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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...

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.