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Manual: strip

STRIP(1) GNU Development Tools STRIP(1)

NAME
strip - discard symbols and other data from object files

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, 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...

2. Run "objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to create a file containing the debugging info.

3. Run "strip --strip-debug foo" to create a stripped executable.

4. 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.

2. Copy "foo" to "foo.full".

3. Run "strip --strip-debug foo".

4. 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.

--plugin name
Load the plugin called name to add support for extra target types. This option is only available if the
toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled.

If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled then strip iterates over the files in
${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used.

Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option. In order to make strip
use the linker plugin it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. For GCC based compilations
the linker plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. For Clang based compilations it is called LLVMgold.so. The
GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one.

-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.

Manual: strip

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