STRIP(1)

NAME
strip - Discard symbols from object files.

SYNOPSIS
strip [-F bfdname |--target=bfdname]
      [-I bfdname |--input-target=bfdname]
      [-O bfdname |--output-target=bfdname]
      [-s|--strip-all]
      [-S|-g|-d|--strip-debug]
      [-K symbolname |--keep-symbol=symbolname]
      [-N symbolname |--strip-symbol=symbolname]
      [-w|--wildcard]
      [-x|--discard-all] [-X |--discard-locals]
      [-R sectionname |--remove-section=sectionname]
      [-o file] [-p|--preserve-dates]
      [--only-keep-debug]
      [-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
      [--help] [--info]
      objfile...

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
Treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname, and rewrite it in the same format. Show a summary of the options to strip and exit. Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available. Treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. Replace objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. Remove any section named sectionname from the output file. This option may be given more than once. Note that using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable. Remove all symbols. Remove debugging symbols only. Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing. Keep only symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be given more than once. 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. Put the stripped output in file, rather than replacing the existing file. When this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified. Preserve the access and modification dates of the file. 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''. Remove non-global symbols. Remove compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with L or ..) Strip a file, removing any sections that would be stripped by --strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections.

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:
    "foo" then... create a file containing the debugging info. stripped executable. 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:

    ie 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.
Show the version number for strip. Verbose output: list all object files modified. In the case of archives, strip -v lists all members of the archive.

SEE ALSO
the Info entries for binutils.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.