strip - Discard symbols from object files.
strip [-F bfdname |--target=bfdname]
[-I bfdname |--input-target=bfdname]
[-O bfdname |--output-target=bfdname]
[-s|--strip-all]
[-S|-g|-d|--strip-debug]
[-K symbolname |--keep-symbol=symbolname]
[-N symbolname |--strip-symbol=symbolname]
[-w|--wildcard]
[-x|--discard-all] [-X |--discard-locals]
[-R sectionname |--remove-section=sectionname]
[-o file] [-p|--preserve-dates]
[--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.
- --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.
- -O bfdname
- --output-target=bfdname
- Replace objfile with a file in the output format
bfdname.
- -R
sectionname
- --remove-section=sectionname
- Remove any section named sectionname from the output file. This
option may be given more than once. Note that using this option
inappropriately may make the output file unusable.
- -s
- --strip-all
- Remove all symbols.
- -g
- -S
- -d
- --strip-debug
- Remove debugging symbols only.
- --strip-unneeded
- Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing.
- -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
- 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.
- -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.
- -X
- --discard-locals
- Remove compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with
L or ..)
- --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.
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 is is called>
- "foo" then...
- 1.<Run "objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to>
- create a file containing the debugging info.
- 1.<Run "objcopy --strip-debug foo" to create a>
- stripped executable.
- 1.<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.>
- 1.<Copy "foo" to
"foo.full">
- 1.<Run "strip --strip-debug foo">
- 1.<Run "objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.full foo">
ie 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 incomplete. 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.
- -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.
- @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.
the Info entries for binutils.
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 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 1.1
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".