ADDR2LINE(1)

📦
version 2.47 · 15 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 ADDR2LINE(1) 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because this is the little translator that turns cursed hex numbers into "oh THAT line of THAT file". It ships with GNU Development Tools and it's genuinely iconic — no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

addr2line — convert addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

addr2line [-a|--addresses]
          [-b bfdname|--target=bfdname]
          [-C|--demangle[=style]]
          [-r|--no-recurse-limit]
          [-R|--recurse-limit]
          [-e filename|--exe=filename]
          [-f|--functions] [-s|--basename]
          [-i|--inlines]
          [-p|--pretty-print]
          [-j|--section=name]
          [-H|--help] [-V|--version]
          [addr addr ...]

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

So here's the tea: addr2line translates addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers. You hand it an address or a symbol+offset inside an executable, or an offset inside a section of a relocatable object, and it digs through the debugging information to figure out which file name and line number go with it. it's giving detective. 🔍

The executable or relocatable object you want it to look at is set with the -e option. If you don't say anything, it defaults to the file a.out. And the section inside a relocatable object that it should use? That's the -j option's whole job. 💅

addr2line has two modes of operation.

  1. In the first one, you pass hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset right there on the command line, and addr2line shows you the file name and line number for each address.
  2. In the second one, addr2line reads hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset from standard input and prints the file name and line number for each address to standard output. In this mode you can drop it in a pipe to convert dynamically chosen addresses. pipeline queen 🫶

The format of the output is FILENAME:LINENO. By default each input address generates one line of output.

Two options can generate additional lines before each FILENAME:LINENO line (in that order).

  • If the -a option is used then a line with the input address is displayed.
  • If the -f option is used, then a line with the FUNCTIONNAME is displayed. This is the name of the function containing the address.

One option can generate additional lines after the FILENAME:LINENO line.

  • If the -i option is used and the code at the given address is present there because of inlining by the compiler then additional lines are displayed afterwards. One or two extra lines (if the -f option is used) are displayed for each inlined function.

Alternatively, if the -p option is used then each input address generates a single, long, output line containing the address, the function name, the file name and the line number. If the -i option has also been used then any inlined functions will be displayed in the same manner, but on separate lines, and prefixed by the text (inlined by).

If the file name or function name can not be determined, addr2line will print two question marks in their place. If the line number can not be determined, addr2line will print 0. 💀 not the mystery ??

When symbol+offset is used, +offset is optional, except when the symbol is ambigious with a hex number. The resolved symbols can be mangled or unmangled, except unmangled symbols with + are not allowed. (yes that's how it's spelled in the original, i'm just the messenger 🙈)

💅 OPTIONS 💅

The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. pick your fighter ✨

  • -a, --addresses — Display the address before the function name, file and line number information. The address is printed with a 0x prefix so you can spot it instantly.
  • -b bfdname, --target=bfdname — Specify that the object-code format for the object files is bfdname.
  • -C, --demangle[=style] — Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. On top of removing any initial underscore prepended by the system, this makes C++ function names readable. Different compilers have different mangling styles. The optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an appropriate demangling style for your compiler.
  • -e filename, --exe=filename — Specify the name of the executable for which addresses should be translated. The default file is a.out.
  • -f, --functions — Display function names as well as file and line number information.
  • -s, --basenames — Display only the base of each file name.
  • -i, --inlines — If the address belongs to a function that was inlined, the source information for all enclosing scopes back to the first non-inlined function will also be printed. For example, if main inlines callee1 which inlines callee2, and address is from callee2, the source information for callee1 and main will also be printed. nesting dolls but make it debug info 🎀
  • -j, --section — Read offsets relative to the specified section instead of absolute addresses.
  • -p, --pretty-print — Make the output more human friendly: each location are printed on one line. If option -i is specified, lines for all enclosing scopes are prefixed with (inlined by).
  • -r, -R, --recurse-limit, --no-recurse-limit, --recursion-limit, --no-recursion-limit — Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst demangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of recursion it is possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels of nesting.

The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible and any bug reports about such an event will be rejected. 🚨

The -r option is a synonym for the --no-recurse-limit option. The -R option is a synonym for the --recurse-limit option.

Note this option is only effective if the -C or --demangle option has been enabled.

  • @file — Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.

Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively. 🔁

bestie reminder: the recursion limit thing only does anything if you've already turned on -C / --demangle. otherwise it's just standing there, pretty, doing nothing. 💜

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • Info entries for binutils.

Copyright (c) 1991-2026 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 1.3 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".

and that's the whole page, bestie — no notes, no skips, every flag accounted for 💖 this was binutils-2.47 (dated 2026-09-05), and honestly? she ate. periodt. 👑✨🦋

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