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STRIP(1) GNU Development Tools STRIP(1)
NAME
strip - Discard symbols from object files.
SYNOPSIS
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]
[--only-keep-debug]
[-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
[--help] [--info]
objfile...
DESCRIPTION
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
-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 avail-
able.
-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
Keep only symbol symbolname from the source file. 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 exist-
ing 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 ..)
--only-keep-debug
Strip a file, removing any sections that would be stripped by
--strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections.
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 dis-
tribution 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.as normal. Assuming that is is called>
"foo" then...
1.objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to>
create a file containing the debugging info.
1.objcopy --strip-debug foo" to create a>
stripped executable.
1.objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo">
to add a link to the debugging info into the stripped exe-
cutable.
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.as normal.>
1.
1.
1.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.
-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.
SEE ALSO
the Info entries for binutils.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004 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''.
binutils-2.15.92.0.2 2006-08-13 STRIP(1)
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