strip

- strip symbol table, debugging and line number information from an object file

Synopsis

strip [-lVx] file...

Description

The strip command removes the symbol table SHT_SYMTAB and its associated string table, debugging information, and line number information from ELF object files. That is, besides the symbol table and associated string table, the following sections are removed:

.line
.debug*
.stab*

Once this stripping process has been done, limited symbolic debugging access is available for that file. Therefore, this command is normally run only on production modules that have been debugged and tested.

If strip is executed on a common archive file (see ar.h(3HEAD)) in addition to processing the members, strip removes the archive symbol table. The archive symbol table must be restored by executing the ar(1) command with the -s option before the archive can be linked by the ld(1) command. strip produces appropriate warning messages when this situation arises.

strip is used to reduce the file storage overhead taken by the object file.

Options

The amount of information stripped from the ELF object file can be controlled by using any of the following options. The following options are supported:

-l

Strip line number information only.Does not strip the symbol table or debugging information.

-V

Prints, on standard error, the version number of strip.

-x

Does not strip the symbol table. Debugging and line number information might be stripped.

Operands

The following operand is supported:

file

A path name referring to an executable file.

Environment Variables

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of strip: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

Files

/tmp/strp*

Temporary files

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

ar(1), as(1), ld(1), mcs(1), elf(3ELF), tmpnam(3C), a.out(4), ar.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

Notes

The symbol table section is not removed if it is contained within a segment or if the file is a relocatable object.

The line number and debugging sections are not removed if they are contained within a segment or if their associated relocation section is contained within a segment.

The strip command is used to remove a standard predefined set of sections from an ELF object file. To remove a user specified section by name, see mcs(1).