1UPX(1) UPX(1)
2
6 upx - compress or expand executable files
7
9 upx [ command ] [ options ] filename...
10
12 The Ultimate Packer for eXecutables
13 Copyright (c) 1996-2020 Markus Oberhumer, Laszlo Molnar & John Reiser
14 https://upx.github.io
15 UPX is a portable, extendable, high-performance executable packer for
17 several different executable formats. It achieves an excellent
18 compression ratio and offers *very* fast decompression. Your
19 executables suffer no memory overhead or other drawbacks for most of
20 the formats supported, because of in-place decompression.
21 While you may use UPX freely for both non-commercial and commercial
23 executables (for details see the file LICENSE), we would highly
24 appreciate if you credit UPX and ourselves in the documentation,
25 possibly including a reference to the UPX home page. Thanks.
26 [ Using UPX in non-OpenSource applications without proper credits is
28 considered not politically correct ;-) ]
29
31 UPX comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the file
32 LICENSE.
33 This is the first production quality release, and we plan that future
35 1.xx releases will be backward compatible with this version.
36 Please report all problems or suggestions to the authors. Thanks.
38
40 UPX is a versatile executable packer with the following features:
41 - excellent compression ratio: compresses better than zip/gzip,
43 use UPX to decrease the size of your distribution !
44 - very fast decompression: about 10 MiB/sec on an ancient Pentium 133,
46 about 200 MiB/sec on an Athlon XP 2000+.
47 - no memory overhead for your compressed executables for most of the
49 supported formats
50 - safe: you can list, test and unpack your executables
52 Also, a checksum of both the compressed and uncompressed file is
53 maintained internally.
54 - universal: UPX can pack a number of executable formats:
56 * atari/tos
57 * bvmlinuz/386 [bootable Linux kernel]
58 * djgpp2/coff
59 * dos/com
60 * dos/exe
61 * dos/sys
62 * linux/386
63 * linux/elf386
64 * linux/sh386
65 * ps1/exe
66 * rtm32/pe
67 * tmt/adam
68 * vmlinuz/386 [bootable Linux kernel]
69 * vmlinux/386
70 * watcom/le (supporting DOS4G, PMODE/W, DOS32a and CauseWay)
71 * win32/pe (exe and dll)
72 * win64/pe (exe and dll)
73 * arm/pe (exe and dll)
74 * linux/elfamd64
75 * linux/elfppc32
76 * mach/elfppc32
77 - portable: UPX is written in portable endian-neutral C++
79 - extendable: because of the class layout it's very easy to support
81 new executable formats or add new compression algorithms
82 - free: UPX can be distributed and used freely. And from version 0.99
84 the full source code of UPX is released under the GNU General Public
85 License (GPL) !
86 You probably understand now why we call UPX the "ultimate" executable
88 packer.
89
91 Compress
92 This is the default operation, eg. upx yourfile.exe will compress the
93 file specified on the command line.
94 Decompress
96 All UPX supported file formats can be unpacked using the -d switch, eg.
97 upx -d yourfile.exe will uncompress the file you've just compressed.
98 Test
100 The -t command tests the integrity of the compressed and uncompressed
101 data, eg. upx -t yourfile.exe check whether your file can be safely
102 decompressed. Note, that this command doesn't check the whole file,
103 only the part that will be uncompressed during program execution. This
104 means that you should not use this command instead of a virus checker.
105 List
107 The -l command prints out some information about the compressed files
108 specified on the command line as parameters, eg upx -l yourfile.exe
109 shows the compressed / uncompressed size and the compression ratio of
110 yourfile.exe.
111
113 -q: be quiet, suppress warnings
114 -q -q (or -qq): be very quiet, suppress errors
116 -q -q -q (or -qqq): produce no output at all
118 --help: prints the help
120 --version: print the version of UPX
122 --exact: when compressing, require to be able to get a byte-identical
124 file after decompression with option -d. [NOTE: this is work in
125 progress and is not supported for all formats yet. If you do care, as a
126 workaround you can compress and then decompress your program a first
127 time - any further compress-decompress steps should then yield byte-
128 identical results as compared to the first decompressed version.]
129 [ ...to be written... - type `upx --help' for now ]
131
133 UPX offers ten different compression levels from -1 to -9, and --best.
134 The default compression level is -8 for files smaller than 512 KiB, and
135 -7 otherwise.
136 · Compression levels 1, 2 and 3 are pretty fast.
138 · Compression levels 4, 5 and 6 achieve a good time/ratio
140 performance.
141 · Compression levels 7, 8 and 9 favor compression ratio over speed.
143 · Compression level --best may take a long time.
145 Note that compression level --best can be somewhat slow for large
147 files, but you definitely should use it when releasing a final version
148 of your program.
149 Quick info for achieving the best compression ratio:
151 · Try upx --brute myfile.exe or even upx --ultra-brute myfile.exe.
153 · Try if --overlay=strip works.
155 · For win32/pe programs there's --strip-relocs=0. See notes below.
157
159 Info: An "overlay" means auxiliary data attached after the logical end
160 of an executable, and it often contains application specific data (this
161 is a common practice to avoid an extra data file, though it would be
162 better to use resource sections).
163 UPX handles overlays like many other executable packers do: it simply
165 copies the overlay after the compressed image. This works with some
166 files, but doesn't work with others, depending on how an application
167 actually accesses this overlayed data.
168 --overlay=copy Copy any extra data attached to the file. [DEFAULT]
170 --overlay=strip Strip any overlay from the program instead of
172 copying it. Be warned, this may make the compressed
173 program crash or otherwise unusable.
174 --overlay=skip Refuse to compress any program which has an overlay.
176
178 The environment variable UPX can hold a set of default options for UPX.
179 These options are interpreted first and can be overwritten by explicit
180 command line parameters. For example:
181 for DOS/Windows: set UPX=-9 --compress-icons#0
183 for sh/ksh/zsh: UPX="-9 --compress-icons=0"; export UPX
184 for csh/tcsh: setenv UPX "-9 --compress-icons=0"
185 Under DOS/Windows you must use '#' instead of '=' when setting the
187 environment variable because of a COMMAND.COM limitation.
188 Not all of the options are valid in the environment variable - UPX will
190 tell you.
191 You can explicitly use the --no-env option to ignore the environment
193 variable.
194
196 NOTES FOR ATARI/TOS
197 This is the executable format used by the Atari ST/TT, a Motorola 68000
198 based personal computer which was popular in the late '80s. Support of
199 this format is only because of nostalgic feelings of one of the authors
200 and serves no practical purpose :-). See http://www.freemint.de for
201 more info.
202 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
204 uncompression. All debug information will be stripped, though.
205 Extra options available for this executable format:
207 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
209 available compression methods. This may improve
210 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
211 the default method gives the best results anyway.
212 NOTES FOR BVMLINUZ/I386
214 Same as vmlinuz/i386.
215 NOTES FOR DOS/COM
217 Obviously UPX won't work with executables that want to read data from
218 themselves (like some commandline utilities that ship with
219 Win95/98/ME).
220 Compressed programs only work on a 286+.
222 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
224 uncompression.
225 Maximum uncompressed size: ~65100 bytes.
227 Extra options available for this executable format:
229 --8086 Create an executable that works on any 8086 CPU.
231 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
233 available compression methods. This may improve
234 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
235 the default method gives the best results anyway.
236 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
238 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
239 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
240 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
241 NOTES FOR DOS/EXE
243 dos/exe stands for all "normal" 16-bit DOS executables.
244 Obviously UPX won't work with executables that want to read data from
246 themselves (like some command line utilities that ship with
247 Win95/98/ME).
248 Compressed programs only work on a 286+.
250 Extra options available for this executable format:
252 --8086 Create an executable that works on any 8086 CPU.
254 --no-reloc Use no relocation records in the exe header.
256 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
258 available compression methods. This may improve
259 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
260 the default method gives the best results anyway.
261 NOTES FOR DOS/SYS
263 Compressed programs only work on a 286+.
264 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
266 uncompression.
267 Maximum uncompressed size: ~65350 bytes.
269 Extra options available for this executable format:
271 --8086 Create an executable that works on any 8086 CPU.
273 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
275 available compression methods. This may improve
276 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
277 the default method gives the best results anyway.
278 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
280 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
281 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
282 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
283 NOTES FOR DJGPP2/COFF
285 First of all, it is recommended to use UPX *instead* of strip. strip
286 has the very bad habit of replacing your stub with its own (outdated)
287 version. Additionally UPX corrects a bug/feature in strip v2.8.x: it
288 will fix the 4 KiB alignment of the stub.
289 UPX includes the full functionality of stubify. This means it will
291 automatically stubify your COFF files. Use the option --coff to disable
292 this functionality (see below).
293 UPX automatically handles Allegro packfiles.
295 The DLM format (a rather exotic shared library extension) is not
297 supported.
298 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
300 uncompression. All debug information and trailing garbage will be
301 stripped, though.
302 Extra options available for this executable format:
304 --coff Produce COFF output instead of EXE. By default
306 UPX keeps your current stub.
307 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
309 available compression methods. This may improve
310 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
311 the default method gives the best results anyway.
312 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
314 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
315 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
316 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
317 NOTES FOR LINUX [general]
319 Introduction
320 Linux/386 support in UPX consists of 3 different executable formats,
322 one optimized for ELF executables ("linux/elf386"), one optimized
323 for shell scripts ("linux/sh386"), and one generic format
324 ("linux/386").
325 We will start with a general discussion first, but please
327 also read the relevant docs for each of the individual formats.
328 Also, there is special support for bootable kernels - see the
330 description of the vmlinuz/386 format.
331 General user's overview
333 Running a compressed executable program trades less space on a
335 ``permanent'' storage medium (such as a hard disk, floppy disk,
336 CD-ROM, flash memory, EPROM, etc.) for more space in one or more
337 ``temporary'' storage media (such as RAM, swap space, /tmp, etc.).
338 Running a compressed executable also requires some additional CPU
339 cycles to generate the compressed executable in the first place,
340 and to decompress it at each invocation.
341 How much space is traded? It depends on the executable, but many
343 programs save 30% to 50% of permanent disk space. How much CPU
344 overhead is there? Again, it depends on the executable, but
345 decompression speed generally is at least many megabytes per second,
346 and frequently is limited by the speed of the underlying disk
347 or network I/O.
348 Depending on the statistics of usage and access, and the relative
350 speeds of CPU, RAM, swap space, /tmp, and file system storage, then
351 invoking and running a compressed executable can be faster than
352 directly running the corresponding uncompressed program.
353 The operating system might perform fewer expensive I/O operations
354 to invoke the compressed program. Paging to or from swap space
355 or /tmp might be faster than paging from the general file system.
356 ``Medium-sized'' programs which access about 1/3 to 1/2 of their
357 stored program bytes can do particularly well with compression.
358 Small programs tend not to benefit as much because the absolute
359 savings is less. Big programs tend not to benefit proportionally
360 because each invocation may use only a small fraction of the program,
361 yet UPX decompresses the entire program before invoking it.
362 But in environments where disk or flash memory storage is limited,
363 then compression may win anyway.
364 Currently, executables compressed by UPX do not share RAM at runtime
366 in the way that executables mapped from a file system do. As a
367 result, if the same program is run simultaneously by more than one
368 process, then using the compressed version will require more RAM and/or
369 swap space. So, shell programs (bash, csh, etc.) and ``make''
370 might not be good candidates for compression.
371 UPX recognizes three executable formats for Linux: Linux/elf386,
373 Linux/sh386, and Linux/386. Linux/386 is the most generic format;
374 it accommodates any file that can be executed. At runtime, the UPX
375 decompression stub re-creates in /tmp a copy of the original file,
376 and then the copy is (re-)executed with the same arguments.
377 ELF binary executables prefer the Linux/elf386 format by default,
378 because UPX decompresses them directly into RAM, uses only one
379 exec, does not use space in /tmp, and does not use /proc.
380 Shell scripts where the underlying shell accepts a ``-c'' argument
381 can use the Linux/sh386 format. UPX decompresses the shell script
382 into low memory, then maps the shell and passes the entire text of the
383 script as an argument with a leading ``-c''.
384 General benefits:
386 - UPX can compress all executables, be it AOUT, ELF, libc4, libc5,
388 libc6, Shell/Perl/Python/... scripts, standalone Java .class
389 binaries, or whatever...
390 All scripts and programs will work just as before.
391 - Compressed programs are completely self-contained. No need for
393 any external program.
394 - UPX keeps your original program untouched. This means that
396 after decompression you will have a byte-identical version,
397 and you can use UPX as a file compressor just like gzip.
398 [ Note that UPX maintains a checksum of the file internally,
399 so it is indeed a reliable alternative. ]
400 - As the stub only uses syscalls and isn't linked against libc it
402 should run under any Linux configuration that can run ELF
403 binaries.
404 - For the same reason compressed executables should run under
406 FreeBSD and other systems which can run Linux binaries.
407 [ Please send feedback on this topic ]
408 General drawbacks:
410 - It is not advisable to compress programs which usually have many
412 instances running (like `sh' or `make') because the common segments of
413 compressed programs won't be shared any longer between different
414 processes.
415 - `ldd' and `size' won't show anything useful because all they
417 see is the statically linked stub. Since version 0.82 the section
418 headers are stripped from the UPX stub and `size' doesn't even
419 recognize the file format. The file patches/patch-elfcode.h has a
420 patch to fix this bug in `size' and other programs which use GNU BFD.
421 General notes:
423 - As UPX leaves your original program untouched it is advantageous
425 to strip it before compression.
426 - If you compress a script you will lose platform independence -
428 this could be a problem if you are using NFS mounted disks.
429 - Compression of suid, guid and sticky-bit programs is rejected
431 because of possible security implications.
432 - For the same reason there is no sense in making any compressed
434 program suid.
435 - Obviously UPX won't work with executables that want to read data
437 from themselves. E.g., this might be a problem for Perl scripts
438 which access their __DATA__ lines.
439 - In case of internal errors the stub will abort with exitcode 127.
441 Typical reasons for this to happen are that the program has somehow
442 been modified after compression.
443 Running `strace -o strace.log compressed_file' will tell you more.
444 NOTES FOR LINUX/ELF386
446 Please read the general Linux description first.
447 The linux/elf386 format decompresses directly into RAM, uses only one
449 exec, does not use space in /tmp, and does not use /proc.
450 Linux/elf386 is automatically selected for Linux ELF executables.
452 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
454 uncompression.
455 How it works:
457 For ELF executables, UPX decompresses directly to memory, simulating
459 the mapping that the operating system kernel uses during exec(),
460 including the PT_INTERP program interpreter (if any).
461 The brk() is set by a special PT_LOAD segment in the compressed
462 executable itself. UPX then wipes the stack clean except for
463 arguments, environment variables, and Elf_auxv entries (this is
464 required by bugs in the startup code of /lib/ld-linux.so as of
465 May 2000), and transfers control to the program interpreter or
466 the e_entry address of the original executable.
467 The UPX stub is about 1700 bytes long, partly written in assembler
469 and only uses kernel syscalls. It is not linked against any libc.
470 Specific drawbacks:
472 - For linux/elf386 and linux/sh386 formats, you will be relying on
474 RAM and swap space to hold all of the decompressed program during
475 the lifetime of the process. If you already use most of your swap
476 space, then you may run out. A system that is "out of memory"
477 can become fragile. Many programs do not react gracefully when
478 malloc() returns 0. With newer Linux kernels, the kernel
479 may decide to kill some processes to regain memory, and you
480 may not like the kernel's choice of which to kill. Running
481 /usr/bin/top is one way to check on the usage of swap space.
482 Extra options available for this executable format:
484 (none)
486 NOTES FOR LINUX/SH386
488 Please read the general Linux description first.
489 Shell scripts where the underling shell accepts a ``-c'' argument can
491 use the Linux/sh386 format. UPX decompresses the shell script into low
492 memory, then maps the shell and passes the entire text of the script as
493 an argument with a leading ``-c''. It does not use space in /tmp, and
494 does not use /proc.
495 Linux/sh386 is automatically selected for shell scripts that use a
497 known shell.
498 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
500 uncompression.
501 How it works:
503 For shell script executables (files beginning with "#!/" or "#! /")
505 where the shell is known to accept "-c <command>", UPX decompresses
506 the file into low memory, then maps the shell (and its PT_INTERP),
507 and passes control to the shell with the entire decompressed file
508 as the argument after "-c". Known shells are sh, ash, bash, bsh, csh,
509 ksh, tcsh, pdksh. Restriction: UPX cannot use this method
510 for shell scripts which use the one optional string argument after
511 the shell name in the script (example: "#! /bin/sh option3\n".)
512 The UPX stub is about 1700 bytes long, partly written in assembler
514 and only uses kernel syscalls. It is not linked against any libc.
515 Specific drawbacks:
517 - For linux/elf386 and linux/sh386 formats, you will be relying on
519 RAM and swap space to hold all of the decompressed program during
520 the lifetime of the process. If you already use most of your swap
521 space, then you may run out. A system that is "out of memory"
522 can become fragile. Many programs do not react gracefully when
523 malloc() returns 0. With newer Linux kernels, the kernel
524 may decide to kill some processes to regain memory, and you
525 may not like the kernel's choice of which to kill. Running
526 /usr/bin/top is one way to check on the usage of swap space.
527 Extra options available for this executable format:
529 (none)
531 NOTES FOR LINUX/386
533 Please read the general Linux description first.
534 The generic linux/386 format decompresses to /tmp and needs /proc file
536 system support. It starts the decompressed program via the execve()
537 syscall.
538 Linux/386 is only selected if the specialized linux/elf386 and
540 linux/sh386 won't recognize a file.
541 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
543 uncompression.
544 How it works:
546 For files which are not ELF and not a script for a known "-c" shell,
548 UPX uses kernel execve(), which first requires decompressing to a
549 temporary file in the file system. Interestingly -
550 because of the good memory management of the Linux kernel - this
551 often does not introduce a noticeable delay, and in fact there
552 will be no disk access at all if you have enough free memory as
553 the entire process takes places within the file system buffers.
554 A compressed executable consists of the UPX stub and an overlay
556 which contains the original program in a compressed form.
557 The UPX stub is a statically linked ELF executable and does
559 the following at program startup:
560 1) decompress the overlay to a temporary location in /tmp
562 2) open the temporary file for reading
563 3) try to delete the temporary file and start (execve)
564 the uncompressed program in /tmp using /proc/<pid>/fd/X as
565 attained by step 2)
566 4) if that fails, fork off a subprocess to clean up and
567 start the program in /tmp in the meantime
568 The UPX stub is about 1700 bytes long, partly written in assembler
570 and only uses kernel syscalls. It is not linked against any libc.
571 Specific drawbacks:
573 - You need additional free disk space for the uncompressed program
575 in your /tmp directory. This program is deleted immediately after
576 decompression, but you still need it for the full execution time
577 of the program.
578 - You must have /proc file system support as the stub wants to open
580 /proc/<pid>/exe and needs /proc/<pid>/fd/X. This also means that you
581 cannot compress programs that are used during the boot sequence
582 before /proc is mounted.
583 - Utilities like `top' will display numerical values in the process
585 name field. This is because Linux computes the process name from
586 the first argument of the last execve syscall (which is typically
587 something like /proc/<pid>/fd/3).
588 - Because of temporary decompression to disk the decompression speed
590 is not as fast as with the other executable formats. Still, I can see
591 no noticeable delay when starting programs like my ~3 MiB emacs (which
592 is less than 1 MiB when compressed :-).
593 Extra options available for this executable format:
595 --force-execve Force the use of the generic linux/386 "execve"
597 format, i.e. do not try the linux/elf386 and
598 linux/sh386 formats.
599 NOTES FOR PS1/EXE
601 This is the executable format used by the Sony PlayStation (PSone), a
602 Mips R3000 based gaming console which is popular since the late '90s.
603 Support of this format is very similar to the Atari one, because of
604 nostalgic feelings of one of the authors.
605 Packed programs will be byte-identical to the original after
607 uncompression, until further notice.
608 Maximum uncompressed size: ~1.89 / ~7.60 MiB.
610 Notes:
612 - UPX creates as default a suitable executable for CD-Mastering
614 and console transfer. For a CD-Master main executable you could also try
615 the special option "--boot-only" as described below.
616 It has been reported that upx packed executables are fully compatible with
617 the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2, PStwo) and Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) in
618 Sony PlayStation (PSone) emulation mode.
619 - Normally the packed files use the same memory areas like the uncompressed
621 versions, so they will not override other memory areas while unpacking.
622 If this isn't possible UPX will abort showing a 'packed data overlap'
623 error. With the "--force" option UPX will relocate the loading address
624 for the packed file, but this isn't a real problem if it is a single or
625 the main executable.
626 Extra options available for this executable format:
628 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
630 available compression methods. This may improve
631 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
632 the default method gives the best results anyway.
633 --8-bit Uses 8 bit size compression [default: 32 bit]
635 --8mib-ram PSone has 8 MiB ram available [default: 2 MiB]
637 --boot-only This format is for main exes and CD-Mastering only !
639 It may slightly improve the compression ratio,
640 decompression routines are faster than default ones.
641 But it cannot be used for console transfer !
642 --no-align This option disables CD mode 2 data sector format
644 alignment. May slightly improves the compression ratio,
645 but the compressed executable will not boot from a CD.
646 Use it for console transfer only !
647 NOTES FOR RTM32/PE and ARM/PE
649 Same as win32/pe.
650 NOTES FOR TMT/ADAM
652 This format is used by the TMT Pascal compiler - see
653 http://www.tmt.com/ .
654 Extra options available for this executable format:
656 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
658 available compression methods. This may improve
659 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
660 the default method gives the best results anyway.
661 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
663 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
664 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
665 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
666 NOTES FOR VMLINUZ/386
668 The vmlinuz/386 and bvmlinuz/386 formats take a gzip-compressed
669 bootable Linux kernel image ("vmlinuz", "zImage", "bzImage"), gzip-
670 decompress it and re-compress it with the UPX compression method.
671 vmlinuz/386 is completely unrelated to the other Linux executable
673 formats, and it does not share any of their drawbacks.
674 Notes:
676 - Be sure that "vmlinuz/386" or "bvmlinuz/386" is displayed
678 during compression - otherwise a wrong executable format
679 may have been used, and the kernel won't boot.
680 Benefits:
682 - Better compression (but note that the kernel was already compressed,
684 so the improvement is not as large as with other formats).
685 Still, the bytes saved may be essential for special needs like
686 boot disks.
687 For example, this is what I get for my 2.2.16 kernel:
689 1589708 vmlinux
690 641073 bzImage [original]
691 560755 bzImage.upx [compressed by "upx -9"]
692 - Much faster decompression at kernel boot time (but kernel
694 decompression speed is not really an issue these days).
695 Drawbacks:
697 (none)
699 Extra options available for this executable format:
701 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
703 available compression methods. This may improve
704 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
705 the default method gives the best results anyway.
706 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
708 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
709 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
710 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
711 NOTES FOR WATCOM/LE
713 UPX has been successfully tested with the following extenders:
714 DOS4G, DOS4GW, PMODE/W, DOS32a, CauseWay.
715 The WDOS/X extender is partly supported (for details
716 see the file bugs BUGS).
717 DLLs and the LX format are not supported.
719 Extra options available for this executable format:
721 --le Produce an unbound LE output instead of
723 keeping the current stub.
724 NOTES FOR WIN32/PE
726 The PE support in UPX is quite stable now, but probably there are still
727 some incompatibilities with some files.
728 Because of the way UPX (and other packers for this format) works, you
730 can see increased memory usage of your compressed files because the
731 whole program is loaded into memory at startup. If you start several
732 instances of huge compressed programs you're wasting memory because the
733 common segments of the program won't get shared across the instances.
734 On the other hand if you're compressing only smaller programs, or
735 running only one instance of larger programs, then this penalty is
736 smaller, but it's still there.
737 If you're running executables from network, then compressed programs
739 will load faster, and require less bandwidth during execution.
740 DLLs are supported. But UPX compressed DLLs can not share common data
742 and code when they got used by multiple applications. So compressing
743 msvcrt.dll is a waste of memory, but compressing the dll plugins of a
744 particular application may be a better idea.
745 Screensavers are supported, with the restriction that the filename must
747 end with ".scr" (as screensavers are handled slightly different than
748 normal exe files).
749 UPX compressed PE files have some minor memory overhead (usually in the
751 10 - 30 KiB range) which can be seen by specifying the "-i" command
752 line switch during compression.
753 Extra options available for this executable format:
755 --compress-exports=0 Don't compress the export section.
757 Use this if you plan to run the compressed
758 program under Wine.
759 --compress-exports=1 Compress the export section. [DEFAULT]
760 Compression of the export section can improve the
761 compression ratio quite a bit but may not work
762 with all programs (like winword.exe).
763 UPX never compresses the export section of a DLL
764 regardless of this option.
765 --compress-icons=0 Don't compress any icons.
767 --compress-icons=1 Compress all but the first icon.
768 --compress-icons=2 Compress all icons which are not in the
769 first icon directory. [DEFAULT]
770 --compress-icons=3 Compress all icons.
771 --compress-resources=0 Don't compress any resources at all.
773 --keep-resource=list Don't compress resources specified by the list.
775 The members of the list are separated by commas.
776 A list member has the following format: I<type[/name]>.
777 I<Type> is the type of the resource. Standard types
778 must be specified as decimal numbers, user types can be
779 specified by decimal IDs or strings. I<Name> is the
780 identifier of the resource. It can be a decimal number
781 or a string. For example:
782 --keep-resource=2/MYBITMAP,5,6/12345
784 UPX won't compress the named bitmap resource "MYBITMAP",
786 it leaves every dialog (5) resource uncompressed, and
787 it won't touch the string table resource with identifier
788 12345.
789 --force Force compression even when there is an
791 unexpected value in a header field.
792 Use with care.
793 --strip-relocs=0 Don't strip relocation records.
795 --strip-relocs=1 Strip relocation records. [DEFAULT]
796 This option only works on executables with base
797 address greater or equal to 0x400000. Usually the
798 compressed files becomes smaller, but some files
799 may become larger. Note that the resulting file will
800 not work under Windows 3.x (Win32s).
801 UPX never strips relocations from a DLL
802 regardless of this option.
803 --all-methods Compress the program several times, using all
805 available compression methods. This may improve
806 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
807 the default method gives the best results anyway.
808 --all-filters Compress the program several times, using all
810 available preprocessing filters. This may improve
811 the compression ratio in some cases, but usually
812 the default filter gives the best results anyway.
813
815 Exit status is normally 0; if an error occurs, exit status is 1. If a
816 warning occurs, exit status is 2.
817 UPX's diagnostics are intended to be self-explanatory.
819
821 Please report all bugs immediately to the authors.
822
824 Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer <markus@oberhumer.com>
825 http://www.oberhumer.com
826 Laszlo Molnar <ezerotven+github@gmail.com>
828 John F. Reiser <jreiser@BitWagon.com>
830 Jens Medoch <jssg@users.sourceforge.net>
832
834 Copyright (C) 1996-2020 Markus Franz Xaver Johannes Oberhumer
835 Copyright (C) 1996-2020 Laszlo Molnar
837 Copyright (C) 2000-2020 John F. Reiser
839 Copyright (C) 2002-2020 Jens Medoch
841 This program may be used freely, and you are welcome to redistribute it
843 under certain conditions.
844 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
846 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
847 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the UPX
848 License Agreement for more details.
849 You should have received a copy of the UPX License Agreement along with
851 this program; see the file LICENSE. If not, visit the UPX home page.
852upx 3.96 2020-01-23 UPX(1)