Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - USING BINUTILS Manual

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
Using binutils, the Gnu Binary
Utilities

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: Using binutils, the Gnu Binary Utilities
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1
2. ar....................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1. Controlling aron the Command Line................................................................................ 3
2.2. Controlling arwith a Script ............................................................................................... 6
3. nm..................................................................................................................................................... 9
4. objcopy........................................................................................................................................... 13
5. objdump......................................................................................................................................... 21
6. ranlib .............................................................................................................................................. 27
7. size .................................................................................................................................................. 29
8. strings............................................................................................................................................. 31
9. strip................................................................................................................................................. 33
10. c++filt ........................................................................................................................................... 35
11. addr2line ...................................................................................................................................... 37
12. nlmconv ........................................................................................................................................ 39
13. windres ......................................................................................................................................... 41
14. Create files needed to build and use DLLs ............................................................................... 45
15. readelf........................................................................................................................................... 49
16. Selecting the Target System ....................................................................................................... 53
16.1. Target Selection.............................................................................................................. 53
16.1.1. objdumpTarget ............................................................................................... 53
16.1.2. objcopyand stripInput Target .................................................................... 53
16.1.3. objcopyand stripOutput Target.................................................................. 53
16.1.4. nm,size, and stringsTarget........................................................................ 54
16.2. Architecture Selection.................................................................................................... 54
16.2.1. objdumpArchitecture ..................................................................................... 54
16.2.2. objcopy,nm,size,stringsArchitecture ................................................... 54
17. Reporting Bugs............................................................................................................................ 55
17.1. Have You Found a Bug? ................................................................................................ 55
17.2. How to Report Bugs....................................................................................................... 55
A. GNU Free Documentation License............................................................................................. 59
A.1. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents......................................... 63
Index................................................................................................................................................... 65

Chapter 1.
Introduction
This brief manual contains documentation for the gnu binary utilities (collectively version
2.14.90.0.4):
This document is distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

2 Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2.
ar
ar [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive [member...]
ar -M [

mri-script ]
The gnu ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An archive is a single file holding
a collection of other files in a structure that makes it possible to retrieve the original individual files
(called members of the archive).
The original files’ contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and group are preserved in the
archive, and can be restored on extraction.
gnu ar can maintain archives whose members have names of any length; however, depending on how
ar is configured on your system, a limit on member-name length may be imposed for compatibility
with archive formats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the limit is often 15 characters (typical
of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typical of formats related to coff).
ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are most often used as libraries holding
commonly needed subroutines.
ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object modules in the archive when you
specify the modifier s. Once created, this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change
to its contents (save for the qupdate operation). An archive with such an index speeds up linking to
the library, and allows routines in the library to call each other without regard to their placement in
the archive.
You may use nm -s or nm -print-armap to list this index table. If an archive lacks the table, another
form of ar called ranlib can be used to add just the table.
gnu ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities. You can control its activity using
command-line options, like the different varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single
command-line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard input, like the MRI
"librarian" program.
2.1. Controlling aron the Command Line
ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive [member...]
When you use ar in the Unix style, ar insists on at least two arguments to execute: one keyletter
specifying the operation (optionally accompanied by other keyletters specifying modifiers), and the
archive name to act on.
Most operations can also accept further member arguments, specifying particular files to operate on.
gnu ar allows you to mix the operation code pand modifier flags mod in any order, within the first
command-line argument.
If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.
The pkeyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of the following, but you must
specify only one of them:

4 Chapter 2. ar
d
Delete modules from the archive. Specify the names of modules to be deleted as member. . . ; the
archive is untouched if you specify no files to delete.
If you specify the vmodifier, ar lists each module as it is deleted.
m
Use this operation to move members in an archive.
The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how programs are linked using
the library, if a symbol is defined in more than one member.
If no modifiers are used with m, any members you name in the member arguments are moved to
the end of the archive; you can use the a,b, or imodifiers to move them to a specified place
instead.
p
Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output file. If the vmodifier is speci-
fied, show the member name before copying its contents to standard output.
If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive are printed.
q
Quick append; Historically, add the files member. . . to the end of archive, without checking
for replacement.
The modifiers a,b, and ido not affect this operation; new members are always placed at the end
of the archive.
The modifier vmakes ar list each file as it is appended.
Since the point of this operation is speed, the archive’s symbol table index is not updated, even
if it already existed; you can use ar s or ranlib explicitly to update the symbol table index.
However, too many different systems assume quick append rebuilds the index, so gnu ar imple-
ments qas a synonym for r.
r
Insert the files member. . . into archive (with replacement). This operation differs from qin
that any previously existing members are deleted if their names match those being added.
If one of the files named in member. . . does not exist, ar displays an error message, and leaves
undisturbed any existing members of the archive matching that name.
By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you may use one of the modifiers
a,b, or ito request placement relative to some existing member.
The modifier vused with this operation elicits a line of output for each file inserted, along with
one of the letters aor rto indicate whether the file was appended (no old member deleted) or
replaced.
t
Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the files listed in member. . . that are
present in the archive. Normally only the member name is shown; if you also want to see the
modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group, and size, you can request that by also specifying
the vmodifier.
If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are listed.

Chapter 2. ar 5
If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an archive (say b.a), ar t b.a
fie lists only the first instance; to see them all, you must ask for a complete listing--in our
example, ar t b.a.
x
Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the vmodifier with this opera-
tion, to request that ar list each name as it extracts it.
If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are extracted.
A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the pkeyletter, to specify variations on an
operation’s behavior:
a
Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier a, the name
of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive
specification.
b
Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier b, the name
of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive
specification. (same as i).
c
Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it did not exist, when you request
an update. But a warning is issued unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by
using this modifier.
f
Truncate names in the archive. gnu ar will normally permit file names of any length. This will
cause it to create archives which are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems.
If this is a concern, the fmodifier may be used to truncate file names when putting them in the
archive.
i
Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier i, the name
of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive
specification. (same as b).
l
This modifier is accepted but not used.
N
Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple entries in the archive with the same
name. Extract or delete instance count of the given name from the archive.
o
Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If you do not specify this modifier,
files extracted from the archive are stamped with the time of extraction.
P
Use the full path name when matching names in the archive. gnu ar can not create an archive
with a full path name (such archives are not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can.

6 Chapter 2. ar
This option will cause gnu ar to match file names using a complete path name, which can be
convenient when extracting a single file from an archive created by another tool.
s
Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing one, even if no other change is
made to the archive. You may use this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone. Running
ar s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.
S
Do not generate an archive symbol table. This can speed up building a large library in several
steps. The resulting archive can not be used with the linker. In order to build a symbol table, you
must omit the Smodifier on the last execution of ar, or you must run ranlib on the archive.
u
Normally, ar r. . . inserts all files listed into the archive. If you would like to insert only those of
the files you list that are newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier. The
umodifier is allowed only for the operation r(replace). In particular, the combination qu is not
allowed, since checking the timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
v
This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation. Many operations display additional
information, such as filenames processed, when the modifier vis appended.
V
This modifier shows the version number of ar.
ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX. The behaviour produced by
this option is the default for gnu ar.ar does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it
does not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.
2.2. Controlling arwith a Script
ar -M [

script ]
If you use the single command-line option -M with ar, you can control its operation with a rudimen-
tary command language. This form of ar operates interactively if standard input is coming directly
from a terminal. During interactive use, ar prompts for input (the prompt is AR

), and continues
executing even after errors. If you redirect standard input to a script file, no prompts are issued, and
ar abandons execution (with a nonzero exit code) on any error.
The ar command language is not designed to be equivalent to the command-line options; in fact,
it provides somewhat less control over archives. The only purpose of the command language is to
ease the transition to gnu ar for developers who already have scripts written for the MRI "librarian"
program.
The syntax for the ar command language is straightforward:
•Commands are recognized in upper or lower case; for example, LIST is the same as list. In the
following descriptions, commands are shown in upper case for clarity.
•A single command may appear on each line; it is the first word on the line.
•Empty lines are allowed, and have no effect.