-limit
--no-recursion-limit
Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst de-
mangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of
recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount
of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The
limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
of nesting.
The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in
order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion
limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about
such an event will be rejected.
-D
--dynamic
Display the dynamic symbols rather than the normal symbols. This is only
meaningful for dynamic objects, such as certain types of shared libraries.
-f format
--format=format
Use the output format format, which can be bsd, sysv, posix or just-symbols.
The default is bsd. Only the first character of format is significant; it can be
either upper or lower case.
-g
--extern-only
Display only external symbols.
-h
--help Show a summary of the options to nm and exit.
--ifunc-chars=CHARS
When display GNU indirect function symbols nm will default to using the i
character for both local indirect functions and global indirect functions. The
--ifunc-chars option allows the user to specify a string containing one or two
characters. The first character will be used for global indirect function symbols
and the second character, if present, will be used for local indirect function
symbols.
j The same as --format=just-symbols.
-l
--line-numbers
For each symbol, use debugging information to try to find a filename and line
number. For a defined symbol, look for the line number of the address of the
symbol. For an undefined symbol, look for the line number of a relocation entry
Chapter 3: nm 14

which refers to the symbol. If line number information can be found, print it
after the other symbol information.
--inlines
When option -l is active, if the address belongs to a function that was inlined,
then this option causes the source information for all enclosing scopes back
to the first non-inlined function to be printed as well. For example, if main
inlines callee1 which inlines callee2, and address is from callee2, the source
information for callee1 and main will also be printed.
-n
-v
--numeric-sort
Sort symbols numerically by their addresses, rather than alphabetically by their
names.
-p
--no-sort
Do not bother to sort the symbols in any order; print them in the order en-
countered.
-P
--portability
Use the POSIX.2 standard output format instead of the default format. Equiv-
alent to ‘-f posix’.
-r
--reverse-sort
Reverse the order of the sort (whether numeric or alphabetic); let the last come
first.
-S
--print-size
Print both value and size of defined symbols for the bsd output style. This
option has no effect for object formats that do not record symbol sizes, unless
‘--size-sort’ is also used in which case a calculated size is displayed.
-s
--print-armap
When listing symbols from archive members, include the index: a mapping
(stored in the archive by ar or ranlib) of which modules contain definitions
for which names.
-t radix
--radix=radix
Use radix as the radix for printing the symbol values. It must be ‘d’ for decimal,
‘o’ for octal, or ‘x’ for hexadecimal.
-u
--undefined-only
Display only undefined symbols (those external to each object file). By default
both defined and undefined symbols are displayed.
Chapter 3: nm 15

-U
--defined-only
Display only defined symbols for each object file. By default both defined and
undefined symbols are displayed.
-V
--version
Show the version number of nm and exit.
-X This option is ignored for compatibility with the AIX version of nm. It takes
one parameter which must be the string 32_64. The default mode of AIX nm
corresponds to -X 32, which is not supported by gnu nm.
--plugin name
Load the plugin called name to add support for extra target types. This option
is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled.
If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled then nm
iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the
first plugin that claims the object in question is used.
Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld’s -plugin
option. In order to make nm use the linker plugin it must be copied into the
${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. For GCC based compilations the linker
plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. For Clang based compilations it is
called LLVMgold.so. The GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with
earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one.
--size-sort
Sort symbols by size. For ELF objects symbol sizes are read from the ELF, for
other object types the symbol sizes are computed as the difference between the
value of the symbol and the value of the symbol with the next higher value. If
the bsd output format is used the size of the symbol is printed, rather than the
value, and ‘-S’ must be used in order both size and value to be printed.
Note - this option does not work if --undefined-only has been enabled as
undefined symbols have no size.
--special-syms
Display symbols which have a target-specific special meaning. These symbols
are usually used by the target for some special processing and are not normally
helpful when included in the normal symbol lists. For example for ARM targets
this option would skip the mapping symbols used to mark transitions between
ARM code, THUMB code and data.
--synthetic
Include synthetic symbols in the output. These are special symbols created by
the linker for various purposes. They are not shown by default since they are
not part of the binary’s original source code.
--unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight]
Controls the display of UTF-8 encoded multibyte characters in strings.
The default (--unicode=default) is to give them no special treatment.
Chapter 3: nm 16

The --unicode=locale option displays the sequence in the current locale,

which may or may not support them. The options --unicode=hex and
--unicode=invalid display them as hex byte sequences enclosed by either
angle brackets or curly braces.
The --unicode=escape option displays them as escape sequences (\uxxxx)
and the --unicode=highlight option displays them as escape sequences high-
lighted in red (if supported by the output device). The colouring is intended to
draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences where they might not be
expected.
-W
--no-weak
Do not display weak symbols.
--with-symbol-versions
--without-symbol-versions
Enables or disables the display of symbol version information. The version
string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @ character.
For example ‘foo@VER_1’. If the version is the default version to be used when
resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it is displayed as a suffix
preceded by two @ characters. For example ‘foo@@VER_2’. By default, symbol
version information is displayed.
--target=bfdname
Specify an object code format other than your system’s default format. See
Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
 17

4 objcopy
objcopy [-F bfdname|--target=bfdname]
[-I bfdname|--input-target=bfdname]
[-O bfdname|--output-target=bfdname]
[-B bfdarch|--binary-architecture=bfdarch]
[-S|--strip-all]
[-g|--strip-debug]
[--strip-unneeded]
[-K symbolname|--keep-symbol=symbolname]
[--keep-file-symbols]
[--keep-section-symbols]
[-N symbolname|--strip-symbol=symbolname]
[--strip-unneeded-symbol=symbolname]
[-G symbolname|--keep-global-symbol=symbolname]
[--localize-hidden]
[-L symbolname|--localize-symbol=symbolname]
[--globalize-symbol=symbolname]
[--globalize-symbols=filename]
[-W symbolname|--weaken-symbol=symbolname]
[-w|--wildcard]
[-x|--discard-all]
[-X|--discard-locals]
[-b byte|--byte=byte]
[-i [breadth]|--interleave[=breadth]]
[--interleave-width=width]
[-j sectionpattern|--only-section=sectionpattern]
[-R sectionpattern|--remove-section=sectionpattern]
[--keep-section=sectionpattern]
[--remove-relocations=sectionpattern]
[-p|--preserve-dates]
[-D|--enable-deterministic-archives]
[-U|--disable-deterministic-archives]
[--debugging]
[--gap-fill=val]
[--pad-to=address]
[--set-start=val]
[--adjust-start=incr]
[--change-addresses=incr]
[--change-section-address sectionpattern{=,+,-}val]
[--change-section-lma sectionpattern{=,+,-}val]
[--change-section-vma sectionpattern{=,+,-}val]
[--change-warnings] [--no-change-warnings]
[--set-section-flags sectionpattern=flags]
[--set-section-alignment sectionpattern=align]
[--add-section sectionname=filename]
[--dump-section sectionname=filename]
[--update-section sectionname=filename]
[--rename-section oldname=newname[,flags]]
[--long-section-names {enable,disable,keep}]
[--change-leading-char] [--remove-leading-char]
[--reverse-bytes=num]
[--srec-len=ival] [--srec-forceS3]
[--redefine-sym old=new]
[--redefine-syms=filename]
[--weaken]
[--keep-symbols=filename]
[--strip-symbols=filename]
[--strip-unneeded-symbols=filename]
Chapter 4: objcopy 18

[--keep-global-symbols=filename]
[--localize-symbols=filename]
[--weaken-symbols=filename]
[--add-symbol name=[section:]value[,flags]]
[--alt-machine-code=index]
[--prefix-symbols=string]
[--prefix-sections=string]
[--prefix-alloc-sections=string]
[--add-gnu-debuglink=path-to-file]
[--only-keep-debug]
[--strip-dwo]
[--extract-dwo]
[--extract-symbol]
[--writable-text]
[--readonly-text]
[--pure]
[--impure]
[--file-alignment=num]
[--heap=size]
[--image-base=address]
[--section-alignment=num]
[--stack=size]
[--subsystem=which:major.minor]
[--compress-debug-sections]
[--decompress-debug-sections]
[--elf-stt-common=val]
[--merge-notes]
[--no-merge-notes]
[--verilog-data-width=val]
[-v|--verbose]
[-V|--version]
[--help] [--info]
infile [outfile]

The gnu objcopy utility copies the contents of an object file to another. objcopy uses
the gnu bfd Library to read and write the object files. It can write the destination object
file in a format different from that of the source object file. The exact behavior of objcopy
is controlled by command-line options. Note that objcopy should be able to copy a fully
linked file between any two formats. However, copying a relocatable object file between any
two formats may not work as expected.

objcopy creates temporary files to do its translations and deletes them afterward.
objcopy uses bfd to do all its translation work; it has access to all the formats described
in bfd and thus is able to recognize most formats without being told explicitly. See Section
“BFD” in Using LD.

objcopy can be used to generate S-records by using an output target of ‘srec’ (e.g., use
‘-O srec’).

objcopy can be used to generate a raw binary file by using an output target of ‘binary’
(e.g., use -O binary). When objcopy generates a raw binary file, it will essentially produce
a memory dump of the contents of the input object file. All symbols and relocation infor-
mation will be discarded. The memory dump will start at the load address of the lowest
section copied into the output file.
Chapter 4: objcopy 19

When generating an S-record or a raw binary file, it may be helpful to use -S to re-
move sections containing debugging information. In some cases -R will be useful to remove
sections which contain information that is not needed by the binary file.
Note—objcopy is not able to change the endianness of its input files. If the input format
has an endianness (some formats do not), objcopy can only copy the inputs into file formats
that have the same endianness or which have no endianness (e.g., ‘srec’). (However, see
the --reverse-bytes option.)
infile
outfile The input and output files, respectively. If you do not specify outfile, objcopy
creates a temporary file and destructively renames the result with the name of
infile.
-I bfdname
--input-target=bfdname
Consider the source file’s object format to be bfdname, rather than attempting
to deduce it. See Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
-O bfdname
--output-target=bfdname
Write the output file using the object format bfdname. See Section 18.1 [Target
Selection], page 91, for more information.
-F bfdname
--target=bfdname
Use bfdname as the object format for both the input and the output file;
i.e., simply transfer data from source to destination with no translation. See
Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
-B bfdarch
--binary-architecture=bfdarch
Useful when transforming a architecture-less input file into an object file. In this
case the output architecture can be set to bfdarch. This option will be ignored
if the input file has a known bfdarch. You can access this binary data inside a
program by referencing the special symbols that are created by the conversion
process. These symbols are called binary objfile start, binary objfile end
and binary objfile size. e.g. you can transform a picture file into an object
file and then access it in your code using these symbols.
-j sectionpattern
--only-section=sectionpattern
Copy only the indicated sections from the input file to the output file. This
option may be given more than once. Note that using this option inappropri-
ately may make the output file unusable. Wildcard characters are accepted in
sectionpattern.
If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then match-
ing sections will not be copied, even if earlier use of --only-section on the
same command line would otherwise copy it. For example:
--only-section=.text.* --only-section=!.text.foo
will copy all sectinos matching ’.text.*’ but not the section ’.text.foo’.
Chapter 4: objcopy 20

-R sectionpattern
--remove-section=sectionpattern
Remove any section matching sectionpattern from the output file. This op-
tion may be given more than once. Note that using this option inappropri-
ately may make the output file unusable. Wildcard characters are accepted in
sectionpattern. Using both the -j and -R options together results in undefined
behaviour.
If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then match-
ing sections will not be removed even if an earlier use of --remove-section on
the same command line would otherwise remove it. For example:
--remove-section=.text.* --remove-section=!.text.foo
will remove all sections matching the pattern ’.text.*’, but will not remove the
section ’.text.foo’.
--keep-section=sectionpattern
When removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match
sectionpattern.
--remove-relocations=sectionpattern
Remove non-dynamic relocations from the output file for any section matching
sectionpattern. This option may be given more than once. Note that using this
option inappropriately may make the output file unusable, and attempting to
remove a dynamic relocation section such as ‘.rela.plt’ from an executable
or shared library with --remove-relocations=.plt will not work. Wildcard
characters are accepted in sectionpattern. For example:
--remove-relocations=.text.*
will remove the relocations for all sections matching the pattern ’.text.*’.
If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then match-
ing sections will not have their relocation removed even if an earlier use of
--remove-relocations on the same command line would otherwise cause the
relocations to be removed. For example:
--remove-relocations=.text.* --remove-relocations=!.text.foo
will remove all relocations for sections matching the pattern ’.text.*’, but will
not remove relocations for the section ’.text.foo’.
-S
--strip-all
Do not copy relocation and symbol information from the source file. Also deletes
debug sections.
-g
--strip-debug
Do not copy debugging symbols or sections from the source file.
--strip-unneeded
Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing in addition
to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug.
Chapter 4: objcopy 21

-K symbolname
--keep-symbol=symbolname
When stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally
be stripped. This option may be given more than once.
-N symbolname
--strip-symbol=symbolname
Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be
given more than once.
--strip-unneeded-symbol=symbolname
Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file unless it is needed by a
relocation. This option may be given more than once.
-G symbolname
--keep-global-symbol=symbolname
Keep only symbol symbolname global. Make all other symbols local to the file,
so that they are not visible externally. This option may be given more than
once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the --globalize-
symbol or --globalize-symbols options.
--localize-hidden
In an ELF object, mark all symbols that have hidden or internal visibility as
local. This option applies on top of symbol-specific localization options such as
-L.
-L symbolname
--localize-symbol=symbolname
Convert a global or weak symbol called symbolname into a local symbol, so
that it is not visible externally. This option may be given more than once.
Note - unique symbols are not converted.
-W symbolname
--weaken-symbol=symbolname
Make symbol symbolname weak. This option may be given more than once.
--globalize-symbol=symbolname
Give symbol symbolname global scoping so that it is visible outside of the file
in which it is defined. This option may be given more than once. Note: this
option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or --keep-global-symbol
options.
-w
--wildcard
Permit regular expressions in symbolnames used in other command line options.
The question mark (?), asterisk (*), backslash (\) and square brackets ([])
operators can be used anywhere in the symbol name. If the first character of
the symbol name is the exclamation point (!) then the sense of the switch is
reversed for that symbol. For example:
-w -W !foo -W fo*
would cause objcopy to weaken all symbols that start with “fo” except for the
symbol “foo”.
Chapter 4: objcopy 22

-x
--discard-all
Do not copy non-global symbols from the source file.
-X
--discard-locals
Do not copy compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with ‘L’ or
‘.’.)
-b byte
--byte=byte
If interleaving has been enabled via the --interleave option then start the
range of bytes to keep at the byteth byte. byte can be in the range from 0 to
breadth-1, where breadth is the value given by the --interleave option.
-i [breadth]
--interleave[=breadth]
Only copy a range out of every breadth bytes. (Header data is not affected).
Select which byte in the range begins the copy with the --byte option. Select
the width of the range with the --interleave-width option.
This option is useful for creating files to program rom. It is typically used with
an srec output target. Note that objcopy will complain if you do not specify
the --byte option as well.
The default interleave breadth is 4, so with --byte set to 0, objcopy would
copy the first byte out of every four bytes from the input to the output.
--interleave-width=width
When used with the --interleave option, copy width bytes at a time. The
start of the range of bytes to be copied is set by the --byte option, and the
extent of the range is set with the --interleave option.
The default value for this option is 1. The value of width plus the byte value
set by the --byte option must not exceed the interleave breadth set by the
--interleave option.
This option can be used to create images for two 16-bit flashes interleaved
in a 32-bit bus by passing -b 0 -i 4 --interleave-width=2 and -b 2 -i 4
--interleave-width=2 to two objcopy commands. If the input was ’12345678’
then the outputs would be ’1256’ and ’3478’ respectively.
-p
--preserve-dates
Set the access and modification dates of the output file to be the same as those
of the input file.
-D
--enable-deterministic-archives
Operate in deterministic mode. When copying archive members and writing
the archive index, use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file
modes for all files.
If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then
this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the ‘-U’ option, below.
Chapter 4: objcopy 23

-U
--disable-deterministic-archives
Do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the -D option,
above: when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use their
actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values.
This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-
deterministic-archives.

--debugging
Convert debugging information, if possible. This is not the default because
only certain debugging formats are supported, and the conversion process can
be time consuming.

--gap-fill val
Fill gaps between sections with val. This operation applies to the load address
(LMA) of the sections. It is done by increasing the size of the section with the
lower address, and filling in the extra space created with val.

--pad-to address
Pad the output file up to the load address address. This is done by increasing
the size of the last section. The extra space is filled in with the value specified
by --gap-fill (default zero).

--set-start val
Set the start address (also known as the entry address) of the new file to val.
Not all object file formats support setting the start address.

--change-start incr
--adjust-start incr
Change the start address (also known as the entry address) by adding incr. Not
all object file formats support setting the start address.

--change-addresses incr
--adjust-vma incr
Change the VMA and LMA addresses of all sections, as well as the start address,
by adding incr. Some object file formats do not permit section addresses to be
changed arbitrarily. Note that this does not relocate the sections; if the program
expects sections to be loaded at a certain address, and this option is used to
change the sections such that they are loaded at a different address, the program
may fail.

--change-section-address sectionpattern{=,+,-}val
--adjust-section-vma sectionpattern{=,+,-}val
Set or change both the VMA address and the LMA address of any section
matching sectionpattern. If ‘=’ is used, the section address is set to val. Other-
wise, val is added to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments
under --change-addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sec-
tions in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings
is used.
Chapter 4: objcopy 24

--change-section-lma sectionpattern{=,+,-}val
Set or change the LMA address of any sections matching sectionpattern. The
LMA address is the address where the section will be loaded into memory at
program load time. Normally this is the same as the VMA address, which is
the address of the section at program run time, but on some systems, especially
those where a program is held in ROM, the two can be different. If ‘=’ is used,
the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added to or subtracted from
the section address. See the comments under --change-addresses, above. If
sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input file, a warning will be
issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.
--change-section-vma sectionpattern{=,+,-}val
Set or change the VMA address of any section matching sectionpattern. The
VMA address is the address where the section will be located once the program
has started executing. Normally this is the same as the LMA address, which
is the address where the section will be loaded into memory, but on some
systems, especially those where a program is held in ROM, the two can be
different. If ‘=’ is used, the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added
to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments under --change-
addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input
file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.
--change-warnings
--adjust-warnings
If --change-section-address or --change-section-lma or --change-
section-vma is used, and the section pattern does not match any sections,
issue a warning. This is the default.
--no-change-warnings
--no-adjust-warnings
Do not issue a warning if --change-section-address or --adjust-section-
lma or --adjust-section-vma is used, even if the section pattern does not
match any sections.
--set-section-flags sectionpattern=flags
Set the flags for any sections matching sectionpattern. The flags argument is
a comma separated string of flag names. The recognized names are ‘alloc’,
‘contents’, ‘load’, ‘noload’, ‘readonly’, ‘code’, ‘data’, ‘rom’, ‘exclude’,
‘share’, and ‘debug’. You can set the ‘contents’ flag for a section which does
not have contents, but it is not meaningful to clear the ‘contents’ flag of a
section which does have contents–just remove the section instead. Not all flags
are meaningful for all object file formats. In particular the ‘share’ flag is only
meaningful for COFF format files and not for ELF format files.
--set-section-alignment sectionpattern=align
Set the alignment for any sections matching sectionpattern. align specifies the
alignment in bytes and must be a power of two, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8. . . .
--add-section sectionname=filename
Add a new section named sectionname while copying the file. The contents
of the new section are taken from the file filename. The size of the section
Chapter 4: objcopy 25

will be the size of the file. This option only works on file formats which can
support sections with arbitrary names. Note - it may be necessary to use the
--set-section-flags option to set the attributes of the newly created section.
--dump-section sectionname=filename
Place the contents of section named sectionname into the file filename, over-
writing any contents that may have been there previously. This option is the
inverse of --add-section. This option is similar to the --only-section option
except that it does not create a formatted file, it just dumps the contents as
raw binary data, without applying any relocations. The option can be specified
more than once.
--update-section sectionname=filename
Replace the existing contents of a section named sectionname with the contents
of file filename. The size of the section will be adjusted to the size of the file.
The section flags for sectionname will be unchanged. For ELF format files the
section to segment mapping will also remain unchanged, something which is
not possible using --remove-section followed by --add-section. The option
can be specified more than once.
Note - it is possible to use --rename-section and --update-section to both
update and rename a section from one command line. In this case, pass the
original section name to --update-section, and the original and new section
names to --rename-section.
--add-symbol name=[section:]value[,flags]
Add a new symbol named name while copying the file. This option may be
specified multiple times. If the section is given, the symbol will be associated
with and relative to that section, otherwise it will be an ABS symbol. Specifying
an undefined section will result in a fatal error. There is no check for the value,
it will be taken as specified. Symbol flags can be specified and not all flags
will be meaningful for all object file formats. By default, the symbol will be
global. The special flag ’before=othersym’ will insert the new symbol in front
of the specified othersym, otherwise the symbol(s) will be added at the end of
the symbol table in the order they appear.
--rename-section oldname=newname[,flags]
Rename a section from oldname to newname, optionally changing the section’s
flags to flags in the process. This has the advantage over using a linker script
to perform the rename in that the output stays as an object file and does not
become a linked executable. This option accepts the same set of flags as the
--sect-section-flags option.
This option is particularly helpful when the input format is binary, since this
will always create a section called .data. If for example, you wanted instead
to create a section called .rodata containing binary data you could use the
following command line to achieve it:
objcopy -I binary -O <output_format> -B <architecture> \
--rename-section .data=.rodata,alloc,load,readonly,data,contents \
<input_binary_file> <output_object_file>
Chapter 4: objcopy 26

--long-section-names {enable,disable,keep}
Controls the handling of long section names when processing COFF and PE-COFF
object formats. The default behaviour, ‘keep’, is to preserve long section names
if any are present in the input file. The ‘enable’ and ‘disable’ options forcibly
enable or disable the use of long section names in the output object; when
‘disable’ is in effect, any long section names in the input object will be trun-
cated. The ‘enable’ option will only emit long section names if any are present
in the inputs; this is mostly the same as ‘keep’, but it is left undefined whether
the ‘enable’ option might force the creation of an empty string table in the
output file.

--change-leading-char
Some object file formats use special characters at the start of symbols. The
most common such character is underscore, which compilers often add before
every symbol. This option tells objcopy to change the leading character of every
symbol when it converts between object file formats. If the object file formats
use the same leading character, this option has no effect. Otherwise, it will add
a character, or remove a character, or change a character, as appropriate.

--remove-leading-char
If the first character of a global symbol is a special symbol leading character
used by the object file format, remove the character. The most common symbol
leading character is underscore. This option will remove a leading underscore
from all global symbols. This can be useful if you want to link together objects
of different file formats with different conventions for symbol names. This is
different from --change-leading-char because it always changes the symbol
name when appropriate, regardless of the object file format of the output file.

--reverse-bytes=num
Reverse the bytes in a section with output contents. A section length must be
evenly divisible by the value given in order for the swap to be able to take place.
Reversing takes place before the interleaving is performed.
This option is used typically in generating ROM images for problematic target
systems. For example, on some target boards, the 32-bit words fetched from
8-bit ROMs are re-assembled in little-endian byte order regardless of the CPU
byte order. Depending on the programming model, the endianness of the ROM
may need to be modified.
Consider a simple file with a section containing the following eight bytes:
12345678.
Using ‘--reverse-bytes=2’ for the above example, the bytes in the output file
would be ordered 21436587.
Using ‘--reverse-bytes=4’ for the above example, the bytes in the output file
would be ordered 43218765.
By using ‘--reverse-bytes=2’ for the above example, followed by
‘--reverse-bytes=4’ on the output file, the bytes in the second output file
would be ordered 34127856.
Chapter 4: objcopy 27

--srec-len=ival
Meaningful only for srec output. Set the maximum length of the Srecords being
produced to ival. This length covers both address, data and crc fields.

--srec-forceS3
Meaningful only for srec output. Avoid generation of S1/S2 records, creating
S3-only record format.

--redefine-sym old=new
Change the name of a symbol old, to new. This can be useful when one is
trying link two things together for which you have no source, and there are
name collisions.

--redefine-syms=filename
Apply --redefine-sym to each symbol pair "old new" listed in the file filename.
filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol pair per line. Line comments may
be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--weaken Change all global symbols in the file to be weak. This can be useful when
building an object which will be linked against other objects using the -R option
to the linker. This option is only effective when using an object file format which
supports weak symbols.

--keep-symbols=filename
Apply --keep-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename
is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be
introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--strip-symbols=filename
Apply --strip-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. file-
name is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may
be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--strip-unneeded-symbols=filename
Apply --strip-unneeded-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file
filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line
comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given
more than once.

--keep-global-symbols=filename
Apply --keep-global-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename.
filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments
may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than
once.

--localize-symbols=filename
Apply --localize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename.
filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments
may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than
once.
Chapter 4: objcopy 28

--globalize-symbols=filename
Apply --globalize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename.
filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments
may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more
than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or
--keep-global-symbol options.
--weaken-symbols=filename
Apply --weaken-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. file-
name is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may
be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--alt-machine-code=index
If the output architecture has alternate machine codes, use the indexth code
instead of the default one. This is useful in case a machine is assigned an
official code and the tool-chain adopts the new code, but other applications
still depend on the original code being used. For ELF based architectures if the
index alternative does not exist then the value is treated as an absolute number
to be stored in the e machine field of the ELF header.
--writable-text
Mark the output text as writable. This option isn’t meaningful for all object
file formats.
--readonly-text
Make the output text write protected. This option isn’t meaningful for all
object file formats.
--pure Mark the output file as demand paged. This option isn’t meaningful for all
object file formats.
--impure Mark the output file as impure. This option isn’t meaningful for all object file
formats.
--prefix-symbols=string
Prefix all symbols in the output file with string.
--prefix-sections=string
Prefix all section names in the output file with string.
--prefix-alloc-sections=string
Prefix all the names of all allocated sections in the output file with string.
--add-gnu-debuglink=path-to-file
Creates a .gnu debuglink section which contains a reference to path-to-file and
adds it to the output file. Note: the file at path-to-file must exist. Part of the
process of adding the .gnu debuglink section involves embedding a checksum of
the contents of the debug info file into the section.
If the debug info file is built in one location but it is going to be installed at
a later time into a different location then do not use the path to the installed
location. The --add-gnu-debuglink option will fail because the installed file
does not exist yet. Instead put the debug info file in the current directory and
Chapter 4: objcopy 29

use the --add-gnu-debuglink option without any directory components, like

this:
objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.debug
At debug time the debugger will attempt to look for the separate debug info file
in a set of known locations. The exact set of these locations varies depending
upon the distribution being used, but it typically includes:
* The same directory as the executable.
* A sub-directory of the directory containing the executable
called .debug
* A global debug directory such as /usr/lib/debug.
As long as the debug info file has been installed into one of these locations
before the debugger is run everything should work correctly.
--keep-section-symbils
When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, re-
tain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped.
--keep-file-symbols
When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded,
retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get
stripped.
--only-keep-debug
Strip a file, removing contents of any sections that would not be stripped by
--strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections intact. In ELF files, this
preserves all note sections in the output.
Note - the section headers of the stripped sections are preserved, including their
sizes, but the contents of the section are discarded. The section headers are
preserved so that other tools can match up the debuginfo file with the real
executable, even if that executable has been relocated to a different address
space.
The intention is that this option will be used in conjunction with --add-gnu-
debuglink to create a two part executable. One a stripped binary which will
occupy less space in RAM and in a distribution and the second a debugging
information file which is only needed if debugging abilities are required. The
suggested procedure to create these files is as follows:
1. Link the executable as normal. Assuming that it is called foo then...
2. Run objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg to create a file containing
the debugging info.
3. Run objcopy --strip-debug foo to create a stripped executable.
4. Run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo to add a link to the
debugging info into the stripped executable.
Note—the choice of .dbg as an extension for the debug info file is arbitrary.
Also the --only-keep-debug step is optional. You could instead do this:
1. Link the executable as normal.
Chapter 4: objcopy 30

2. Copy foo to foo.full

3. Run objcopy --strip-debug foo
4. Run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.full foo
i.e., the file pointed to by the --add-gnu-debuglink can be the full executable.
It does not have to be a file created by the --only-keep-debug switch.
Note—this switch is only intended for use on fully linked files. It does not make
sense to use it on object files where the debugging information may be incom-
plete. Besides the gnu debuglink feature currently only supports the presence
of one filename containing debugging information, not multiple filenames on a
one-per-object-file basis.
--strip-dwo
Remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining de-
bugging sections and all symbols intact. This option is intended for use by the
compiler as part of the -gsplit-dwarf option, which splits debug information
between the .o file and a separate .dwo file. The compiler generates all debug
information in the same file, then uses the --extract-dwo option to copy the
.dwo sections to the .dwo file, then the --strip-dwo option to remove those
sections from the original .o file.
--extract-dwo
Extract the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections. See the --strip-dwo option
for more information.
--file-alignment num
Specify the file alignment. Sections in the file will always begin at file offsets
which are multiples of this number. This defaults to 512. [This option is specific
to PE targets.]
--heap reserve
--heap reserve,commit
Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to
be used as heap for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--image-base value
Use value as the base address of your program or dll. This is the lowest memory
location that will be used when your program or dll is loaded. To reduce the
need to relocate and improve performance of your dlls, each should have a
unique base address and not overlap any other dlls. The default is 0x400000 for
executables, and 0x10000000 for dlls. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--section-alignment num
Sets the section alignment field in the PE header. Sections in memory will
always begin at addresses which are a multiple of this number. Defaults to
0x1000. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--stack reserve
--stack reserve,commit
Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to
be used as stack for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
Chapter 4: objcopy 31

--subsystem which
--subsystem which:major
--subsystem which:major.minor
Specifies the subsystem under which your program will execute. The legal
values for which are native, windows, console, posix, efi-app, efi-bsd,
efi-rtd, sal-rtd, and xbox. You may optionally set the subsystem version
also. Numeric values are also accepted for which. [This option is specific to PE
targets.]
--extract-symbol
Keep the file’s section flags and symbols but remove all section data. Specifi-
cally, the option:
• removes the contents of all sections;
• sets the size of every section to zero; and
• sets the file’s start address to zero.
This option is used to build a .sym file for a VxWorks kernel. It can also be a
useful way of reducing the size of a --just-symbols linker input file.
--compress-debug-sections
Compress DWARF debug sections using zlib with SHF COMPRESSED from
the ELF ABI. Note - if compression would actually make a section larger, then
it is not compressed.
--compress-debug-sections=none
--compress-debug-sections=zlib
--compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu
--compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi
--compress-debug-sections=zstd
For ELF files, these options control how DWARF debug sections
are compressed. --compress-debug-sections=none is equivalent to
--decompress-debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib and
--compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi are equivalent to --compress-
debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu compresses
DWARF debug sections using the obsoleted zlib-gnu format. The debug
sections are renamed to begin with ‘.zdebug’. --compress-debug-
sections=zstd compresses DWARF debug sections using zstd. Note - if
compression would actually make a section larger, then it is not compressed
nor renamed.
--decompress-debug-sections
Decompress DWARF debug sections. For a ‘.zdebug’ section, the original name
is restored.
--elf-stt-common=yes
--elf-stt-common=no
For ELF files, these options control whether common symbols should be con-
verted to the STT_COMMON or STT_OBJECT type. --elf-stt-common=yes con-
verts common symbol type to STT_COMMON. --elf-stt-common=no converts
common symbol type to STT_OBJECT.
Chapter 4: objcopy 32

--merge-notes
--no-merge-notes
For ELF files, attempt (or do not attempt) to reduce the size of any SHT NOTE
type sections by removing duplicate notes.
-V
--version
Show the version number of objcopy.
--verilog-data-width=bytes
For Verilog output, this options controls the number of bytes converted for
each output data element. The input target controls the endianness of the
conversion.
-v
--verbose
Verbose output: list all object files modified. In the case of archives, ‘objcopy
-V’ lists all members of the archive.
--help Show a summary of the options to objcopy.
--info Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available.
 33

5 objdump
objdump [-a|--archive-headers]
[-b bfdname|--target=bfdname]
[-C|--demangle[=style] ]
[-d|--disassemble[=symbol]]
[-D|--disassemble-all]
[-z|--disassemble-zeroes]
[-EB|-EL|--endian={big | little }]
[-f|--file-headers]
[-F|--file-offsets]
[--file-start-context]
[-g|--debugging]
[-e|--debugging-tags]
[-h|--section-headers|--headers]
[-i|--info]
[-j section|--section=section]
[-l|--line-numbers]
[-S|--source]
[--source-comment[=text]]
[-m machine|--architecture=machine]
[-M options|--disassembler-options=options]
[-p|--private-headers]
[-P options|--private=options]
[-r|--reloc]
[-R|--dynamic-reloc]
[-s|--full-contents]
[-W[lLiaprmfFsoORtUuTgAck]|
--dwarf[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-
interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr
[-WK|--dwarf=follow-links]
[-WN|--dwarf=no-follow-links]
[-wD|--dwarf=use-debuginfod]
[-wE|--dwarf=do-not-use-debuginfod]
[-L|--process-links]
[--ctf=section]
[--sframe=section]
[-G|--stabs]
[-t|--syms]
[-T|--dynamic-syms]
[-x|--all-headers]
[-w|--wide]
[--start-address=address]
[--stop-address=address]
[--no-addresses]
[--prefix-addresses]
[--[no-]show-raw-insn]
[--adjust-vma=offset]
[--show-all-symbols]
[--dwarf-depth=n]
[--dwarf-start=n]
[--ctf-parent=section]
[--no-recurse-limit|--recurse-limit]
[--special-syms]
[--prefix=prefix]
[--prefix-strip=level]
[--insn-width=width]
[--visualize-jumps[=color|=extended-color|=off]
[--disassembler-color=[off|terminal|on|extended]
Chapter 5: objdump 34

[-U method] [--unicode=method]

[-V|--version]
[-H|--help]
objfile...

objdump displays information about one or more object files. The options control what
particular information to display. This information is mostly useful to programmers who are
working on the compilation tools, as opposed to programmers who just want their program
to compile and work.
objfile . . . are the object files to be examined. When you specify archives, objdump shows
information on each of the member object files.
The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. At least
one option from the list -a,-d,-D,-e,-f,-g,-G,-h,-H,-p,-P,-r,-R,-s,-S,-t,-T,-V,-x
must be given.

-a
--archive-header
If any of the objfile files are archives, display the archive header information
(in a format similar to ‘ls -l’). Besides the information you could list with ‘ar
tv’, ‘objdump -a’ shows the object file format of each archive member.

--adjust-vma=offset
When dumping information, first add offset to all the section addresses. This
is useful if the section addresses do not correspond to the symbol table, which
can happen when putting sections at particular addresses when using a format
which can not represent section addresses, such as a.out.

-b bfdname
--target=bfdname
Specify that the object-code format for the object files is bfdname. This option
may not be necessary; objdump can automatically recognize many formats.
For example,
objdump -b oasys -m vax -h fu.o
displays summary information from the section headers (-h) of fu.o, which
is explicitly identified (-m) as a VAX object file in the format produced by
Oasys compilers. You can list the formats available with the -i option. See
Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.

-C
--demangle[=style]
Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. Besides re-
moving any initial underscore prepended by the system, this makes C++ func-
tion names readable. Different compilers have different mangling styles. The
optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an appropriate de-
mangling style for your compiler. See Chapter 10 [c++filt], page 60, for more
information on demangling.
Chapter 5: objdump 35

--recurse-limit
--no-recurse-limit
--recursion-limit
--no-recursion-limit
Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst de-
mangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of
recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount
of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The
limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
of nesting.
The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in
order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion
limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about
such an event will be rejected.
-g
--debugging
Display debugging information. This attempts to parse STABS debugging for-
mat information stored in the file and print it out using a C like syntax. If no
STABS debugging was found this option falls back on the -W option to print
any DWARF information in the file.
-e
--debugging-tags
Like -g, but the information is generated in a format compatible with ctags
tool.
-d
--disassemble
--disassemble=symbol
Display the assembler mnemonics for the machine instructions from the input
file. This option only disassembles those sections which are expected to con-
tain instructions. If the optional symbol argument is given, then display the
assembler mnemonics starting at symbol. If symbol is a function name then
disassembly will stop at the end of the function, otherwise it will stop when the
next symbol is encountered. If there are no matches for symbol then nothing
will be displayed.
Note if the --dwarf=follow-links option is enabled then any symbol tables
in linked debug info files will be read in and used when disassembling.
-D
--disassemble-all
Like -d, but disassemble the contents of all sections, not just those expected to
contain instructions.
This option also has a subtle effect on the disassembly of instructions in code
sections. When option -d is in effect objdump will assume that any symbols
present in a code section occur on the boundary between instructions and it
will refuse to disassemble across such a boundary. When option -D is in effect
Chapter 5: objdump 36

however this assumption is supressed. This means that it is possible for the
output of -d and -D to differ if, for example, data is stored in code sections.
If the target is an ARM architecture this switch also has the effect of forcing
the disassembler to decode pieces of data found in code sections as if they were
instructions.
Note if the --dwarf=follow-links option is enabled then any symbol tables
in linked debug info files will be read in and used when disassembling.
--no-addresses
When disassembling, don’t print addresses on each line or for symbols and
relocation offsets. In combination with --no-show-raw-insn this may be useful
for comparing compiler output.
--prefix-addresses
When disassembling, print the complete address on each line. This is the older
disassembly format.
-EB
-EL
--endian={big|little}
Specify the endianness of the object files. This only affects disassembly. This
can be useful when disassembling a file format which does not describe endian-
ness information, such as S-records.
-f
--file-headers
Display summary information from the overall header of each of the objfile files.
-F
--file-offsets
When disassembling sections, whenever a symbol is displayed, also display the
file offset of the region of data that is about to be dumped. If zeroes are being
skipped, then when disassembly resumes, tell the user how many zeroes were
skipped and the file offset of the location from where the disassembly resumes.
When dumping sections, display the file offset of the location from where the
dump starts.
--file-start-context
Specify that when displaying interlisted source code/disassembly (assumes -S)
from a file that has not yet been displayed, extend the context to the start of
the file.
-h
--section-headers
--headers
Display summary information from the section headers of the object file.
File segments may be relocated to nonstandard addresses, for example by using
the -Ttext, -Tdata, or -Tbss options to ld. However, some object file formats,
such as a.out, do not store the starting address of the file segments. In those
situations, although ld relocates the sections correctly, using ‘objdump -h’ to
Chapter 5: objdump 37

list the file section headers cannot show the correct addresses. Instead, it shows
the usual addresses, which are implicit for the target.
Note, in some cases it is possible for a section to have both the READONLY
and the NOREAD attributes set. In such cases the NOREAD attribute takes
precedence, but objdump will report both since the exact setting of the flag bits
might be important.
-H
--help Print a summary of the options to objdump and exit.
-i
--info Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available for specifi-
cation with -b or -m.
-j name
--section=name
Display information only for section name.
-L
--process-links
Display the contents of non-debug sections found in separate debuginfo files that
are linked to the main file. This option automatically implies the -WK option,
and only sections requested by other command line options will be displayed.
-l
--line-numbers
Label the display (using debugging information) with the filename and source
line numbers corresponding to the object code or relocs shown. Only useful
with -d, -D, or -r.
-m machine
--architecture=machine
Specify the architecture to use when disassembling object files. This can be
useful when disassembling object files which do not describe architecture infor-
mation, such as S-records. You can list the available architectures with the -i
option.
For most architectures it is possible to supply an architecture name and a
machine name, separated by a colon. For example ‘foo:bar’ would refer to the
‘bar’ machine type in the ‘foo’ architecture. This can be helpful if objdump
has been configured to support multiple architectures.
If the target is an ARM architecture then this switch has an additional effect.
It restricts the disassembly to only those instructions supported by the archi-
tecture specified by machine. If it is necessary to use this switch because the
input file does not contain any architecture information, but it is also desired
to disassemble all the instructions use -marm.
-M options
--disassembler-options=options
Pass target specific information to the disassembler. Only supported on some
targets. If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then mul-
Chapter 5: objdump 38

tiple -M options can be used or can be placed together into a comma separated
list.
For ARC, dsp controls the printing of DSP instructions, spfp selects the print-
ing of FPX single precision FP instructions, dpfp selects the printing of FPX
double precision FP instructions, quarkse_em selects the printing of special
QuarkSE-EM instructions, fpuda selects the printing of double precision assist
instructions, fpus selects the printing of FPU single precision FP instructions,
while fpud selects the printing of FPU double precision FP instructions. Ad-
ditionally, one can choose to have all the immediates printed in hexadecimal
using hex. By default, the short immediates are printed using the decimal
representation, while the long immediate values are printed as hexadecimal.
cpu=... allows one to enforce a particular ISA when disassembling instruc-
tions, overriding the -m value or whatever is in the ELF file. This might be
useful to select ARC EM or HS ISA, because architecture is same for those and
disassembler relies on private ELF header data to decide if code is for EM or
HS. This option might be specified multiple times - only the latest value will
be used. Valid values are same as for the assembler -mcpu=... option.
If the target is an ARM architecture then this switch can be used to select
which register name set is used during disassembler. Specifying -M reg-names-
std (the default) will select the register names as used in ARM’s instruction
set documentation, but with register 13 called ’sp’, register 14 called ’lr’ and
register 15 called ’pc’. Specifying -M reg-names-apcs will select the name set
used by the ARM Procedure Call Standard, whilst specifying -M reg-names-
raw will just use ‘r’ followed by the register number.
There are also two variants on the APCS register naming scheme enabled
by -M reg-names-atpcs and -M reg-names-special-atpcs which use the
ARM/Thumb Procedure Call Standard naming conventions. (Either with the
normal register names or the special register names).
This option can also be used for ARM architectures to force the disassem-
bler to interpret all instructions as Thumb instructions by using the switch
--disassembler-options=force-thumb. This can be useful when attempting
to disassemble thumb code produced by other compilers.
For AArch64 targets this switch can be used to set whether instructions are
disassembled as the most general instruction using the -M no-aliases option or
whether instruction notes should be generated as comments in the disasssembly
using -M notes.
For the x86, some of the options duplicate functions of the -m switch, but allow
finer grained control.
x86-64
i386
i8086 Select disassembly for the given architecture.
intel
att Select between intel syntax mode and AT&T syntax mode.
amd64
intel64 Select between AMD64 ISA and Intel64 ISA.
Chapter 5: objdump 39

intel-mnemonic
att-mnemonic
Select between intel mnemonic mode and AT&T mnemonic mode.
Note: intel-mnemonic implies intel and att-mnemonic implies
att.
addr64
addr32
addr16
data32
data16 Specify the default address size and operand size. These five options
will be overridden if x86-64, i386 or i8086 appear later in the
option string.
suffix When in AT&T mode and also for a limited set of instructions
when in Intel mode, instructs the disassembler to print a mnemonic
suffix even when the suffix could be inferred by the operands or,
for certain instructions, the execution mode’s defaults.
For PowerPC, the -M argument raw selects disasssembly of hardware insns
rather than aliases. For example, you will see rlwinm rather than clrlwi,
and addi rather than li. All of the -m arguments for gas that select a CPU
are supported. These are: 403, 405, 440, 464, 476, 601, 603, 604, 620,
7400, 7410, 7450, 7455, 750cl, 821, 850, 860, a2, booke, booke32, cell,
com, e200z2, e200z4, e300, e500, e500mc, e500mc64, e500x2, e5500, e6500,
efs, power4, power5, power6, power7, power8, power9, power10, ppc, ppc32,
ppc64, ppc64bridge, ppcps, pwr, pwr2, pwr4, pwr5, pwr5x, pwr6, pwr7, pwr8,
pwr9, pwr10, pwrx, titan, vle, and future. 32 and 64 modify the default or a
prior CPU selection, disabling and enabling 64-bit insns respectively. In addi-
tion, altivec, any, lsp, htm, vsx, spe and spe2 add capabilities to a previous
or later CPU selection. any will disassemble any opcode known to binutils, but
in cases where an opcode has two different meanings or different arguments,
you may not see the disassembly you expect. If you disassemble without giving
a CPU selection, a default will be chosen from information gleaned by BFD
from the object files headers, but the result again may not be as you expect.
For MIPS, this option controls the printing of instruction mnemonic names
and register names in disassembled instructions. Multiple selections from the
following may be specified as a comma separated string, and invalid options are
ignored:
no-aliases
Print the ’raw’ instruction mnemonic instead of some pseudo in-
struction mnemonic. I.e., print ’daddu’ or ’or’ instead of ’move’,
’sll’ instead of ’nop’, etc.
msa Disassemble MSA instructions.
virt Disassemble the virtualization ASE instructions.
xpa Disassemble the eXtended Physical Address (XPA) ASE instruc-
tions.
Chapter 5: objdump 40

gpr-names=ABI
Print GPR (general-purpose register) names as appropriate for the
specified ABI. By default, GPR names are selected according to
the ABI of the binary being disassembled.
fpr-names=ABI
Print FPR (floating-point register) names as appropriate for the
specified ABI. By default, FPR numbers are printed rather than
names.
cp0-names=ARCH
Print CP0 (system control coprocessor; coprocessor 0) register
names as appropriate for the CPU or architecture specified by
ARCH. By default, CP0 register names are selected according to
the architecture and CPU of the binary being disassembled.
hwr-names=ARCH
Print HWR (hardware register, used by the rdhwr instruction)
names as appropriate for the CPU or architecture specified by
ARCH. By default, HWR names are selected according to the
architecture and CPU of the binary being disassembled.
reg-names=ABI
Print GPR and FPR names as appropriate for the selected ABI.
reg-names=ARCH
Print CPU-specific register names (CP0 register and HWR names)
as appropriate for the selected CPU or architecture.
For any of the options listed above, ABI or ARCH may be specified as ‘numeric’
to have numbers printed rather than names, for the selected types of registers.
You can list the available values of ABI and ARCH using the --help option.
For VAX, you can specify function entry addresses with -M entry:0xf00ba.
You can use this multiple times to properly disassemble VAX binary files that
don’t contain symbol tables (like ROM dumps). In these cases, the function
entry mask would otherwise be decoded as VAX instructions, which would
probably lead the rest of the function being wrongly disassembled.
-p
--private-headers
Print information that is specific to the object file format. The exact informa-
tion printed depends upon the object file format. For some object file formats,
no additional information is printed.
-P options
--private=options
Print information that is specific to the object file format. The argument op-
tions is a comma separated list that depends on the format (the lists of options
is displayed with the help).
For XCOFF, the available options are:
header
Chapter 5: objdump 41

aout
sections
syms
relocs
lineno,
loader
except
typchk
traceback
toc
ldinfo
Not all object formats support this option. In particular the ELF format does
not use it.
-r
--reloc Print the relocation entries of the file. If used with -d or -D, the relocations are
printed interspersed with the disassembly.
-R
--dynamic-reloc
Print the dynamic relocation entries of the file. This is only meaningful for
dynamic objects, such as certain types of shared libraries. As for -r, if used
with -d or -D, the relocations are printed interspersed with the disassembly.
-s
--full-contents
Display the full contents of any sections requested. By default all non-empty
sections are displayed.
-S
--source Display source code intermixed with disassembly, if possible. Implies -d.
--show-all-symbols
When disassembling, show all the symbols that match a given address, not just
the first one.
--source-comment[=txt]
Like the -S option, but all source code lines are displayed with a prefix of txt.
Typically txt will be a comment string which can be used to distinguish the
assembler code from the source code. If txt is not provided then a default string
of “# “ (hash followed by a space), will be used.
--prefix=prefix
Specify prefix to add to the absolute paths when used with -S.
--prefix-strip=level
Indicate how many initial directory names to strip off the hardwired absolute
paths. It has no effect without --prefix=prefix.
Chapter 5: objdump 42

--show-raw-insn
When disassembling instructions, print the instruction in hex as well as in
symbolic form. This is the default except when --prefix-addresses is used.
--no-show-raw-insn
When disassembling instructions, do not print the instruction bytes. This is
the default when --prefix-addresses is used.
--insn-width=width
Display width bytes on a single line when disassembling instructions.
--visualize-jumps[=color|=extended-color|=off]
Visualize jumps that stay inside a function by drawing ASCII art between
the start and target addresses. The optional =color argument adds color to
the output using simple terminal colors. Alternatively the =extended-color
argument will add color using 8bit colors, but these might not work on all
terminals.
If it is necessary to disable the visualize-jumps option after it has previously
been enabled then use visualize-jumps=off.
--disassembler-color=off
--disassembler-color=terminal
--disassembler-color=on|color|colour
--disassembler-color=extened|extended-color|extened-colour
Enables or disables the use of colored syntax highlighting in disassembly output.
The default behaviour is determined via a configure time option. Note, not
all architectures support colored syntax highlighting, and depending upon the
terminal used, colored output may not actually be legible.
The on argument adds colors using simple terminal colors.
The terminal argument does the same, but only if the output device is a
terminal.
The extended-color argument is similar to the on argument, but it uses 8-bit
colors. These may not work on all terminals.
The off argument disables colored disassembly.
-W[lLiaprmfFsoORtUuTgAckK]
--dwarf[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-
interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_
abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr,=cu_index,=links,=follow-links]
Displays the contents of the DWARF debug sections in the file, if any are
present. Compressed debug sections are automatically decompressed (tem-
porarily) before they are displayed. If one or more of the optional letters or
words follows the switch then only those type(s) of data will be dumped. The
letters and words refer to the following information:
a
=abbrev Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_abbrev’ section.
A
=addr Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_addr’ section.
Chapter 5: objdump 43

c
=cu_index
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_cu_index’ and/or
‘.debug_tu_index’ sections.
f
=frames Display the raw contents of a ‘.debug_frame’ section.
F
=frames-interp
Display the interpreted contents of a ‘.debug_frame’ section.
g
=gdb_index
Displays the contents of the ‘.gdb_index’ and/or ‘.debug_names’
sections.
i
=info Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_info’ section. Note: the
output from this option can also be restricted by the use of the
--dwarf-depth and --dwarf-start options.
k
=links Displays the contents of the ‘.gnu_debuglink’,
‘.gnu_debugaltlink’ and ‘.debug_sup’ sections, if any of
them are present. Also displays any links to separate dwarf object
files (dwo), if they are specified by the DW AT GNU dwo name
or DW AT dwo name attributes in the ‘.debug_info’ section.
K
=follow-links
Display the contents of any selected debug sections that are found
in linked, separate debug info file(s). This can result in multiple
versions of the same debug section being displayed if it exists in
more than one file.
In addition, when displaying DWARF attributes, if a form is found
that references the separate debug info file, then the referenced
contents will also be displayed.
Note - in some distributions this option is enabled by default. It
can be disabled via the N debug option. The default can be cho-
sen when configuring the binutils via the --enable-follow-debug-
links=yes or --enable-follow-debug-links=no options. If these
are not used then the default is to enable the following of debug
links.
Note - if support for the debuginfod protocol was enabled when
the binutils were built then this option will also include an at-
tempt to contact any debuginfod servers mentioned in the DE-
BUGINFOD URLS environment variable. This could take some
time to resolve. This behaviour can be disabled via the =do-not-
use-debuginfod debug option.
Chapter 5: objdump 44

N
=no-follow-links
Disables the following of links to separate debug info files.
D
=use-debuginfod
Enables contacting debuginfod servers if there is a need to follow
debug links. This is the default behaviour.
E
=do-not-use-debuginfod
Disables contacting debuginfod servers when there is a need to fol-
low debug links.
l
=rawline Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_line’ section in a raw format.
L
=decodedline
Displays the interpreted contents of the ‘.debug_line’ section.
m
=macro Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_macro’ and/or
‘.debug_macinfo’ sections.
o
=loc Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_loc’ and/or
‘.debug_loclists’ sections.
O
=str-offsets
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_str_offsets’ section.
p
=pubnames
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_pubnames’ and/or
‘.debug_gnu_pubnames’ sections.
r
=aranges Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_aranges’ section.
R
=Ranges Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_ranges’ and/or
‘.debug_rnglists’ sections.
s
=str Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_str’, ‘.debug_line_str’
and/or ‘.debug_str_offsets’ sections.
t
=pubtype Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_pubtypes’ and/or
‘.debug_gnu_pubtypes’ sections.
Chapter 5: objdump 45

T
=trace_aranges
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_aranges’ section.
u
=trace_abbrev
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_abbrev’ section.
U
=trace_info
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_info’ section.
Note: displaying the contents of ‘.debug_static_funcs’, ‘.debug_static_vars’
and ‘debug_weaknames’ sections is not currently supported.
--dwarf-depth=n
Limit the dump of the .debug_info section to n children. This is only useful
with --debug-dump=info. The default is to print all DIEs; the special value 0
for n will also have this effect.
With a non-zero value for n, DIEs at or deeper than n levels will not be printed.
The range for n is zero-based.
--dwarf-start=n
Print only DIEs beginning with the DIE numbered n. This is only useful with
--debug-dump=info.
If specified, this option will suppress printing of any header information and all
DIEs before the DIE numbered n. Only siblings and children of the specified
DIE will be printed.
This can be used in conjunction with --dwarf-depth.
--dwarf-check
Enable additional checks for consistency of Dwarf information.
--ctf[=section]
Display the contents of the specified CTF section. CTF sections themselves
contain many subsections, all of which are displayed in order.
By default, display the name of the section named .ctf, which is the name
emitted by ld.
--ctf-parent=member
If the CTF section contains ambiguously-defined types, it will consist of an
archive of many CTF dictionaries, all inheriting from one dictionary containing
unambiguous types. This member is by default named .ctf, like the section
containing it, but it is possible to change this name using the ctf_link_set_
memb_name_changer function at link time. When looking at CTF archives that
have been created by a linker that uses the name changer to rename the parent
archive member, --ctf-parent can be used to specify the name used for the
parent.
--sframe[=section]
Display the contents of the specified SFrame section.
Chapter 5: objdump 46

By default, display the name of the section named .sframe, which is the name
emitted by ld.

-G
--stabs Display the full contents of any sections requested. Display the contents of the
.stab and .stab.index and .stab.excl sections from an ELF file. This is only
useful on systems (such as Solaris 2.0) in which .stab debugging symbol-table
entries are carried in an ELF section. In most other file formats, debugging
symbol-table entries are interleaved with linkage symbols, and are visible in the
--syms output.

--start-address=address
Start displaying data at the specified address. This affects the output of the
-d, -r and -s options.

--stop-address=address
Stop displaying data at the specified address. This affects the output of the -d,
-r and -s options.

-t
--syms Print the symbol table entries of the file. This is similar to the information
provided by the ‘nm’ program, although the display format is different. The
format of the output depends upon the format of the file being dumped, but
there are two main types. One looks like this:
[ 4](sec 3)(fl 0x00)(ty 0)(scl 3) (nx 1) 0x00000000 .bss
[ 6](sec 1)(fl 0x00)(ty 0)(scl 2) (nx 0) 0x00000000 fred

where the number inside the square brackets is the number of the entry in the
symbol table, the sec number is the section number, the fl value are the symbol’s
flag bits, the ty number is the symbol’s type, the scl number is the symbol’s
storage class and the nx value is the number of auxiliary entries associated with
the symbol. The last two fields are the symbol’s value and its name.
The other common output format, usually seen with ELF based files, looks like
this:
00000000 l d .bss 00000000 .bss
00000000 g .text 00000000 fred

Here the first number is the symbol’s value (sometimes referred to as its ad-
dress). The next field is actually a set of characters and spaces indicating the
flag bits that are set on the symbol. These characters are described below.
Next is the section with which the symbol is associated or *ABS* if the sec-
tion is absolute (ie not connected with any section), or *UND* if the section is
referenced in the file being dumped, but not defined there.
After the section name comes another field, a number, which for common sym-
bols is the alignment and for other symbol is the size. Finally the symbol’s
name is displayed.
The flag characters are divided into 7 groups as follows:
Chapter 5: objdump 47

l
g
u
! The symbol is a local (l), global (g), unique global (u), neither
global nor local (a space) or both global and local (!). A symbol
can be neither local or global for a variety of reasons, e.g., because
it is used for debugging, but it is probably an indication of a bug if
it is ever both local and global. Unique global symbols are a GNU
extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. For such a
symbol the dynamic linker will make sure that in the entire process
there is just one symbol with this name and type in use.
w The symbol is weak (w) or strong (a space).
C The symbol denotes a constructor (C) or an ordinary symbol (a
space).
W The symbol is a warning (W) or a normal symbol (a space). A
warning symbol’s name is a message to be displayed if the symbol
following the warning symbol is ever referenced.
I
i The symbol is an indirect reference to another symbol (I), a function
to be evaluated during reloc processing (i) or a normal symbol (a
space).
d
D The symbol is a debugging symbol (d) or a dynamic symbol (D) or
a normal symbol (a space).
F
f
O The symbol is the name of a function (F) or a file (f) or an object
(O) or just a normal symbol (a space).
-T
--dynamic-syms
Print the dynamic symbol table entries of the file. This is only meaningful for
dynamic objects, such as certain types of shared libraries. This is similar to
the information provided by the ‘nm’ program when given the -D (--dynamic)
option.
The output format is similar to that produced by the --syms option, except
that an extra field is inserted before the symbol’s name, giving the version
information associated with the symbol. If the version is the default version to
be used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it’s displayed
as is, otherwise it’s put into parentheses.
--special-syms
When displaying symbols include those which the target considers to be special
in some way and which would not normally be of interest to the user.
Chapter 5: objdump 48

-U [d|i|l|e|x|h]
--unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight]
Controls the display of UTF-8 encoded multibyte characters in strings.
The default (--unicode=default) is to give them no special treatment.
The --unicode=locale option displays the sequence in the current locale,
which may or may not support them. The options --unicode=hex and
--unicode=invalid display them as hex byte sequences enclosed by either
angle brackets or curly braces.
The --unicode=escape option displays them as escape sequences (\uxxxx)
and the --unicode=highlight option displays them as escape sequences high-
lighted in red (if supported by the output device). The colouring is intended to
draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences where they might not be
expected.
-V
--version
Print the version number of objdump and exit.
-x
--all-headers
Display all available header information, including the symbol table and relo-
cation entries. Using -x is equivalent to specifying all of -a -f -h -p -r -t.
-w
--wide Format some lines for output devices that have more than 80 columns. Also do
not truncate symbol names when they are displayed.
-z
--disassemble-zeroes
Normally the disassembly output will skip blocks of zeroes. This option directs
the disassembler to disassemble those blocks, just like any other data.
 49

6 ranlib
ranlib [--plugin name] [-DhHvVt] archive
ranlib generates an index to the contents of an archive and stores it in the archive. The
index lists each symbol defined by a member of an archive that is a relocatable object file.
You may use ‘nm -s’ or ‘nm --print-armap’ to list this index.
An archive with such an index speeds up linking to the library and allows routines in
the library to call each other without regard to their placement in the archive.
The gnu ranlib program is another form of gnu ar; running ranlib is completely
equivalent to executing ‘ar -s’. See Chapter 1 [ar], page 1.
-h
-H
--help Show usage information for ranlib.
-v
-V
--version
Show the version number of ranlib.
-D Operate in deterministic mode. The symbol map archive member’s header will
show zero for the UID, GID, and timestamp. When this option is used, multiple
runs will produce identical output files.
If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then
this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the ‘-U’ option, described
below.
-t Update the timestamp of the symbol map of an archive.
-U Do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the ‘-D’ option,
above: the archive index will get actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode
values.
If binutils was configured without --enable-deterministic-archives, then
this mode is on by default.
 50

7 size
size [-A|-B|-G|--format=compatibility]
[--help]
[-d|-o|-x|--radix=number]
[--common]
[-t|--totals]
[--target=bfdname] [-V|--version]
[-f]
[objfile...]
The gnu size utility lists the section sizes and the total size for each of the binary files
objfile on its argument list. By default, one line of output is generated for each file or each
module if the file is an archive.
objfile . . . are the files to be examined. If none are specified, the file a.out will be used
instead.
The command-line options have the following meanings:
-A
-B
-G
--format=compatibility
Using one of these options, you can choose whether the output from gnu size
resembles output from System V size (using -A, or --format=sysv), or Berke-
ley size (using -B, or --format=berkeley). The default is the one-line format
similar to Berkeley’s. Alternatively, you can choose the GNU format output
(using -G, or --format=gnu), this is similar to Berkeley’s output format, but
sizes are counted differently.
Here is an example of the Berkeley (default) format of output from size:
$ size --format=Berkeley ranlib size
text data bss dec hex filename
294880 81920 11592 388392 5ed28 ranlib
294880 81920 11888 388688 5ee50 size
The Berkeley style output counts read only data in the text column, not in
the data column, the dec and hex columns both display the sum of the text,
data, and bss columns in decimal and hexadecimal respectively.
The GNU format counts read only data in the data column, not the text
column, and only displays the sum of the text, data, and bss columns once,
in the total column. The --radix option can be used to change the number
base for all columns. Here is the same data displayed with GNU conventions:
$ size --format=GNU ranlib size
text data bss total filename
279880 96920 11592 388392 ranlib
279880 96920 11888 388688 size
This is the same data, but displayed closer to System V conventions:
$ size --format=SysV ranlib size
ranlib :
section size addr
.text 294880 8192
.data 81920 303104
.bss 11592 385024
Chapter 7: size 51

Total 388392

size :
section size addr
.text 294880 8192
.data 81920 303104
.bss 11888 385024
Total 388688

--help
-h
-H
-? Show a summary of acceptable arguments and options.
-d
-o
-x
--radix=number
Using one of these options, you can control whether the size of each section is
given in decimal (-d, or --radix=10); octal (-o, or --radix=8); or hexadec-
imal (-x, or --radix=16). In --radix=number, only the three values (8, 10,
16) are supported. The total size is always given in two radices; decimal and
hexadecimal for -d or -x output, or octal and hexadecimal if you’re using -o.
--common Print total size of common symbols in each file. When using Berkeley or GNU
format these are included in the bss size.
-t
--totals Show totals of all objects listed (Berkeley or GNU format mode only).
--target=bfdname
Specify that the object-code format for objfile is bfdname. This option may not
be necessary; size can automatically recognize many formats. See Section 18.1
[Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
-v
-V
--version
Display the version number of size.
-f Ignored. This option is used by other versions of the size program, but it is
not supported by the GNU Binutils version.
 52

8 strings
strings [-afovV] [-min-len]
[-n min-len] [--bytes=min-len]
[-t radix] [--radix=radix]
[-e encoding] [--encoding=encoding]
[-U method] [--unicode=method]
[-] [--all] [--print-file-name]
[-T bfdname] [--target=bfdname]
[-w] [--include-all-whitespace]
[-s] [--output-separator sep_string]
[--help] [--version] file...
For each file given, gnu strings prints the printable character sequences that are at
least 4 characters long (or the number given with the options below) and are followed by
an unprintable character.
Depending upon how the strings program was configured it will default to either dis-
playing all the printable sequences that it can find in each file, or only those sequences that
are in loadable, initialized data sections. If the file type is unrecognizable, or if strings is
reading from stdin then it will always display all of the printable sequences that it can find.
For backwards compatibility any file that occurs after a command-line option of just -
will also be scanned in full, regardless of the presence of any -d option.
strings is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.
-a
--all
- Scan the whole file, regardless of what sections it contains or whether those
sections are loaded or initialized. Normally this is the default behaviour, but
strings can be configured so that the -d is the default instead.
The - option is position dependent and forces strings to perform full scans of
any file that is mentioned after the - on the command line, even if the -d option
has been specified.
-d
--data Only print strings from initialized, loaded data sections in the file. This may
reduce the amount of garbage in the output, but it also exposes the strings
program to any security flaws that may be present in the BFD library used
to scan and load sections. Strings can be configured so that this option is the
default behaviour. In such cases the -a option can be used to avoid using the
BFD library and instead just print all of the strings found in the file.
-f
--print-file-name
Print the name of the file before each string.
--help Print a summary of the program usage on the standard output and exit.
-min-len
-n min-len
--bytes=min-len
Print sequences of displayable characters that are at least min-len characters
long. If not specified a default minimum length of 4 is used. The distinction
Chapter 8: strings 53

between displayable and non-displayable characters depends upon the setting

of the -e and -U options. Sequences are always terminated at control characters
such as new-line and carriage-return, but not the tab character.

-o Like ‘-t o’. Some other versions of strings have -o act like ‘-t d’ instead.
Since we can not be compatible with both ways, we simply chose one.

-t radix
--radix=radix
Print the offset within the file before each string. The single character argument
specifies the radix of the offset—‘o’ for octal, ‘x’ for hexadecimal, or ‘d’ for
decimal.

-e encoding
--encoding=encoding
Select the character encoding of the strings that are to be found. Possible values
for encoding are: ‘s’ = single-7-bit-byte characters (default), ‘S’ = single-8-bit-
byte characters, ‘b’ = 16-bit bigendian, ‘l’ = 16-bit littleendian, ‘B’ = 32-bit
bigendian, ‘L’ = 32-bit littleendian. Useful for finding wide character strings.
(‘l’ and ‘b’ apply to, for example, Unicode UTF-16/UCS-2 encodings).

-U [d|i|l|e|x|h]
--unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight]
Controls the display of UTF-8 encoded multibyte characters in strings. The
default (--unicode=default) is to give them no special treatment, and instead
rely upon the setting of the --encoding option. The other values for this option
automatically enable --encoding=S.
The --unicode=invalid option treats them as non-graphic characters and
hence not part of a valid string. All the remaining options treat them as valid
string characters.
The --unicode=locale option displays them in the current locale, which
may or may not support UTF-8 encoding. The --unicode=hex option
displays them as hex byte sequences enclosed between <> characters. The
--unicode=escape option displays them as escape sequences (\uxxxx) and the
--unicode=highlight option displays them as escape sequences highlighted
in red (if supported by the output device). The colouring is intended to
draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences where they might not be
expected.

-T bfdname
--target=bfdname
Specify an object code format other than your system’s default format. See
Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.

-v
-V
--version
Print the program version number on the standard output and exit.
Chapter 8: strings 54

-w
--include-all-whitespace
By default tab and space characters are included in the strings that are dis-
played, but other whitespace characters, such a newlines and carriage returns,
are not. The -w option changes this so that all whitespace characters are con-
sidered to be part of a string.
-s
--output-separator
By default, output strings are delimited by a new-line. This option allows you
to supply any string to be used as the output record separator. Useful with
–include-all-whitespace where strings may contain new-lines internally.
 55

9 strip
strip [-F bfdname |--target=bfdname]
[-I bfdname |--input-target=bfdname]
[-O bfdname |--output-target=bfdname]
[-s|--strip-all]
[-S|-g|-d|--strip-debug]
[--strip-dwo]
[-K symbolname|--keep-symbol=symbolname]
[-M|--merge-notes][--no-merge-notes]
[-N symbolname |--strip-symbol=symbolname]
[-w|--wildcard]
[-x|--discard-all] [-X |--discard-locals]
[-R sectionname |--remove-section=sectionname]
[--keep-section=sectionpattern]
[--remove-relocations=sectionpattern]
[-o file] [-p|--preserve-dates]
[-D|--enable-deterministic-archives]
[-U|--disable-deterministic-archives]
[--keep-section-symbols]
[--keep-file-symbols]
[--only-keep-debug]
[-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
[--help] [--info]
objfile...
gnu strip discards all symbols from object files objfile. The list of object files may
include archives. At least one object file must be given.
strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing modified copies
under different names.
-F bfdname
--target=bfdname
Treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname, and
rewrite it in the same format. See Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for
more information.
--help Show a summary of the options to strip and exit.
--info Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available.
-I bfdname
--input-target=bfdname
Treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. See
Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
-O bfdname
--output-target=bfdname
Replace objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. See Section 18.1
[Target Selection], page 91, for more information.
-R sectionname
--remove-section=sectionname
Remove any section named sectionname from the output file, in addition to
whatever sections would otherwise be removed. This option may be given more
than once. Note that using this option inappropriately may make the output file
Chapter 9: strip 56

unusable. The wildcard character ‘*’ may be given at the end of sectionname.
If so, then any section starting with sectionname will be removed.
If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then match-
ing sections will not be removed even if an earlier use of --remove-section on
the same command line would otherwise remove it. For example:
--remove-section=.text.* --remove-section=!.text.foo
will remove all sections matching the pattern ’.text.*’, but will not remove the
section ’.text.foo’.
--keep-section=sectionpattern
When removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match
sectionpattern.
--remove-relocations=sectionpattern
Remove relocations from the output file for any section matching sectionpattern.
This option may be given more than once. Note that using this option inappro-
priately may make the output file unusable. Wildcard characters are accepted
in sectionpattern. For example:
--remove-relocations=.text.*
will remove the relocations for all sections matching the patter ’.text.*’.
If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then match-
ing sections will not have their relocation removed even if an earlier use of
--remove-relocations on the same command line would otherwise cause the
relocations to be removed. For example:
--remove-relocations=.text.* --remove-relocations=!.text.foo
will remove all relocations for sections matching the pattern ’.text.*’, but will
not remove relocations for the section ’.text.foo’.
-s
--strip-all
Remove all symbols.
-g
-S
-d
--strip-debug
Remove debugging symbols only.
--strip-dwo
Remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining de-
bugging sections and all symbols intact. See the description of this option in
the objcopy section for more information.
--strip-unneeded
Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing in addition
to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug.
-K symbolname
--keep-symbol=symbolname
When stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally
be stripped. This option may be given more than once.
Chapter 9: strip 57

-M
--merge-notes
--no-merge-notes
For ELF files, attempt (or do not attempt) to reduce the size of any SHT NOTE
type sections by removing duplicate notes. The default is to attempt this re-
duction unless stripping debug or DWO information.
-N symbolname
--strip-symbol=symbolname
Remove symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be given
more than once, and may be combined with strip options other than -K.
-o file Put the stripped output in file, rather than replacing the existing file. When
this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified.
-p
--preserve-dates
Preserve the access and modification dates of the file.
-D
--enable-deterministic-archives
Operate in deterministic mode. When copying archive members and writing
the archive index, use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file
modes for all files.
If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then
this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the ‘-U’ option, below.
-U
--disable-deterministic-archives
Do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the -D option,
above: when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use their
actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values.
This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-
deterministic-archives.
-w
--wildcard
Permit regular expressions in symbolnames used in other command line options.
The question mark (?), asterisk (*), backslash (\) and square brackets ([])
operators can be used anywhere in the symbol name. If the first character of
the symbol name is the exclamation point (!) then the sense of the switch is
reversed for that symbol. For example:
-w -K !foo -K fo*
would cause strip to only keep symbols that start with the letters “fo”, but to
discard the symbol “foo”.
-x
--discard-all
Remove non-global symbols.
Chapter 9: strip 58

-X
--discard-locals
Remove compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with ‘L’ or ‘.’.)
--keep-section-symbols
When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, re-
tain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped.
--keep-file-symbols
When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded,
retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get
stripped.
--only-keep-debug
Strip a file, emptying the contents of any sections that would not be stripped
by --strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections intact. In ELF files, this
preserves all the note sections in the output as well.
Note - the section headers of the stripped sections are preserved, including their
sizes, but the contents of the section are discarded. The section headers are
preserved so that other tools can match up the debuginfo file with the real
executable, even if that executable has been relocated to a different address
space.
The intention is that this option will be used in conjunction with --add-gnu-
debuglink to create a two part executable. One a stripped binary which will
occupy less space in RAM and in a distribution and the second a debugging
information file which is only needed if debugging abilities are required. The
suggested procedure to create these files is as follows:
1. Link the executable as normal. Assuming that it is called foo then...
2. Run objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg to create a file containing
the debugging info.
3. Run objcopy --strip-debug foo to create a stripped executable.
4. Run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo to add a link to the
debugging info into the stripped executable.
Note—the choice of .dbg as an extension for the debug info file is arbitrary.
Also the --only-keep-debug step is optional. You could instead do this:
1. Link the executable as normal.
2. Copy foo to foo.full
3. Run strip --strip-debug foo
4. Run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.full foo
i.e., the file pointed to by the --add-gnu-debuglink can be the full executable.
It does not have to be a file created by the --only-keep-debug switch.
Note—this switch is only intended for use on fully linked files. It does not make
sense to use it on object files where the debugging information may be incom-
plete. Besides the gnu debuglink feature currently only supports the presence
of one filename containing debugging information, not multiple filenames on a
one-per-object-file basis.
Chapter 9: strip 59

-V
--version
Show the version number for strip.
-v
--verbose
Verbose output: list all object files modified. In the case of archives, ‘strip
-v’ lists all members of the archive.
 60

10 c++filt
c++filt [-_|--strip-underscore]
[-n|--no-strip-underscore]
[-p|--no-params]
[-t|--types]
[-i|--no-verbose]
[-r|--no-recurse-limit]
[-R|--recurse-limit]
[-s format|--format=format]
[--help] [--version] [symbol...]
The C++ and Java languages provide function overloading, which means that you can
write many functions with the same name, providing that each function takes parameters of
different types. In order to be able to distinguish these similarly named functions C++ and
Java encode them into a low-level assembler name which uniquely identifies each different
version. This process is known as mangling. The c++filt1 program does the inverse
mapping: it decodes (demangles) low-level names into user-level names so that they can be
read.
Every alphanumeric word (consisting of letters, digits, underscores, dollars, or periods)
seen in the input is a potential mangled name. If the name decodes into a C++ name, the
C++ name replaces the low-level name in the output, otherwise the original word is output.
In this way you can pass an entire assembler source file, containing mangled names, through
c++filt and see the same source file containing demangled names.
You can also use c++filt to decipher individual symbols by passing them on the com-
mand line:
c++filt symbol
If no symbol arguments are given, c++filt reads symbol names from the standard
input instead. All the results are printed on the standard output. The difference between
reading names from the command line versus reading names from the standard input is
that command-line arguments are expected to be just mangled names and no checking is
performed to separate them from surrounding text. Thus for example:
c++filt -n _Z1fv
will work and demangle the name to “f()” whereas:
c++filt -n _Z1fv,
will not work. (Note the extra comma at the end of the mangled name which makes it
invalid). This command however will work:
echo _Z1fv, | c++filt -n
and will display “f(),”, i.e., the demangled name followed by a trailing comma. This
behaviour is because when the names are read from the standard input it is expected that
they might be part of an assembler source file where there might be extra, extraneous
characters trailing after a mangled name. For example:
.type _Z1fv, @function
-_
--strip-underscore
On some systems, both the C and C++ compilers put an underscore in front
of every name. For example, the C name foo gets the low-level name _foo.
1
MS-DOS does not allow + characters in file names, so on MS-DOS this program is named CXXFILT.
Chapter 10: c++filt 61

This option removes the initial underscore. Whether c++filt removes the
underscore by default is target dependent.
-n
--no-strip-underscore
Do not remove the initial underscore.
-p
--no-params
When demangling the name of a function, do not display the types of the
function’s parameters.
-t
--types Attempt to demangle types as well as function names. This is disabled by
default since mangled types are normally only used internally in the compiler,
and they can be confused with non-mangled names. For example, a function
called “a” treated as a mangled type name would be demangled to “signed
char”.
-i
--no-verbose
Do not include implementation details (if any) in the demangled output.
-r
-R
--recurse-limit
--no-recurse-limit
--recursion-limit
--no-recursion-limit
Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst de-
mangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of
recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount
of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The
limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
of nesting.
The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in
order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion
limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about
such an event will be rejected.
The -r option is a synonym for the --no-recurse-limit option. The -R option
is a synonym for the --recurse-limit option.
-s format
--format=format
c++filt can decode various methods of mangling, used by different compilers.
The argument to this option selects which method it uses:
auto Automatic selection based on executable (the default method)
gnu the one used by the gnu C++ compiler (g++)
lucid the one used by the Lucid compiler (lcc)
Chapter 10: c++filt 62

arm the one specified by the C++ Annotated Reference Manual

hp the one used by the HP compiler (aCC)
edg the one used by the EDG compiler
gnu-v3 the one used by the gnu C++ compiler (g++) with the V3 ABI.
java the one used by the gnu Java compiler (gcj)
gnat the one used by the gnu Ada compiler (GNAT).
--help Print a summary of the options to c++filt and exit.
--version
Print the version number of c++filt and exit.
Warning: c++filt is a new utility, and the details of its user interface are
subject to change in future releases. In particular, a command-line option may
be required in the future to decode a name passed as an argument on the
command line; in other words,
c++filt symbol
may in a future release become
c++filt option symbol
 63

11 addr2line
addr2line [-a|--addresses]
[-b bfdname|--target=bfdname]
[-C|--demangle[=style]]
[-r|--no-recurse-limit]
[-R|--recurse-limit]
[-e filename|--exe=filename]
[-f|--functions] [-s|--basename]
[-i|--inlines]
[-p|--pretty-print]
[-j|--section=name]
[-H|--help] [-V|--version]
[addr addr ...]
addr2line translates addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers. Given
an address or symbol+offset in an executable or an offset in a section of a relocatable
object, it uses the debugging information to figure out which file name and line number are
associated with it.
The executable or relocatable object to use is specified with the -e option. The default
is the file a.out. The section in the relocatable object to use is specified with the -j option.
addr2line has two modes of operation.
In the first, hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset are specified on the command line,
and addr2line displays the file name and line number for each address.
In the second, addr2line reads hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset from standard
input, and prints the file name and line number for each address on standard output. In
this mode, addr2line may be used in a pipe to convert dynamically chosen addresses.
The format of the output is ‘FILENAME:LINENO’. By default each input address generates
one line of output.
Two options can generate additional lines before each ‘FILENAME:LINENO’ line (in that
order).
If the -a option is used then a line with the input address is displayed.
If the -f option is used, then a line with the ‘FUNCTIONNAME’ is displayed. This is the
name of the function containing the address.
One option can generate additional lines after the ‘FILENAME:LINENO’ line.
If the -i option is used and the code at the given address is present there because of
inlining by the compiler then additional lines are displayed afterwards. One or two extra
lines (if the -f option is used) are displayed for each inlined function.
Alternatively if the -p option is used then each input address generates a single, long,
output line containing the address, the function name, the file name and the line number.
If the -i option has also been used then any inlined functions will be displayed in the same
manner, but on separate lines, and prefixed by the text ‘(inlined by)’.
If the file name or function name can not be determined, addr2line will print two
question marks in their place. If the line number can not be determined, addr2line will
print 0.
When symbol+offset is used, +offset is optional, except when the symbol is ambigious
with a hex number. The resolved symbols can be mangled or unmangled, except unmangled
symbols with + are not allowed.
Chapter 11: addr2line 64

The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent.

-a
--addresses
Display the address before the function name, file and line number information.
The address is printed with a ‘0x’ prefix to easily identify it.

-b bfdname
--target=bfdname
Specify that the object-code format for the object files is bfdname.

-C
--demangle[=style]
Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. Besides re-
moving any initial underscore prepended by the system, this makes C++ func-
tion names readable. Different compilers have different mangling styles. The
optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an appropriate de-
mangling style for your compiler. See Chapter 10 [c++filt], page 60, for more
information on demangling.

-e filename
--exe=filename
Specify the name of the executable for which addresses should be translated.
The default file is a.out.

-f
--functions
Display function names as well as file and line number information.

-s
--basenames
Display only the base of each file name.

-i
--inlines
If the address belongs to a function that was inlined, the source information for
all enclosing scopes back to the first non-inlined function will also be printed.
For example, if main inlines callee1 which inlines callee2, and address is from
callee2, the source information for callee1 and main will also be printed.

-j
--section
Read offsets relative to the specified section instead of absolute addresses.

-p
--pretty-print
Make the output more human friendly: each location are printed on one line. If
option -i is specified, lines for all enclosing scopes are prefixed with ‘(inlined
by)’.
Chapter 11: addr2line 65

-r
-R
--recurse-limit
--no-recurse-limit
--recursion-limit
--no-recursion-limit
Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst de-
mangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of
recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount
of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The
limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
of nesting.
The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in
order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion
limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about
such an event will be rejected.
The -r option is a synonym for the --no-recurse-limit option. The -R option
is a synonym for the --recurse-limit option.
Note this option is only effective if the -C or --demangle option has been
enabled.
 66

12 windmc
windmc may be used to generator Windows message resources.
Warning: windmc is not always built as part of the binary utilities, since it is
only useful for Windows targets.
windmc [options] input-file
windmc reads message definitions from an input file (.mc) and translate them into a set
of output files. The output files may be of four kinds:
h A C header file containing the message definitions.
rc A resource file compilable by the windres tool.
bin One or more binary files containing the resource data for a specific message
language.
dbg A C include file that maps message id’s to their symbolic name.
The exact description of these different formats is available in documentation from Mi-
crosoft.
When windmc converts from the mc format to the bin format, rc, h, and optional dbg it
is acting like the Windows Message Compiler.
-a
--ascii_in
Specifies that the input file specified is ASCII. This is the default behaviour.
-A
--ascii_out
Specifies that messages in the output bin files should be in ASCII format.
-b
--binprefix
Specifies that bin filenames should have to be prefixed by the basename of the
source file.
-c
--customflag
Sets the customer bit in all message id’s.
-C codepage
--codepage_in codepage
Sets the default codepage to be used to convert input file to UTF16. The default
is ocdepage 1252.
-d
--decimal_values
Outputs the constants in the header file in decimal. Default is using hexadeci-
mal output.
-e ext
--extension ext
The extension for the header file. The default is .h extension.
Chapter 12: windmc 67

-F target
--target target
Specify the BFD format to use for a bin file as output. This is a BFD target
name; you can use the --help option to see a list of supported targets. Normally
windmc will use the default format, which is the first one listed by the --help
option. Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91.
-h path
--headerdir path
The target directory of the generated header file. The default is the current
directory.
-H
--help Displays a list of command-line options and then exits.
-m characters
--maxlength characters
Instructs windmc to generate a warning if the length of any message exceeds
the number specified.
-n
--nullterminate
Terminate message text in bin files by zero. By default they are terminated by
CR/LF.
-o
--hresult_use
Not yet implemented. Instructs windmc to generate an OLE2 header file, using
HRESULT definitions. Status codes are used if the flag is not specified.
-O codepage
--codepage_out codepage
Sets the default codepage to be used to output text files. The default is ocdepage
1252.
-r path
--rcdir path
The target directory for the generated rc script and the generated bin files that
the resource compiler script includes. The default is the current directory.
-u
--unicode_in
Specifies that the input file is UTF16.
-U
--unicode_out
Specifies that messages in the output bin file should be in UTF16 format. This
is the default behaviour.
-v
--verbose
Enable verbose mode.
Chapter 12: windmc 68

-V
--version
Prints the version number for windmc.
-x path
--xdgb path
The path of the dbg C include file that maps message id’s to the symbolic name.
No such file is generated without specifying the switch.
 69

13 windres
windres may be used to manipulate Windows resources.
Warning: windres is not always built as part of the binary utilities, since it is
only useful for Windows targets.
windres [options] [input-file] [output-file]
windres reads resources from an input file and copies them into an output file. Either
file may be in one of three formats:
rc A text format read by the Resource Compiler.
res A binary format generated by the Resource Compiler.
coff A COFF object or executable.
The exact description of these different formats is available in documentation from Mi-
crosoft.
When windres converts from the rc format to the res format, it is acting like the
Windows Resource Compiler. When windres converts from the res format to the coff
format, it is acting like the Windows CVTRES program.
When windres generates an rc file, the output is similar but not identical to the format
expected for the input. When an input rc file refers to an external filename, an output rc
file will instead include the file contents.
If the input or output format is not specified, windres will guess based on the file name,
or, for the input file, the file contents. A file with an extension of .rc will be treated as
an rc file, a file with an extension of .res will be treated as a res file, and a file with an
extension of .o or .exe will be treated as a coff file.
If no output file is specified, windres will print the resources in rc format to standard
output.
The normal use is for you to write an rc file, use windres to convert it to a COFF
object file, and then link the COFF file into your application. This will make the resources
described in the rc file available to Windows.
-i filename
--input filename
The name of the input file. If this option is not used, then windres will use
the first non-option argument as the input file name. If there are no non-option
arguments, then windres will read from standard input. windres can not read
a COFF file from standard input.
-o filename
--output filename
The name of the output file. If this option is not used, then windres will use
the first non-option argument, after any used for the input file name, as the
output file name. If there is no non-option argument, then windres will write
to standard output. windres can not write a COFF file to standard output.
Note, for compatibility with rc the option -fo is also accepted, but its use is
not recommended.
Chapter 13: windres 70

-J format
--input-format format
The input format to read. format may be ‘res’, ‘rc’, or ‘coff’. If no input
format is specified, windres will guess, as described above.
-O format
--output-format format
The output format to generate. format may be ‘res’, ‘rc’, or ‘coff’. If no
output format is specified, windres will guess, as described above.
-F target
--target target
Specify the BFD format to use for a COFF file as input or output. This is a
BFD target name; you can use the --help option to see a list of supported
targets. Normally windres will use the default format, which is the first one
listed by the --help option. Section 18.1 [Target Selection], page 91.
--preprocessor program
When windres reads an rc file, it runs it through the C preprocessor first. This
option may be used to specify the preprocessor to use. The default preprocessor
is gcc.
--preprocessor-arg option
When windres reads an rc file, it runs it through the C preprocessor first. This
option may be used to specify additional text to be passed to preprocessor on its
command line. This option can be used multiple times to add multiple options
to the preprocessor command line. If the --preprocessor option has not been
specified then a default set of preprocessor arguments will be used, with any
--preprocessor-arg options being placed after them on the command line.
These default arguments are -E, -xc-header and -DRC_INVOKED.
-I directory
--include-dir directory
Specify an include directory to use when reading an rc file. windres will
pass this to the preprocessor as an -I option. windres will also search this
directory when looking for files named in the rc file. If the argument passed
to this command matches any of the supported formats (as described in the -J
option), it will issue a deprecation warning, and behave just like the -J option.
New programs should not use this behaviour. If a directory happens to match
a format, simple prefix it with ‘./’ to disable the backward compatibility.
-D target
--define sym[=val]
Specify a -D option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an rc file.
-U target
--undefine sym
Specify a -U option to pass to the preprocessor when reading an rc file.
-r Ignored for compatibility with rc.
-v Enable verbose mode. This tells you what the preprocessor is if you didn’t
specify one.
Chapter 13: windres 71

-c val
--codepage val
Specify the default codepage to use when reading an rc file. val should be
a hexadecimal prefixed by ‘0x’ or decimal codepage code. The valid range is
from zero up to 0xffff, but the validity of the codepage is host and configuration
dependent.
-l val
--language val
Specify the default language to use when reading an rc file. val should be a
hexadecimal language code. The low eight bits are the language, and the high
eight bits are the sublanguage.
--use-temp-file
Use a temporary file to instead of using popen to read the output of the pre-
processor. Use this option if the popen implementation is buggy on the host
(eg., certain non-English language versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98 are
known to have buggy popen where the output will instead go the console).
--no-use-temp-file
Use popen, not a temporary file, to read the output of the preprocessor. This
is the default behaviour.
-h
--help Prints a usage summary.
-V
--version
Prints the version number for windres.
--yydebug
If windres is compiled with YYDEBUG defined as 1, this will turn on parser
debugging.
 72

14 dlltool
dlltool is used to create the files needed to create dynamic link libraries (DLLs) on systems
which understand PE format image files such as Windows. A DLL contains an export
table which contains information that the runtime loader needs to resolve references from
a referencing program.
The export table is generated by this program by reading in a .def file or scanning
the .a and .o files which will be in the DLL. A .o file can contain information in special
‘.drectve’ sections with export information.
Note: dlltool is not always built as part of the binary utilities, since it is only
useful for those targets which support DLLs.
dlltool [-d|--input-def def-file-name]
[-b|--base-file base-file-name]
[-e|--output-exp exports-file-name]
[-z|--output-def def-file-name]
[-l|--output-lib library-file-name]
[-y|--output-delaylib library-file-name]
[--export-all-symbols] [--no-export-all-symbols]
[--exclude-symbols list]
[--no-default-excludes]
[-S|--as path-to-assembler] [-f|--as-flags options]
[-D|--dllname name] [-m|--machine machine]
[-a|--add-indirect]
[-U|--add-underscore] [--add-stdcall-underscore]
[-k|--kill-at] [-A|--add-stdcall-alias]
[-p|--ext-prefix-alias prefix]
[-x|--no-idata4] [-c|--no-idata5]
[--use-nul-prefixed-import-tables]
[-I|--identify library-file-name] [--identify-strict]
[-i|--interwork]
[-n|--nodelete] [-t|--temp-prefix prefix]
[-v|--verbose]
[-h|--help] [-V|--version]
[--no-leading-underscore] [--leading-underscore]
[--deterministic-libraries] [--non-deterministic-libraries]
[object-file ...]
dlltool reads its inputs, which can come from the -d and -b options as well as object
files specified on the command line. It then processes these inputs and if the -e option
has been specified it creates a exports file. If the -l option has been specified it creates a
library file and if the -z option has been specified it creates a def file. Any or all of the -e,
-l and -z options can be present in one invocation of dlltool.
When creating a DLL, along with the source for the DLL, it is necessary to have three
other files. dlltool can help with the creation of these files.
The first file is a .def file which specifies which functions are exported from the DLL,
which functions the DLL imports, and so on. This is a text file and can be created by hand,
or dlltool can be used to create it using the -z option. In this case dlltool will scan
the object files specified on its command line looking for those functions which have been
specially marked as being exported and put entries for them in the .def file it creates.
In order to mark a function as being exported from a DLL, it needs to have an
-export:<name_of_function> entry in the ‘.drectve’ section of the object file. This can
be done in C by using the asm() operator:
Chapter 14: dlltool 73

asm (".section .drectve");

asm (".ascii \"-export:my_func\"");

int my_func (void) { ... }

The second file needed for DLL creation is an exports file. This file is linked with the
object files that make up the body of the DLL and it handles the interface between the
DLL and the outside world. This is a binary file and it can be created by giving the -e
option to dlltool when it is creating or reading in a .def file.
The third file needed for DLL creation is the library file that programs will link with in
order to access the functions in the DLL (an ‘import library’). This file can be created by
giving the -l option to dlltool when it is creating or reading in a .def file.
If the -y option is specified, dlltool generates a delay-import library that can be used
instead of the normal import library to allow a program to link to the dll only as soon as
an imported function is called for the first time. The resulting executable will need to be
linked to the static delayimp library containing delayLoadHelper2(), which in turn will
import LoadLibraryA and GetProcAddress from kernel32.
dlltool builds the library file by hand, but it builds the exports file by creating tempo-
rary files containing assembler statements and then assembling these. The -S command-line
option can be used to specify the path to the assembler that dlltool will use, and the -f
option can be used to pass specific flags to that assembler. The -n can be used to prevent
dlltool from deleting these temporary assembler files when it is done, and if -n is specified
twice then this will prevent dlltool from deleting the temporary object files it used to build
the library.
Here is an example of creating a DLL from a source file ‘dll.c’ and also creating a
program (from an object file called ‘program.o’) that uses that DLL:
gcc -c dll.c
dlltool -e exports.o -l dll.lib dll.o
gcc dll.o exports.o -o dll.dll
gcc program.o dll.lib -o program
dlltool may also be used to query an existing import library to determine the name of
the DLL to which it is associated. See the description of the -I or --identify option.
The command-line options have the following meanings:
-d filename
--input-def filename
Specifies the name of a .def file to be read in and processed.
-b filename
--base-file filename
Specifies the name of a base file to be read in and processed. The contents of
this file will be added to the relocation section in the exports file generated by
dlltool.
-e filename
--output-exp filename
Specifies the name of the export file to be created by dlltool.
-z filename
--output-def filename
Specifies the name of the .def file to be created by dlltool.
Chapter 14: dlltool 74

-l filename
--output-lib filename
Specifies the name of the library file to be created by dlltool.
-y filename
--output-delaylib filename
Specifies the name of the delay-import library file to be created by dlltool.
--deterministic-libraries
--non-deterministic-libraries
When creating output libraries in response to either the --output-lib or
--output-delaylib options either use the value of zero for any timestamps,
user ids and group ids created (--deterministic-libraries) or the actual
timestamps, user ids and group ids (--non-deterministic-libraries).
--export-all-symbols
Treat all global and weak defined symbols found in the input object files as
symbols to be exported. There is a small list of symbols which are not exported
by default; see the --no-default-excludes option. You may add to the list
of symbols to not export by using the --exclude-symbols option.
--no-export-all-symbols
Only export symbols explicitly listed in an input .def file or in ‘.drectve’
sections in the input object files. This is the default behaviour. The ‘.drectve’
sections are created by ‘dllexport’ attributes in the source code.
--exclude-symbols list
Do not export the symbols in list. This is a list of symbol names separated by
comma or colon characters. The symbol names should not contain a leading
underscore. This is only meaningful when --export-all-symbols is used.
--no-default-excludes
When --export-all-symbols is used, it will by default avoid exporting certain
special symbols. The current list of symbols to avoid exporting is ‘DllMain@12’,
‘DllEntryPoint@0’, ‘impure_ptr’. You may use the --no-default-excludes
option to go ahead and export these special symbols. This is only meaningful
when --export-all-symbols is used.
-S path
--as path Specifies the path, including the filename, of the assembler to be used to create
the exports file.
-f options
--as-flags options
Specifies any specific command-line options to be passed to the assembler when
building the exports file. This option will work even if the -S option is not
used. This option only takes one argument, and if it occurs more than once
on the command line, then later occurrences will override earlier occurrences.
So if it is necessary to pass multiple options to the assembler they should be
enclosed in double quotes.
Chapter 14: dlltool 75

-D name
--dll-name name
Specifies the name to be stored in the .def file as the name of the DLL when
the -e option is used. If this option is not present, then the filename given to
the -e option will be used as the name of the DLL.
-m machine
-machine machine
Specifies the type of machine for which the library file should be built. dlltool
has a built in default type, depending upon how it was created, but this option
can be used to override that. This is normally only useful when creating DLLs
for an ARM processor, when the contents of the DLL are actually encode using
Thumb instructions.
-a
--add-indirect
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it should add a section
which allows the exported functions to be referenced without using the import
library. Whatever the hell that means!
-U
--add-underscore
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it should prepend an
underscore to the names of all exported symbols.
--no-leading-underscore
--leading-underscore
Specifies whether standard symbol should be forced to be prefixed, or not.
--add-stdcall-underscore
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it should prepend an
underscore to the names of exported stdcall functions. Variable names and non-
stdcall function names are not modified. This option is useful when creating
GNU-compatible import libs for third party DLLs that were built with MS-
Windows tools.
-k
--kill-at
Specifies that ‘@<number>’ suffixes should be omitted from the names of stdcall
functions that will be imported from the DLL. This is useful when creating an
import library for a DLL which exports stdcall functions but without the usual
‘@<number>’ symbol name suffix.
This does not change the naming of symbols provided by the import library
to programs linked against it, but only the entries in the import table (ie the
.idata section).
-A
--add-stdcall-alias
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports file it should add aliases
for stdcall symbols without ‘@ <number>’ in addition to the symbols with ‘@
<number>’.
Chapter 14: dlltool 76

-p
--ext-prefix-alias prefix
Causes dlltool to create external aliases for all DLL imports with the specified
prefix. The aliases are created for both external and import symbols with no
leading underscore.
-x
--no-idata4
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library files it should
omit the .idata4 section. This is for compatibility with certain operating
systems.
--use-nul-prefixed-import-tables
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library files it should
prefix the .idata4 and .idata5 by zero an element. This emulates old gnu
import library generation of dlltool. By default this option is turned off.
-c
--no-idata5
Specifies that when dlltool is creating the exports and library files it should
omit the .idata5 section. This is for compatibility with certain operating
systems.
-I filename
--identify filename
Specifies that dlltool should inspect the import library indicated by filename
and report, on stdout, the name(s) of the associated DLL(s). This can be
performed in addition to any other operations indicated by the other options
and arguments. dlltool fails if the import library does not exist or is not
actually an import library. See also --identify-strict.
--identify-strict
Modifies the behavior of the --identify option, such that an error is reported
if filename is associated with more than one DLL.
-i
--interwork
Specifies that dlltool should mark the objects in the library file and exports
file that it produces as supporting interworking between ARM and Thumb code.
-n
--nodelete
Makes dlltool preserve the temporary assembler files it used to create the ex-
ports file. If this option is repeated then dlltool will also preserve the temporary
object files it uses to create the library file.
-t prefix
--temp-prefix prefix
Makes dlltool use prefix when constructing the names of temporary assembler
and object files. By default, the temp file prefix is generated from the pid.
Chapter 14: dlltool 77

-v
--verbose
Make dlltool describe what it is doing.
-h
--help Displays a list of command-line options and then exits.
-V
--version
Displays dlltool’s version number and then exits.

14.1 The format of the dlltool .def file

A .def file contains any number of the following commands:

NAME name [ , base ]

The result is going to be named name.exe.
LIBRARY name [ , base ]
The result is going to be named name.dll. Note: If you want to use LIBRARY
as name then you need to quote. Otherwise this will fail due a necessary hack
for libtool (see PR binutils/13710 for more details).
EXPORTS ( ( ( name1 [ = name2 ] ) | ( name1 = module-name . external-name ) ) [
== its name ]
[ integer ] [ NONAME ] [ CONSTANT ] [ DATA ] [ PRIVATE ] ) *
Declares name1 as an exported symbol from the DLL, with optional ordinal
number integer, or declares name1 as an alias (forward) of the function external-
name in the DLL. If its name is specified, this name is used as string in export
table. module-name. Note: The EXPORTS has to be the last command in .def
file, as keywords are treated - beside LIBRARY - as simple name-identifiers. If
you want to use LIBRARY as name then you need to quote it.
IMPORTS ( ( internal-name = module-name . integer ) | [ internal-name = ]
module-name . external-name ) [ == ) its_name ] *
Declares that external-name or the exported function whose ordinal number
is integer is to be imported from the file module-name. If internal-name is
specified then this is the name that the imported function will be referred to
in the body of the DLL. If its name is specified, this name is used as string in
import table. Note: The IMPORTS has to be the last command in .def file, as
keywords are treated - beside LIBRARY - as simple name-identifiers. If you want
to use LIBRARY as name then you need to quote it.
DESCRIPTION string
Puts string into the output .exp file in the .rdata section.
STACKSIZE number-reserve [, number-commit ]
HEAPSIZE number-reserve [, number-commit ]
Generates --stack or --heap number-reserve,number-commit in the output
.drectve section. The linker will see this and act upon it.
Chapter 14: dlltool 78

CODE attr +
DATA attr +
SECTIONS ( section-name attr + ) *
Generates --attr section-name attr in the output .drectve section, where
attr is one of READ, WRITE, EXECUTE or SHARED. The linker will see this and act
upon it.
 79

15 readelf

readelf [-a|--all]
[-h|--file-header]
[-l|--program-headers|--segments]
[-S|--section-headers|--sections]
[-g|--section-groups]
[-t|--section-details]
[-e|--headers]
[-s|--syms|--symbols]
[--dyn-syms|--lto-syms]
[--sym-base=[0|8|10|16]]
[--demangle=style|--no-demangle]
[--quiet]
[--recurse-limit|--no-recurse-limit]
[-U method|--unicode=method]
[-n|--notes]
[-r|--relocs]
[-u|--unwind]
[-d|--dynamic]
[-V|--version-info]
[-A|--arch-specific]
[-D|--use-dynamic]
[-L|--lint|--enable-checks]
[-x <number or name>|--hex-dump=<number or name>]
[-p <number or name>|--string-dump=<number or name>]
[-R <number or name>|--relocated-dump=<number or name>]
[-z|--decompress]
[-c|--archive-index]
[-w[lLiaprmfFsoORtUuTgAck]|
--debug-dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-
interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr
[-wK|--debug-dump=follow-links]
[-wN|--debug-dump=no-follow-links]
[-wD|--debug-dump=use-debuginfod]
[-wE|--debug-dump=do-not-use-debuginfod]
[-P|--process-links]
[--dwarf-depth=n]
[--dwarf-start=n]
[--ctf=section]
[--ctf-parent=section]
[--ctf-symbols=section]
[--ctf-strings=section]
[--sframe=section]
[-I|--histogram]
[-v|--version]
[-W|--wide]
[-T|--silent-truncation]
[-H|--help]
elffile...

readelf displays information about one or more ELF format object files. The options
control what particular information to display.

elffile . . . are the object files to be examined. 32-bit and 64-bit ELF files are supported,
as are archives containing ELF files.
Chapter 15: readelf 80

This program performs a similar function to objdump but it goes into more detail and
it exists independently of the bfd library, so if there is a bug in bfd then readelf will not
be affected.
The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. At least
one option besides ‘-v’ or ‘-H’ must be given.
-a
--all Equivalent to specifying --file-header, --program-headers, --sections,
--symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes, --version-info, --arch-
specific, --unwind, --section-groups and --histogram.
Note - this option does not enable --use-dynamic itself, so if that option is not
present on the command line then dynamic symbols and dynamic relocs will
not be displayed.
-h
--file-header
Displays the information contained in the ELF header at the start of the file.
-l
--program-headers
--segments
Displays the information contained in the file’s segment headers, if it has any.
--quiet Suppress "no symbols" diagnostic.
-S
--sections
--section-headers
Displays the information contained in the file’s section headers, if it has any.
-g
--section-groups
Displays the information contained in the file’s section groups, if it has any.
-t
--section-details
Displays the detailed section information. Implies -S.
-s
--symbols
--syms Displays the entries in symbol table section of the file, if it has one. If a symbol
has version information associated with it then this is displayed as well. The
version string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @
character. For example ‘foo@VER_1’. If the version is the default version to be
used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it is displayed
as a suffix preceded by two @ characters. For example ‘foo@@VER_2’.
--dyn-syms
Displays the entries in dynamic symbol table section of the file, if it has one.
The output format is the same as the format used by the --syms option.
--lto-syms
Displays the contents of any LTO symbol tables in the file.
Chapter 15: readelf 81

--sym-base=[0|8|10|16]
Forces the size field of the symbol table to use the given base. Any unrecognized
options will be treated as ‘0’. --sym-base=0 represents the default and legacy
behaviour. This will output sizes as decimal for numbers less than 100000. For
sizes 100000 and greater hexadecimal notation will be used with a 0x prefix.
--sym-base=8 will give the symbol sizes in octal. --sym-base=10 will always
give the symbol sizes in decimal. --sym-base=16 will always give the symbol
sizes in hexadecimal with a 0x prefix.
-C
--demangle[=style]
Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. This makes
C++ function names readable. Different compilers have different mangling
styles. The optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an ap-
propriate demangling style for your compiler. See Chapter 10 [c++filt], page 60,
for more information on demangling.
--no-demangle
Do not demangle low-level symbol names. This is the default.
--recurse-limit
--no-recurse-limit
--recursion-limit
--no-recursion-limit
Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst de-
mangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of
recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount
of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The
limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
of nesting.
The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in
order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion
limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about
such an event will be rejected.
-U [d|i|l|e|x|h]
--unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight]
Controls the display of non-ASCII characters in identifier names. The default
(--unicode=locale or --unicode=default) is to treat them as multibyte char-
acters and display them in the current locale. All other versions of this option
treat the bytes as UTF-8 encoded values and attempt to interpret them. If they
cannot be interpreted or if the --unicode=invalid option is used then they
are displayed as a sequence of hex bytes, encloses in curly parethesis characters.
Using the --unicode=escape option will display the characters as as unicode
escape sequences (\uxxxx). Using the --unicode=hex will display the charac-
ters as hex byte sequences enclosed between angle brackets.
Using the --unicode=highlight will display the characters as unicode escape
sequences but it will also highlighted them in red, assuming that colouring is
Chapter 15: readelf 82

supported by the output device. The colouring is intended to draw attention

to the presence of unicode sequences when they might not be expected.
-e
--headers
Display all the headers in the file. Equivalent to -h -l -S.
-n
--notes Displays the contents of the NOTE segments and/or sections, if any.
-r
--relocs Displays the contents of the file’s relocation section, if it has one.
-u
--unwind Displays the contents of the file’s unwind section, if it has one. Only the unwind
sections for IA64 ELF files, as well as ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx /
.ARM.extab) are currently supported. If support is not yet implemented for
your architecture you could try dumping the contents of the .eh frames section
using the --debug-dump=frames or --debug-dump=frames-interp options.
-d
--dynamic
Displays the contents of the file’s dynamic section, if it has one.
-V
--version-info
Displays the contents of the version sections in the file, it they exist.
-A
--arch-specific
Displays architecture-specific information in the file, if there is any.
-D
--use-dynamic
When displaying symbols, this option makes readelf use the symbol hash
tables in the file’s dynamic section, rather than the symbol table sections.
When displaying relocations, this option makes readelf display the dynamic
relocations rather than the static relocations.
-L
--lint
--enable-checks
Displays warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being exam-
ined. If used on its own then all of the contents of the file(s) will be examined.
If used with one of the dumping options then the warning messages will only
be produced for the things being displayed.
-x <number or name>
--hex-dump=<number or name>
Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal bytes. A number
identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string
identifies all sections with that name in the object file.
Chapter 15: readelf 83

-R <number or name>
--relocated-dump=<number or name>
Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal bytes. A number
identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string
identifies all sections with that name in the object file. The contents of the
section will be relocated before they are displayed.
-p <number or name>
--string-dump=<number or name>
Displays the contents of the indicated section as printable strings. A number
identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string
identifies all sections with that name in the object file.
-z
--decompress
Requests that the section(s) being dumped by x, R or p options are decom-
pressed before being displayed. If the section(s) are not compressed then they
are displayed as is.
-c
--archive-index
Displays the file symbol index information contained in the header part of binary
archives. Performs the same function as the t command to ar, but without
using the BFD library. See Chapter 1 [ar], page 1.
-w[lLiaprmfFsOoRtUuTgAckK]
--debug-
dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-
interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_
abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr,=cu_index,=links,=follow-links]
Displays the contents of the DWARF debug sections in the file, if any are
present. Compressed debug sections are automatically decompressed (tem-
porarily) before they are displayed. If one or more of the optional letters or
words follows the switch then only those type(s) of data will be dumped. The
letters and words refer to the following information:
a
=abbrev Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_abbrev’ section.
A
=addr Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_addr’ section.
c
=cu_index
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_cu_index’ and/or
‘.debug_tu_index’ sections.
f
=frames Display the raw contents of a ‘.debug_frame’ section.
F
Chapter 15: readelf 84

=frames-interp
Display the interpreted contents of a ‘.debug_frame’ section.
g
=gdb_index
Displays the contents of the ‘.gdb_index’ and/or ‘.debug_names’
sections.
i
=info Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_info’ section. Note: the
output from this option can also be restricted by the use of the
--dwarf-depth and --dwarf-start options.
k
=links Displays the contents of the ‘.gnu_debuglink’,
‘.gnu_debugaltlink’ and ‘.debug_sup’ sections, if any of
them are present. Also displays any links to separate dwarf object
files (dwo), if they are specified by the DW AT GNU dwo name
or DW AT dwo name attributes in the ‘.debug_info’ section.
K
=follow-links
Display the contents of any selected debug sections that are found
in linked, separate debug info file(s). This can result in multiple
versions of the same debug section being displayed if it exists in
more than one file.
In addition, when displaying DWARF attributes, if a form is found
that references the separate debug info file, then the referenced
contents will also be displayed.
Note - in some distributions this option is enabled by default. It
can be disabled via the N debug option. The default can be cho-
sen when configuring the binutils via the --enable-follow-debug-
links=yes or --enable-follow-debug-links=no options. If these
are not used then the default is to enable the following of debug
links.
Note - if support for the debuginfod protocol was enabled when
the binutils were built then this option will also include an at-
tempt to contact any debuginfod servers mentioned in the DE-
BUGINFOD URLS environment variable. This could take some
time to resolve. This behaviour can be disabled via the =do-not-
use-debuginfod debug option.
N
=no-follow-links
Disables the following of links to separate debug info files.
D
=use-debuginfod
Enables contacting debuginfod servers if there is a need to follow
debug links. This is the default behaviour.
Chapter 15: readelf 85

E
=do-not-use-debuginfod
Disables contacting debuginfod servers when there is a need to fol-
low debug links.
l
=rawline Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_line’ section in a raw format.
L
=decodedline
Displays the interpreted contents of the ‘.debug_line’ section.
m
=macro Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_macro’ and/or
‘.debug_macinfo’ sections.
o
=loc Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_loc’ and/or
‘.debug_loclists’ sections.
O
=str-offsets
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_str_offsets’ section.
p
=pubnames
Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_pubnames’ and/or
‘.debug_gnu_pubnames’ sections.
r
=aranges Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_aranges’ section.
R
=Ranges Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_ranges’ and/or
‘.debug_rnglists’ sections.
s
=str Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_str’, ‘.debug_line_str’
and/or ‘.debug_str_offsets’ sections.
t
=pubtype Displays the contents of the ‘.debug_pubtypes’ and/or
‘.debug_gnu_pubtypes’ sections.
T
=trace_aranges
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_aranges’ section.
u
=trace_abbrev
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_abbrev’ section.
U
=trace_info
Displays the contents of the ‘.trace_info’ section.
Chapter 15: readelf 86

Note: displaying the contents of ‘.debug_static_funcs’, ‘.debug_static_vars’

and ‘debug_weaknames’ sections is not currently supported.
--dwarf-depth=n
Limit the dump of the .debug_info section to n children. This is only useful
with --debug-dump=info. The default is to print all DIEs; the special value 0
for n will also have this effect.
With a non-zero value for n, DIEs at or deeper than n levels will not be printed.
The range for n is zero-based.
--dwarf-start=n
Print only DIEs beginning with the DIE numbered n. This is only useful with
--debug-dump=info.
If specified, this option will suppress printing of any header information and all
DIEs before the DIE numbered n. Only siblings and children of the specified
DIE will be printed.
This can be used in conjunction with --dwarf-depth.
-P
--process-links
Display the contents of non-debug sections found in separate debuginfo files that
are linked to the main file. This option automatically implies the -wK option,
and only sections requested by other command line options will be displayed.
--ctf[=section]
Display the contents of the specified CTF section. CTF sections themselves
contain many subsections, all of which are displayed in order.
By default, display the name of the section named .ctf, which is the name
emitted by ld.
--ctf-parent=member
If the CTF section contains ambiguously-defined types, it will consist of an
archive of many CTF dictionaries, all inheriting from one dictionary containing
unambiguous types. This member is by default named .ctf, like the section
containing it, but it is possible to change this name using the ctf_link_set_
memb_name_changer function at link time. When looking at CTF archives that
have been created by a linker that uses the name changer to rename the parent
archive member, --ctf-parent can be used to specify the name used for the
parent.
--ctf-symbols=section
--ctf-strings=section
Specify the name of another section from which the CTF file can inherit strings
and symbols. By default, the .symtab and its linked string table are used.
If either of --ctf-symbols or --ctf-strings is specified, the other must be
specified as well.
-I
--histogram
Display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the contents of the
symbol tables.
Chapter 15: readelf 87

-v
--version
Display the version number of readelf.
-W
--wide Don’t break output lines to fit into 80 columns. By default readelf breaks
section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF files, so that they fit
into 80 columns. This option causes readelf to print each section header resp.
each segment one a single line, which is far more readable on terminals wider
than 80 columns.
-T
--silent-truncation
Normally when readelf is displaying a symbol name, and it has to truncate the
name to fit into an 80 column display, it will add a suffix of [...] to the name.
This command line option disables this behaviour, allowing 5 more characters
of the name to be displayed and restoring the old behaviour of readelf (prior to
release 2.35).
-H
--help Display the command-line options understood by readelf.
 88

16 elfedit
elfedit [--input-mach=machine]
[--input-type=type]
[--input-osabi=osabi]
[--input-abiversion=version]
--output-mach=machine
--output-type=type
--output-osabi=osabi
--output-abiversion=version
--enable-x86-feature=feature
--disable-x86-feature=feature
[-v|--version]
[-h|--help]
elffile...
elfedit updates the ELF header and program property of ELF files which have the
matching ELF machine and file types. The options control how and which fields in the ELF
header and program property should be updated.
elffile . . . are the ELF files to be updated. 32-bit and 64-bit ELF files are supported, as
are archives containing ELF files.
The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. At
least one of the --output-mach, --output-type, --output-osabi, --output-abiversion,
--enable-x86-feature and --disable-x86-feature options must be given.
--input-mach=machine
Set the matching input ELF machine type to machine. If --input-mach isn’t
specified, it will match any ELF machine types.
The supported ELF machine types are, i386, IAMCU, L1OM, K1OM and x86-
64.
--output-mach=machine
Change the ELF machine type in the ELF header to machine. The supported
ELF machine types are the same as --input-mach.
--input-type=type
Set the matching input ELF file type to type. If --input-type isn’t specified,
it will match any ELF file types.
The supported ELF file types are, rel, exec and dyn.
--output-type=type
Change the ELF file type in the ELF header to type. The supported ELF types
are the same as --input-type.
--input-osabi=osabi
Set the matching input ELF file OSABI to osabi. If --input-osabi isn’t spec-
ified, it will match any ELF OSABIs.
The supported ELF OSABIs are, none, HPUX, NetBSD, GNU, Linux (alias for
GNU ), Solaris, AIX, Irix, FreeBSD, TRU64, Modesto, OpenBSD, OpenVMS,
NSK, AROS and FenixOS.
--output-osabi=osabi
Change the ELF OSABI in the ELF header to osabi. The supported ELF
OSABI are the same as --input-osabi.
Chapter 16: elfedit 89

--input-abiversion=version
Set the matching input ELF file ABIVERSION to version. version must be
between 0 and 255. If --input-abiversion isn’t specified, it will match any
ELF ABIVERSIONs.
--output-abiversion=version
Change the ELF ABIVERSION in the ELF header to version. version must be
between 0 and 255.
--enable-x86-feature=feature
Set the feature bit in program property in exec or dyn ELF files with machine
types of i386 or x86-64. The supported features are, ibt, shstk, lam u48 and
lam u57.
--disable-x86-feature=feature
Clear the feature bit in program property in exec or dyn ELF files with machine
types of i386 or x86-64. The supported features are the same as --enable-x86-
feature.
Note: --enable-x86-feature and --disable-x86-feature are available only
on hosts with ‘mmap’ support.
-v
--version
Display the version number of elfedit.
-h
--help Display the command-line options understood by elfedit.
 90

17 Common Options
The following command-line options are supported by all of the programs described in this
manual.
@file Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place
of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the
option will be treated literally, and not removed.
Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be
included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double
quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the
character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
@file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
--help Display the command-line options supported by the program.
--version
Display the version number of the program.
 91

18 Selecting the Target System

You can specify two aspects of the target system to the gnu binary file utilities, each in
several ways:
• the target
• the architecture

In the following summaries, the lists of ways to specify values are in order of decreasing
precedence. The ways listed first override those listed later.
The commands to list valid values only list the values for which the programs you
are running were configured. If they were configured with --enable-targets=all, the
commands list most of the available values, but a few are left out; not all targets can be
configured in at once because some of them can only be configured native (on hosts with
the same type as the target system).

18.1 Target Selection

A target is an object file format. A given target may be supported for multiple architec-
tures (see Section 18.2 [Architecture Selection], page 92). A target selection may also have
variations for different operating systems or architectures.
The command to list valid target values is ‘objdump -i’ (the first column of output
contains the relevant information).
Some sample values are: ‘a.out-hp300bsd’, ‘ecoff-littlemips’, ‘a.out-sunos-big’.
You can also specify a target using a configuration triplet. This is the same sort of name
that is passed to configure to specify a target. When you use a configuration triplet as an
argument, it must be fully canonicalized. You can see the canonical version of a triplet by
running the shell script config.sub which is included with the sources.
Some sample configuration triplets are: ‘m68k-hp-bsd’, ‘mips-dec-ultrix’,
‘sparc-sun-sunos’.

objdump Target
Ways to specify:
1. command-line option: -b or --target
2. environment variable GNUTARGET
3. deduced from the input file

objcopy and strip Input Target

Ways to specify:
1. command-line options: -I or --input-target, or -F or --target
2. environment variable GNUTARGET
3. deduced from the input file
Chapter 18: Selecting the Target System 92

objcopy and strip Output Target

Ways to specify:
1. command-line options: -O or --output-target, or -F or --target
2. the input target (see “objcopy and strip Input Target” above)
3. environment variable GNUTARGET
4. deduced from the input file

nm, size, and strings Target

Ways to specify:
1. command-line option: --target
2. environment variable GNUTARGET
3. deduced from the input file

18.2 Architecture Selection

An architecture is a type of cpu on which an object file is to run. Its name may contain a
colon, separating the name of the processor family from the name of the particular cpu.
The command to list valid architecture values is ‘objdump -i’ (the second column con-
tains the relevant information).
Sample values: ‘m68k:68020’, ‘mips:3000’, ‘sparc’.

objdump Architecture
Ways to specify:
1. command-line option: -m or --architecture
2. deduced from the input file

objcopy, nm, size, strings Architecture

Ways to specify:
1. deduced from the input file
 93

19 debuginfod
debuginfod is a web service that indexes ELF/DWARF debugging re-
sources by build-id and serves them over HTTP. For more information see:
https://sourceware.org/elfutils/Debuginfod.html
Binutils can be built with the debuginfod client library libdebuginfod using the
--with-debuginfod configure option. This option is enabled by default if libdebuginfod
is installed and found at configure time. This allows objdump and readelf to automatically
query debuginfod servers for separate debug files when the files are otherwise not found.
debuginfod is packaged with elfutils, starting with version 0.178. You can get the latest
version from ‘https://sourceware.org/elfutils/’.
The DWARF info dumping tools (readelf and objdump) have options to control when
they should access the debuginfod servers. By default this access is enabled.
 94

20 Reporting Bugs
Your bug reports play an essential role in making the binary utilities reliable.
Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or it may not. But
in any case the principal function of a bug report is to help the entire community by making
the next version of the binary utilities work better. Bug reports are your contribution to
their maintenance.
In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the information that
enables us to fix the bug.

20.1 Have You Found a Bug?

If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
• If a binary utility gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a bug. Reliable
utilities never crash.
• If a binary utility produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug.
• If you are an experienced user of binary utilities, your suggestions for improvement are
welcome in any case.

20.2 How to Report Bugs

A number of companies and individuals offer support for gnu products. If you obtained the
binary utilities from a support organization, we recommend you contact that organization
first.
You can find contact information for many support companies and individuals in the file
etc/SERVICE in the gnu Emacs distribution.
In any event, we also recommend that you send bug reports for the binary utilities to
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/.
The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this: report all the facts. If you
are not sure whether to state a fact or leave it out, state it!
Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the problem and
assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might assume that the name of a file
you use in an example does not matter. Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure.
Perhaps the bug is a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where
that pathname is stored in memory; perhaps, if the pathname were different, the contents
of that location would fool the utility into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it
safe and give a specific, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do, and the
most helpful.
Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug if it is new
to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports on the assumption that the bug has not
been reported previously.
Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, “Does this ring a bell?” This cannot
help us fix a bug, so it is basically useless. We respond by asking for enough details to
enable us to investigate. You might as well expedite matters by sending them to begin
with.
Chapter 20: Reporting Bugs 95

To enable us to fix the bug, you should include all these things:
• The version of the utility. Each utility announces it if you start it with the --version
argument.
Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for the bug in the
current version of the binary utilities.
• Any patches you may have applied to the source, including any patches made to the
BFD library.
• The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and version number.
• What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the utilities—e.g. “gcc-2.7”.
• The command arguments you gave the utility to observe the bug. To guarantee you
will not omit something important, list them all. A copy of the Makefile (or the output
from make) is sufficient.
If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong and then we
might not encounter the bug.
• A complete input file, or set of input files, that will reproduce the bug. If the utility is
reading an object file or files, then it is generally most helpful to send the actual object
files.
If the source files were produced exclusively using gnu programs (e.g., gcc, gas, and/or
the gnu ld), then it may be OK to send the source files rather than the object files. In
this case, be sure to say exactly what version of gcc, or whatever, was used to produce
the object files. Also say how gcc, or whatever, was configured.
• A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is incorrect. For example,
“It gets a fatal signal.”
Of course, if the bug is that the utility gets a fatal signal, then we will certainly notice
it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might not notice unless it is glaringly wrong.
You might as well not give us a chance to make a mistake.
Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still say so explicitly.
Suppose something strange is going on, such as your copy of the utility is out of sync,
or you have encountered a bug in the C library on your system. (This has happened!)
Your copy might crash and ours would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when
ours fails to crash, we would know that the bug was not happening for us. If you had
not told us to expect a crash, then we would not be able to draw any conclusion from
our observations.
• If you wish to suggest changes to the source, send us context diffs, as generated by
diff with the -u, -c, or -p option. Always send diffs from the old file to the new file.
If you wish to discuss something in the ld source, refer to it by context, not by line
number.
The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your sources.
Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us.
Here are some things that are not necessary:
• A description of the envelope of the bug.
Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating which changes to
the input file will make the bug go away and which changes will not affect it.
Chapter 20: Reporting Bugs 96

This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we will find the
bug is by running a single example under the debugger with breakpoints, not by pure
deduction from a series of examples. We recommend that you save your time for
something else.
Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report instead of the original one, that
is a convenience for us. Errors in the output will be easier to spot, running under the
debugger will take less time, and so on.
However, simplification is not vital; if you do not want to do this, report the bug
anyway and send us the entire test case you used.
• A patch for the bug.
A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit the necessary
information, such as the test case, on the assumption that a patch is all we need. We
might see problems with your patch and decide to fix the problem another way, or we
might not understand it at all.
Sometimes with programs as complicated as the binary utilities it is very hard to
construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path through the
code. If you do not send us the example, we will not be able to construct one, so we
will not be able to verify that the bug is fixed.
And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your patch should
be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will help us to understand.
• A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on.
Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such things without
first using the debugger to find the facts.
 97

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
c
http://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and
useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom
to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or non-
commercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way
to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications
made by others.
This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document
must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public
License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because
free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals
providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to
software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for
works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms
of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in
duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”,
below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and
is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work
in a way requiring permission under copyright law.
A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or
a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into
another language.
A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document
that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document
to the Document’s overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that
could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a
textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The
relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related
matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding
them.
The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as
being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 98

under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is
not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant
Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover
Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under
this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
be at most 25 words.
A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented
in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for
revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images com-
posed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing
editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to
a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise
Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to
thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image
format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is
not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ascii without
markup, Texinfo input format, LaTEX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly
available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed
for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF
and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited
only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML,
PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following
pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the
title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page”
means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the
beginning of the body of the text.
The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document
to the public.
A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either
is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in
another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such
as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, “Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve
the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a
section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that
this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to
be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties:
any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no
effect on the meaning of this License.
2. VERBATIM COPYING
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 99

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or
noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license
notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and
that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies
you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.
If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions
in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly
display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of
the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires
Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher
of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the
Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put
the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the
rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque
copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which
the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network
protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If
you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time
you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well
before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you
with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions
of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely
this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of
it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the
Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any,
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 100

be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as
a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for
authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five
of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer
than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the
publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form
shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item
stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version
as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Docu-
ment, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document
as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as
stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to
a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in
the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the
“History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published
at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the
version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title
of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the
contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and
in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the
section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included
in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in
title with any Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify
as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at
your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 101

titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These
titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but
endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of
peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up
to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified
Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be
added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
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Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 102

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Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 103

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

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Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 104

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

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 105

Binutils Index

– D
–enable-deterministic-archives . . 4, 5, 22, 23, 49, 57 dates in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
debug symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
debugging symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
. deleting from archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
demangling C++ symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
.stab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 demangling in nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 81
demangling in objdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34, 64
deterministic archives . . . . . . . . . . 4, 5, 22, 23, 49, 57
A disassembling object code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
disassembly architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Add prefix to absolute paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
disassembly endianness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
addr2line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
disassembly, with source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
address to file name and line number . . . . . . . . . . . 63
discarding symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
all header information, object file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
dlltool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
ar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
DLL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
ar compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
dynamic relocation entries, in object file . . . . . . . . 41
architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
dynamic symbol table entries, printing . . . . . . . . . 47
architectures available. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
dynamic symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
archive contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Archive file symbol index information . . . . . . . . . . 83
archive headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 E
ELF dynamic section information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
ELF dynamic symbol table information . . . . . . . . 80
B ELF file header information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ELF file information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
base files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
ELF notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
bug criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ELF object file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
bug reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ELF program header information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ELF reloc information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
bugs, reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ELF section group information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ELF section information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ELF segment information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
C ELF symbol table information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
c++filt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 ELF version sections information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
changing object addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 elfedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
changing section address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 endianness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
changing section LMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 error on valid input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
external symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 14, 15
changing section VMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
extract from archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
changing start address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
collections of files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Compact Type Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 86
compatibility, ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 F
contents of archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 fatal signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 file name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
creating archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
creating thin archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
CTF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 86 H
cxxfilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
header information, all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Binutils Index 106

I R
input .def file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 radix for section sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
input file name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 ranlib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 49
Instruction width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 readelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
relative placement in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
relocation entries, in object file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
L removing symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
repeated names in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
ld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
replacement in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
reporting bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
linker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
listings strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
LTO symbol table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
S
scripts, ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
section addresses in objdump. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
M section headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
machine instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 section information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
moving in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 section sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
MRI compatibility, ar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 sections, full contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
separate debug files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
SFrame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
N size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
size display format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
name duplication in archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
size number format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
name length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
sorting symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
nm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
source code context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
nm compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 13
source disassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
nm format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 13
source file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
not writing archive index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
source filenames for object files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
stab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
start-address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
O stop-address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
objdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
objdump inlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 strings, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
object code format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 34, 51, 53, 64 strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
object file header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Strip absolute paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
object file information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 symbol index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 49
object file offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 symbol index, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
object file sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 symbol line numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
object formats available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 symbol table entries, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
offsets of files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 symbol table size base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
operations on archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
symbols, discarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

P T
plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 15
thin archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
printing from archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
printing strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
U
undefined symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 15
Q Unix compatibility, ar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
quick append to archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 unwind information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Update ELF header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
updating an archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Binutils Index 107

V W
wide output, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
VMA in objdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 writing archive index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4