strip(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT | COLOPHON

STRIP(1)                  GNU Development Tools                 STRIP(1)

NAME         top

       strip - discard symbols and other data from object files

SYNOPSIS         top

       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]
             [--strip-section-headers]
             [-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...

DESCRIPTION         top

       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.

OPTIONS         top

       -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, 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
           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 matching 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 inappropriately 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 matching 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'.

       --strip-section-headers
           Strip section headers.  This option is specific to ELF files.
           Implies --strip-all and --merge-notes.

       -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 debugging 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.

       -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 reduction 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.

       -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, retain 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...

           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">

           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 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.

SEE ALSO         top

       the Info entries for binutils.

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright (c) 1991-2024 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".

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the binutils (a collection of tools for
       working with executable binaries) project.  Information about the
       project can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/⟩.
       If you have a bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=binutils⟩.
       This page was obtained from the tarball binutils-2.42.tar.gz
       fetched from ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/⟩ on 2024-06-14.
       If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of
       the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date
       source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to
       the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the
       original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

binutils-2.42                  2024-06-14                       STRIP(1)

Pages that refer to this page: elf(5)warning::debuginfo(7stap)warning::symbols(7stap)