1READELF(1) GNU Development Tools READELF(1)
2
6 readelf - display information about ELF files
7
9 readelf [-a|--all]
10 [-h|--file-header]
11 [-l|--program-headers|--segments]
12 [-S|--section-headers|--sections]
13 [-g|--section-groups]
14 [-t|--section-details]
15 [-e|--headers]
16 [-s|--syms|--symbols]
17 [--dyn-syms|--lto-syms]
18 [--sym-base=[0|8|10|16]]
19 [--demangle=style|--no-demangle]
20 [--quiet]
21 [--recurse-limit|--no-recurse-limit]
22 [-U method|--unicode=method]
23 [-n|--notes]
24 [-r|--relocs]
25 [-u|--unwind]
26 [-d|--dynamic]
27 [-V|--version-info]
28 [-A|--arch-specific]
29 [-D|--use-dynamic]
30 [-L|--lint|--enable-checks]
31 [-x <number or name>|--hex-dump=<number or name>]
32 [-p <number or name>|--string-dump=<number or name>]
33 [-R <number or name>|--relocated-dump=<number or name>]
34 [-z|--decompress]
35 [-c|--archive-index]
36 [-w[lLiaprmfFsoORtUuTgAck]|
37 --debug-dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr,=cu_index,=links]]
38 [-wK|--debug-dump=follow-links]
39 [-wN|--debug-dump=no-follow-links]
40 [-P|--process-links]
41 [--dwarf-depth=n]
42 [--dwarf-start=n]
43 [--ctf=section]
44 [--ctf-parent=section]
45 [--ctf-symbols=section]
46 [--ctf-strings=section]
47 [-I|--histogram]
48 [-v|--version]
49 [-W|--wide]
50 [-T|--silent-truncation]
51 [-H|--help]
52 elffile...
53
55 readelf displays information about one or more ELF format object files.
56 The options control what particular information to display.
57 elffile... are the object files to be examined. 32-bit and 64-bit ELF
59 files are supported, as are archives containing ELF files.
60 This program performs a similar function to objdump but it goes into
62 more detail and it exists independently of the BFD library, so if there
63 is a bug in BFD then readelf will not be affected.
64
66 The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are
67 equivalent. At least one option besides -v or -H must be given.
68 -a
70 --all
71 Equivalent to specifying --file-header, --program-headers,
72 --sections, --symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes,
73 --version-info, --arch-specific, --unwind, --section-groups and
74 --histogram.
75 Note - this option does not enable --use-dynamic itself, so if that
77 option is not present on the command line then dynamic symbols and
78 dynamic relocs will not be displayed.
79 -h
81 --file-header
82 Displays the information contained in the ELF header at the start
83 of the file.
84 -l
86 --program-headers
87 --segments
88 Displays the information contained in the file's segment headers,
89 if it has any.
90 --quiet
92 Suppress "no symbols" diagnostic.
93 -S
95 --sections
96 --section-headers
97 Displays the information contained in the file's section headers,
98 if it has any.
99 -g
101 --section-groups
102 Displays the information contained in the file's section groups, if
103 it has any.
104 -t
106 --section-details
107 Displays the detailed section information. Implies -S.
108 -s
110 --symbols
111 --syms
112 Displays the entries in symbol table section of the file, if it has
113 one. If a symbol has version information associated with it then
114 this is displayed as well. The version string is displayed as a
115 suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @ character. For example
116 foo@VER_1. If the version is the default version to be used when
117 resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it is displayed
118 as a suffix preceded by two @ characters. For example foo@@VER_2.
119 --dyn-syms
121 Displays the entries in dynamic symbol table section of the file,
122 if it has one. The output format is the same as the format used by
123 the --syms option.
124 --lto-syms
126 Displays the contents of any LTO symbol tables in the file.
127 --sym-base=[0|8|10|16]
129 Forces the size field of the symbol table to use the given base.
130 Any unrecognized options will be treated as 0. --sym-base=0
131 represents the default and legacy behaviour. This will output
132 sizes as decimal for numbers less than 100000. For sizes 100000
133 and greater hexadecimal notation will be used with a 0x prefix.
134 --sym-base=8 will give the symbol sizes in octal. --sym-base=10
135 will always give the symbol sizes in decimal. --sym-base=16 will
136 always give the symbol sizes in hexadecimal with a 0x prefix.
137 -C
139 --demangle[=style]
140 Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names.
141 This makes C++ function names readable. Different compilers have
142 different mangling styles. The optional demangling style argument
143 can be used to choose an appropriate demangling style for your
144 compiler.
145 --no-demangle
147 Do not demangle low-level symbol names. This is the default.
148 --recurse-limit
150 --no-recurse-limit
151 --recursion-limit
152 --no-recursion-limit
153 Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed
154 whilst demangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow
155 for an infinite level of recursion it is possible to create strings
156 whose decoding will exhaust the amount of stack space available on
157 the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The limit tries to
158 prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels
159 of nesting.
160 The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may
162 be necessary in order to demangle truly complicated names. Note
163 however that if the recursion limit is disabled then stack
164 exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about such an event will
165 be rejected.
166 -U [d|i|l|e|x|h]
168 --unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight]
169 Controls the display of non-ASCII characters in identifier names.
170 The default (--unicode=locale or --unicode=default) is to treat
171 them as multibyte characters and display them in the current
172 locale. All other versions of this option treat the bytes as UTF-8
173 encoded values and attempt to interpret them. If they cannot be
174 interpreted or if the --unicode=invalid option is used then they
175 are displayed as a sequence of hex bytes, encloses in curly
176 parethesis characters.
177 Using the --unicode=escape option will display the characters as as
179 unicode escape sequences (\uxxxx). Using the --unicode=hex will
180 display the characters as hex byte sequences enclosed between angle
181 brackets.
182 Using the --unicode=highlight will display the characters as
184 unicode escape sequences but it will also highlighted them in red,
185 assuming that colouring is supported by the output device. The
186 colouring is intended to draw attention to the presence of unicode
187 sequences when they might not be expected.
188 -e
190 --headers
191 Display all the headers in the file. Equivalent to -h -l -S.
192 -n
194 --notes
195 Displays the contents of the NOTE segments and/or sections, if any.
196 -r
198 --relocs
199 Displays the contents of the file's relocation section, if it has
200 one.
201 -u
203 --unwind
204 Displays the contents of the file's unwind section, if it has one.
205 Only the unwind sections for IA64 ELF files, as well as ARM unwind
206 tables (".ARM.exidx" / ".ARM.extab") are currently supported. If
207 support is not yet implemented for your architecture you could try
208 dumping the contents of the .eh_frames section using the
209 --debug-dump=frames or --debug-dump=frames-interp options.
210 -d
212 --dynamic
213 Displays the contents of the file's dynamic section, if it has one.
214 -V
216 --version-info
217 Displays the contents of the version sections in the file, it they
218 exist.
219 -A
221 --arch-specific
222 Displays architecture-specific information in the file, if there is
223 any.
224 -D
226 --use-dynamic
227 When displaying symbols, this option makes readelf use the symbol
228 hash tables in the file's dynamic section, rather than the symbol
229 table sections.
230 When displaying relocations, this option makes readelf display the
232 dynamic relocations rather than the static relocations.
233 -L
235 --lint
236 --enable-checks
237 Displays warning messages about possible problems with the file(s)
238 being examined. If used on its own then all of the contents of the
239 file(s) will be examined. If used with one of the dumping options
240 then the warning messages will only be produced for the things
241 being displayed.
242 -x <number or name>
244 --hex-dump=<number or name>
245 Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal
246 bytes. A number identifies a particular section by index in the
247 section table; any other string identifies all sections with that
248 name in the object file.
249 -R <number or name>
251 --relocated-dump=<number or name>
252 Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal
253 bytes. A number identifies a particular section by index in the
254 section table; any other string identifies all sections with that
255 name in the object file. The contents of the section will be
256 relocated before they are displayed.
257 -p <number or name>
259 --string-dump=<number or name>
260 Displays the contents of the indicated section as printable
261 strings. A number identifies a particular section by index in the
262 section table; any other string identifies all sections with that
263 name in the object file.
264 -z
266 --decompress
267 Requests that the section(s) being dumped by x, R or p options are
268 decompressed before being displayed. If the section(s) are not
269 compressed then they are displayed as is.
270 -c
272 --archive-index
273 Displays the file symbol index information contained in the header
274 part of binary archives. Performs the same function as the t
275 command to ar, but without using the BFD library.
276 -w[lLiaprmfFsOoRtUuTgAckK]
278 --debug-dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=str-offsets,=loc,=Ranges,=pubtypes,=trace_info,=trace_abbrev,=trace_aranges,=gdb_index,=addr,=cu_index,=links,=follow-links]
279 Displays the contents of the DWARF debug sections in the file, if
280 any are present. Compressed debug sections are automatically
281 decompressed (temporarily) before they are displayed. If one or
282 more of the optional letters or words follows the switch then only
283 those type(s) of data will be dumped. The letters and words refer
284 to the following information:
285 "a"
287 "=abbrev"
288 Displays the contents of the .debug_abbrev section.
289 "A"
291 "=addr"
292 Displays the contents of the .debug_addr section.
293 "c"
295 "=cu_index"
296 Displays the contents of the .debug_cu_index and/or
297 .debug_tu_index sections.
298 "f"
300 "=frames"
301 Display the raw contents of a .debug_frame section.
302 "F"
304 "=frames-interp"
305 Display the interpreted contents of a .debug_frame section.
306 "g"
308 "=gdb_index"
309 Displays the contents of the .gdb_index and/or .debug_names
310 sections.
311 "i"
313 "=info"
314 Displays the contents of the .debug_info section. Note: the
315 output from this option can also be restricted by the use of
316 the --dwarf-depth and --dwarf-start options.
317 "k"
319 "=links"
320 Displays the contents of the .gnu_debuglink, .gnu_debugaltlink
321 and .debug_sup sections, if any of them are present. Also
322 displays any links to separate dwarf object files (dwo), if
323 they are specified by the DW_AT_GNU_dwo_name or DW_AT_dwo_name
324 attributes in the .debug_info section.
325 "K"
327 "=follow-links"
328 Display the contents of any selected debug sections that are
329 found in linked, separate debug info file(s). This can result
330 in multiple versions of the same debug section being displayed
331 if it exists in more than one file.
332 In addition, when displaying DWARF attributes, if a form is
334 found that references the separate debug info file, then the
335 referenced contents will also be displayed.
336 Note - in some distributions this option is enabled by default.
338 It can be disabled via the N debug option. The default can be
339 chosen when configuring the binutils via the
340 --enable-follow-debug-links=yes or
341 --enable-follow-debug-links=no options. If these are not used
342 then the default is to enable the following of debug links.
343 "N"
345 "=no-follow-links"
346 Disables the following of links to separate debug info files.
347 "l"
349 "=rawline"
350 Displays the contents of the .debug_line section in a raw
351 format.
352 "L"
354 "=decodedline"
355 Displays the interpreted contents of the .debug_line section.
356 "m"
358 "=macro"
359 Displays the contents of the .debug_macro and/or .debug_macinfo
360 sections.
361 "o"
363 "=loc"
364 Displays the contents of the .debug_loc and/or .debug_loclists
365 sections.
366 "O"
368 "=str-offsets"
369 Displays the contents of the .debug_str_offsets section.
370 "p"
372 "=pubnames"
373 Displays the contents of the .debug_pubnames and/or
374 .debug_gnu_pubnames sections.
375 "r"
377 "=aranges"
378 Displays the contents of the .debug_aranges section.
379 "R"
381 "=Ranges"
382 Displays the contents of the .debug_ranges and/or
383 .debug_rnglists sections.
384 "s"
386 "=str"
387 Displays the contents of the .debug_str, .debug_line_str and/or
388 .debug_str_offsets sections.
389 "t"
391 "=pubtype"
392 Displays the contents of the .debug_pubtypes and/or
393 .debug_gnu_pubtypes sections.
394 "T"
396 "=trace_aranges"
397 Displays the contents of the .trace_aranges section.
398 "u"
400 "=trace_abbrev"
401 Displays the contents of the .trace_abbrev section.
402 "U"
404 "=trace_info"
405 Displays the contents of the .trace_info section.
406 Note: displaying the contents of .debug_static_funcs,
408 .debug_static_vars and debug_weaknames sections is not currently
409 supported.
410 --dwarf-depth=n
412 Limit the dump of the ".debug_info" section to n children. This is
413 only useful with --debug-dump=info. The default is to print all
414 DIEs; the special value 0 for n will also have this effect.
415 With a non-zero value for n, DIEs at or deeper than n levels will
417 not be printed. The range for n is zero-based.
418 --dwarf-start=n
420 Print only DIEs beginning with the DIE numbered n. This is only
421 useful with --debug-dump=info.
422 If specified, this option will suppress printing of any header
424 information and all DIEs before the DIE numbered n. Only siblings
425 and children of the specified DIE will be printed.
426 This can be used in conjunction with --dwarf-depth.
428 -P
430 --process-links
431 Display the contents of non-debug sections found in separate
432 debuginfo files that are linked to the main file. This option
433 automatically implies the -wK option, and only sections requested
434 by other command line options will be displayed.
435 --ctf[=section]
437 Display the contents of the specified CTF section. CTF sections
438 themselves contain many subsections, all of which are displayed in
439 order.
440 By default, display the name of the section named .ctf, which is
442 the name emitted by ld.
443 --ctf-parent=member
445 If the CTF section contains ambiguously-defined types, it will
446 consist of an archive of many CTF dictionaries, all inheriting from
447 one dictionary containing unambiguous types. This member is by
448 default named .ctf, like the section containing it, but it is
449 possible to change this name using the
450 "ctf_link_set_memb_name_changer" function at link time. When
451 looking at CTF archives that have been created by a linker that
452 uses the name changer to rename the parent archive member,
453 --ctf-parent can be used to specify the name used for the parent.
454 --ctf-symbols=section
456 --ctf-strings=section
457 Specify the name of another section from which the CTF file can
458 inherit strings and symbols. By default, the ".symtab" and its
459 linked string table are used.
460 If either of --ctf-symbols or --ctf-strings is specified, the other
462 must be specified as well.
463 -I
465 --histogram
466 Display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the
467 contents of the symbol tables.
468 -v
470 --version
471 Display the version number of readelf.
472 -W
474 --wide
475 Don't break output lines to fit into 80 columns. By default readelf
476 breaks section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF
477 files, so that they fit into 80 columns. This option causes readelf
478 to print each section header resp. each segment one a single line,
479 which is far more readable on terminals wider than 80 columns.
480 -T
482 --silent-truncation
483 Normally when readelf is displaying a symbol name, and it has to
484 truncate the name to fit into an 80 column display, it will add a
485 suffix of "[...]" to the name. This command line option disables
486 this behaviour, allowing 5 more characters of the name to be
487 displayed and restoring the old behaviour of readelf (prior to
488 release 2.35).
489 -H
491 --help
492 Display the command-line options understood by readelf.
493 @file
495 Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
496 in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or
497 cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
498 removed.
499 Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace
501 character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
502 option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including
503 a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
504 included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
505 @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
506
508 objdump(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
509
511 Copyright (c) 1991-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
512 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
514 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
515 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
516 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
517 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
518 Free Documentation License".
519binutils-2.38 2022-07-20 READELF(1)