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 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

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 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 ..)

--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 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:

-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, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 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''.