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]
[--keep-file-symbols]
[--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
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">
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
the Info entries for binutils.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 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".