READELF(1)

💖 READELF(1) 💖

GNU Development Tools — okay bestie, this is the READELF(1) manual and we are going to read it together like it's a group chat at 2am 💅✨

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✨ NAME ✨

readelf — display information about ELF files 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

readelf [-a|--all]
        [-h|--file-header]
        [-l|--program-headers|--segments]
        [-S|--section-headers|--sections]
        [-g|--section-groups]
        [-t|--section-details]
        [-e|--headers]
        [-s|--syms|--symbols]
        [--dyn-syms|--lto-syms]
        [--sym-base=[0|8|10|16]]
        [--demangle=style|--no-demangle]
        [--quiet]
        [--recurse-limit|--no-recurse-limit]
        [-U method|--unicode=method]
        [-X|--extra-sym-info|--no-extra-sym-info]
        [-n|--notes]
        [-r|--relocs]
        [-u|--unwind]
        [-d|--dynamic]
        [-V|--version-info]
        [-A|--arch-specific]
        [-D|--use-dynamic]
        [-L|--lint|--enable-checks]
        [-x <number or name>|--hex-dump=<number or name>]
        [-p <number or name>|--string-dump=<number or name>]
        [-R <number or name>|--relocated-dump=<number or name>]
        [-j <number or name>|--display-section=<number or name>]
        [-z|--decompress]
        [-c|--archive-index]
        [-w[lLiaprmfFsoORtUuTgAck]|
         --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]]
        [-wK|--debug-dump=follow-links]
        [-wN|--debug-dump=no-follow-links]
        [-wD|--debug-dump=use-debuginfod]
        [-wE|--debug-dump=do-not-use-debuginfod]
        [-P|--process-links]
        [--dwarf-depth=n]
        [--dwarf-start=n]
        [--ctf=section]
        [--ctf-parent=section]
        [--ctf-symbols=section]
        [--ctf-strings=section]
        [--sframe=section]
        [-I|--histogram]
        [--got-contents]
        [-v|--version]
        [-W|--wide]
        [-T|--silent-truncation]
        [-H|--help]
        elffile...

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So readelf is literally the bestie who spills the tea on one or more ELF format object files 🫖💅. The options are the vibe check — they control exactly what particular information gets displayed.

elffile... are the object files you want examined. Both 32-bit and 64-bit ELF files are supported, and so are archives containing ELF files 💖.

This program does a similar job to objdump, but it goes into more detail and it exists independently of the BFD library. So if there's a bug in BFD, readelf will not be affected. Iconic behaviour, no cap ✨.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. At least one option besides -v or -H must be given 👑.

• -a, --all — Equivalent to specifying --file-header, --program-headers, --sections, --symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes, --got-contents, --version-info, --arch-specific, --unwind, --section-groups and --histogram.

Note — this option does not enable --use-dynamic itself, so if that option is not present on the command line then dynamic symbols and dynamic relocs will not be displayed. 💀

• -h, --file-header — Displays the information contained in the ELF header at the start of the file 🎀.
• -l, --program-headers, --segments — Displays the information contained in the file's segment headers, if it has any 🌸.
• --quiet — Suppress the "no symbols" diagnostic. Shhh bestie 🤫.
• -S, --sections, --section-headers — Displays the information contained in the file's section headers, if it has any 🦋.
• -g, --section-groups — Displays the information contained in the file's section groups, if it has any 🌈.
• -t, --section-details — Displays the detailed section information. Implies -S 💅.
• -s, --symbols, --syms — Displays the entries in symbol table section of the file, if it has one. If a symbol has version information associated with it then this is displayed as well. The version string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @ character. For example foo@VER_1. If the version is the default version to be used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it is displayed as a suffix preceded by two @ characters. For example foo@@VER_2 ✨.
• --dyn-syms — Displays the entries in dynamic symbol table section of the file, if it has one. The output format is the same as the format used by the --syms option 💖.
• --lto-syms — Displays the contents of any LTO symbol tables in the file 🔥.
• --sym-base=[0|8|10|16] — Forces the size field of the symbol table to use the given base. Any unrecognized options will be treated as 0. --sym-base=0 represents the default and legacy behaviour. This will output sizes as decimal for numbers less than 100000. For sizes 100000 and greater hexadecimal notation will be used with a 0x prefix. --sym-base=8 will give the symbol sizes in octal. --sym-base=10 will always give the symbol sizes in decimal. --sym-base=16 will always give the symbol sizes in hexadecimal with a 0x prefix 👑.
• -C, --demangle[=style] — Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. 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 🎀.
• --no-demangle — Do not demangle low-level symbol names. This is the default 💅.
• --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. Fr fr, don't come crying to the maintainers 💀.

• -U [d|i|l|e|x|h], --unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight] — Controls the display of non-ASCII characters in identifier names. The default (--unicode=locale or --unicode=default) is to treat them as multibyte characters and display them in the current locale 🌍. All other versions of this option treat the bytes as UTF-8 encoded values and attempt to interpret them. If they cannot be interpreted or if the --unicode=invalid option is used then they are displayed as a sequence of hex bytes, enclosed in curly parenthesis characters 🧚.

Using the --unicode=escape option will display the characters as unicode escape sequences (\uxxxx). Using the --unicode=hex will display the characters as hex byte sequences enclosed between angle brackets.

Using the --unicode=highlight will display the characters as unicode escape sequences but it will also highlight them in red, assuming that colouring is supported by the output device 🌈. The colouring is intended to draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences when they might not be expected. Main character energy for your terminal ✨.

• -X, --extra-sym-info — When displaying details of symbols, include extra information not normally presented. Currently this just adds the name of the section referenced by the symbol's index field, if there is one. In the future more information may be displayed when this option is enabled 👀.

Enabling this option effectively enables the --wide option as well, at least when displaying symbol information 💅.

• --no-extra-sym-info — Disables the effect of the --extra-sym-info option. This is the default 💖.
• -e, --headers — Display all the headers in the file. Equivalent to -h -l -S 🎀.
• -n, --notes — Displays the contents of the NOTE segments and/or sections, if any 📝.
• -r, --relocs — Displays the contents of the file's relocation section, if it has one 🦋.
• -u, --unwind — Displays the contents of the file's unwind section, if it has one. Only the unwind sections for IA64 ELF files, as well as ARM unwind tables (.ARM.exidx / .ARM.extab) are currently supported. If support is not yet implemented for your architecture you could try dumping the contents of the .eh_frames section using the --debug-dump=frames or --debug-dump=frames-interp options 🌸.
• -d, --dynamic — Displays the contents of the file's dynamic section, if it has one 🔥.
• -V, --version-info — Displays the contents of the version sections in the file, if they exist ✨.
• -A, --arch-specific — Displays architecture-specific information in the file, if there is any 👑.
• -D, --use-dynamic — When displaying symbols, this option makes readelf use the symbol hash tables in the file's dynamic section, rather than the symbol table sections.

When displaying relocations, this option makes readelf display the dynamic relocations rather than the static relocations 💅.

• -L, --lint, --enable-checks — Displays warning messages about possible problems with the file(s) being examined. If used on its own then all of the contents of the file(s) will be examined. If used with one of the dumping options then the warning messages will only be produced for the things being displayed 🚨.
• -x <number or name>, --hex-dump=<number or name> — Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal bytes. A number identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string identifies all sections with that name in the object file. This option can be repeated multiple times on the command line in order to request multiple hex dumps 🎀.
• -R <number or name>, --relocated-dump=<number or name> — Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal bytes. A number identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string identifies all sections with that name in the object file. The contents of the section will be relocated before they are displayed. This option can be repeated multiple times on the command line in order to request multiple relocated dumps 🦋.
• -p <number or name>, --string-dump=<number or name> — dumps the contents of the section you point at as printable strings 🧵. A number means "that section, by index in the section table"; literally any other string means "every section in the object file with that name, bestie". And yes you can repeat this one on the command line as many times as you want to request multiple string dumps, go off 💅.
• -j <number or name>, --display-section — shows the contents of the section you name, formatted according to its section header type ✨. Sections with relocations get shown like you'd passed --relocations, sections with symbols get shown like you'd passed --syms, and so on down the line.

A number = a specific section by its index in the section table. Anything else = every section with that name across the input file(s).

Repeat it as many times as you like for multiple section dumps, no cap 💖.

• -z, --decompress — asks that the section(s) being dumped by the x, R or p options get decompressed before they're displayed 🫧. If the section(s) aren't compressed, they just get shown as-is, no drama.
• -c, --archive-index — shows you the file symbol index info that lives in the header part of binary archives 📚. Does the exact same job as the t command does for ar, except it does it without the BFD library. iconic behaviour honestly.
• -w[lLiaprmfFsOoRtUuTgAckK], --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] — dumps the DWARF debug sections in the file, if there are any 🦋. Compressed debug sections get automatically decompressed (temporarily!) before being displayed. If you tack on one or more of the optional letters or words after the switch, then only those type(s) of data get dumped.

Here's the whole alphabet of what those letters and words actually mean:

• a, =abbrev — shows the contents of the .debug_abbrev section.
• A, =addr — shows the contents of the .debug_addr section.
• c, =cu_index — shows the contents of the .debug_cu_index and/or .debug_tu_index sections.
• f, =frames — shows the raw contents of a .debug_frame section.
• F, =frames-interp — shows the interpreted contents of a .debug_frame section.
• g, =gdb_index — shows the contents of the .gdb_index and/or .debug_names sections.
• i, =info — shows the contents of the .debug_info section. Heads up: the output from this one can also be limited using the --dwarf-depth and --dwarf-start options 👀.
• k, =links — shows the contents of the .gnu_debuglink, .gnu_debugaltlink and .debug_sup sections, if any of them are there. It also displays any links to separate dwarf object files (dwo) if they're specified by the DW_AT_GNU_dwo_name or DW_AT_dwo_name attributes in the .debug_info section.
• K, =follow-links — shows the contents of any selected debug sections found in linked, separate debug info file(s) 🔗. Fair warning: this can result in multiple versions of the same debug section being displayed if it exists in more than one file.

Also, when displaying DWARF attributes, if a form is found that references the separate debug info file, then the referenced contents get displayed too.

Note — on some distributions this option is enabled by default. You can turn it off with the N debug option. The default can be picked when configuring the binutils via the --enable-follow-debug-links=yes or --enable-follow-debug-links=no options. If those aren't used, the default is to enable the following of debug links.

Note — if support for the debuginfod protocol was enabled when the binutils were built, then this option will also attempt to contact any debuginfod servers mentioned in the DEBUGINFOD_URLS environment variable. That could take a minute to resolve 😭. You can disable this behaviour with the =do-not-use-debuginfod debug option.

• N, =no-follow-links — disables the following of links to separate debug info files 🚫.
• D, =use-debuginfod — enables contacting debuginfod servers when there's a need to follow debug links. This is the default behaviour, periodt.
• E, =do-not-use-debuginfod — disables contacting debuginfod servers when there's a need to follow debug links.
• l, =rawline — shows the contents of the .debug_line section in a raw format.
• L, =decodedline — shows the interpreted contents of the .debug_line section.
• m, =macro — shows the contents of the .debug_macro and/or .debug_macinfo sections.
• o, =loc — shows the contents of the .debug_loc and/or .debug_loclists sections.
• O, =str-offsets — shows the contents of the .debug_str_offsets section.
• p, =pubnames — shows the contents of the .debug_pubnames and/or .debug_gnu_pubnames sections.
• r, =aranges — shows the contents of the .debug_aranges section.
• R, =Ranges — shows the contents of the .debug_ranges and/or .debug_rnglists sections.
• s, =str — shows the contents of the .debug_str, .debug_line_str and/or .debug_str_offsets sections.
• t, =pubtype — shows the contents of the .debug_pubtypes and/or .debug_gnu_pubtypes sections.
• T, =trace_aranges — shows the contents of the .trace_aranges section.
• u, =trace_abbrev — shows the contents of the .trace_abbrev section.
• U, =trace_info — shows the contents of the .trace_info section.

Note: displaying the contents of .debug_static_funcs, .debug_static_vars and debug_weaknames sections is not currently supported. sad but true 💀

• --dwarf-depth=n — caps the dump of the .debug_info section at n children. Only useful alongside --debug-dump=info. By default it prints all the DIEs; the special value 0 for n does that same thing too.

With a non-zero n, DIEs at or deeper than n levels don't get printed. The range for n is zero-based, so count from 0 bestie 🔢.

• --dwarf-start=n — prints only DIEs starting from the DIE numbered n. Also only useful with --debug-dump=info.

If you specify it, this option suppresses printing of any header information and every DIE before the DIE numbered n. Only siblings and children of the specified DIE get printed — very main character, only its circle gets shown 👑.

You can pair this up with --dwarf-depth.

• -P, --process-links — shows the contents of non-debug sections found in separate debuginfo files that are linked to the main file 🧚. This one automatically implies the -wK option, and only sections requested by other command line options will actually be displayed.
• --ctf[=section] — displays the contents of the specified CTF section 🌈. CTF sections contain a whole bunch of subsections themselves, and all of them get displayed in order.

By default it displays the section named .ctf, which is the name emitted by ld.

• --ctf-parent=member — if the CTF section has ambiguously-defined types, it'll consist of an archive of many CTF dictionaries, all inheriting from one dictionary that holds the unambiguous types. That member is named .ctf by default, same as the section containing it, but the name can be changed using the ctf_link_set_memb_name_changer function at link time. So when you're looking at CTF archives created by a linker that used the name changer to rename the parent archive member, --ctf-parent lets you specify the name used for the parent 💫.
• --ctf-parent-section=section — this one lets you pick a completely different section for the CTF parent dictionary (the one with the unambiguous types) than for the child dictionaries (the ambiguous remainder) 😮. The linker doesn't emit ELF objects structured like this, but some third-party linkers might. It's also handy for inspecting CTF written out as multiple raw files so you can compose them with objcopy, which can put them in different ELF sections but not in different members of a single CTF dict.
• --ctf-symbols=section, --ctf-strings=section — specify the name of another section from which the CTF file can inherit strings and symbols 🔤. By default, the .symtab and its linked string table are used.

If you specify either --ctf-symbols or --ctf-strings, you must specify the other one too. no skipping, they're a package deal 💖

• --got-contents — displays the contents of the file's Global Offset Table (GOT) sections, if it has any 🗂️. For MIPS, this option is similar to --arch-specific, except it only displays the GOT related contents, and it gets ignored when --arch-specific is used.
• -I, --histogram — displays a histogram of bucket list lengths when it's displaying the contents of the symbol tables 📊.
• -v, --version — displays the version number of readelf 🎀.
• -W, --wide — don't break output lines just to squeeze them into 80 columns 🙅. By default readelf breaks section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF files so they fit into 80 columns. This option makes readelf print each section header (and each segment) on a single line, which is so much more readable on terminals wider than 80 columns. trust.
• -T, --silent-truncation — normally when readelf displays a symbol name and has to truncate it to fit an 80 column display, it appends a [...] suffix to the name. This command line option disables that behaviour, which lets 5 more characters of the name show up and restores the old readelf behaviour from before release 2.35 🕰️.
• -H, --help — displays the command-line options that readelf understands 💜.

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• @file — okay bestie, this one is SO handy. It means "read my command-line options from file instead." The options that get read just slide right in, in place of the original @file thing you typed. 💅

But listen — if file doesn't exist, or it can't be read? The option is treated literally and it is not removed. So it just... stays there as-is. No cap. 🙈

Inside the file, options are separated by whitespace. Wanna sneak a whitespace character into an option? Wrap the whole option in either single quotes or double quotes. Wanna sneak in any character (yes, even a backslash)? Just prefix the character you want with a backslash. ✨

And the plot twist: the file can itself contain more @file options, and those get processed recursively. It's giving inception. 🌀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• objdump(1) — your other bestie, go say hi 🫶
• and the Info entries for binutils 📚

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

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". 📜

fr fr, that's the whole legal tea — you can copy, share and remix this doc, just keep it under the GNU FDL v1.3-or-later, and the full license text lives in the "GNU Free Documentation License" section. Don't come for me, come for the FSF. 😌

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And that's a wrap on readelf(1), babe! 💖 This beauty ships as part of binutils-2.46.1, dated 2026-09-07. Go read some ELF headers, you absolute icon. 🧚✨