STRIP(1)

✨ STRIP(1) ✨ — GNU Development Tools 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to the strip manual, GNU Development Tools edition 💖

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🌸 NAME 🌸

strip — discard symbols and other data from object files 🧚

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

       strip [-F bfdname |--target=bfdname]
             [-I bfdname |--input-target=bfdname]
             [-O bfdname |--output-target=bfdname]
             [-s|--strip-all]
             [-S|-g|-d|--strip-debug]
             [--strip-dwo]
             [-K symbolname|--keep-symbol=symbolname]
             [-M|--merge-notes][--no-merge-notes]
             [-N symbolname |--strip-symbol=symbolname]
             [-w|--wildcard]
             [-x|--discard-all] [-X |--discard-locals]
             [-R sectionname |--remove-section=sectionname]
             [--keep-section=sectionpattern]
             [--remove-relocations=sectionpattern]
             [--strip-section-headers]
             [-o file] [-p|--preserve-dates]
             [-D|--enable-deterministic-archives]
             [-U|--disable-deterministic-archives]
             [--keep-section-symbols]
             [--keep-file-symbols]
             [--only-keep-debug]
             [--plugin name]
             [-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
             [--help] [--info]
             objfile...

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so GNU strip literally discards all the symbols from object files, and those object files are your objfile args 🫶

and bestie, that list of object files? it may include archives 👑 At least one object file must be given — you can't just run it vibing into the void, no cap. ✨

⚠️ also important: strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing modified copies under different names. it edits them in place, fr fr — it does not make you a cute little copy under a different name 😭 so know what you're doing before you point it at something precious 💀

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay bestie, this is the good part, buckle up 💖

• -F bfdname, --target=bfdname — treat the original objfile as if it were a file with the object code format bfdname, and then rewrite it in that same format. like, same-in same-out energy ✨
• --help — shows you a little summary of all the options strip takes, then dips. 🫶
• --info — gives you a whole list of every architecture and object format that's actually available to you. a menu, basically 👑
• -I bfdname, --input-target=bfdname — treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. that's the input side of the vibe check 🦋
• -O bfdname, --output-target=bfdname — replace objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. that's the output side 💅
• -R sectionname, --remove-section=sectionname — remove any section named sectionname from the output file, on top of whatever sections would've gotten removed anyway. you can pass this one more than once, no cap. but — and listen — using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable. 💀 so like, know what you're doing fr.

the wildcard character * may be given at the end of sectionname. if it is, then any section starting with sectionname gets removed. 🌈

if the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not be removed, even if an earlier use of --remove-section on the same command line would otherwise remove it. for example:

          --remove-section=.text.* --remove-section=!.text.foo

will remove all sections matching the pattern .text.*, but will not remove the section .text.foo. see, the ! is giving "not you bestie" 😌

• --keep-section=sectionpattern — when removing sections from the output file, keep the sections that match sectionpattern. 🎀
• --remove-relocations=sectionpattern — remove relocations from the output file for any section matching sectionpattern. this option may be given more than once. and ngl, using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable. ⚠️ wildcard characters are accepted in sectionpattern. for example:

          --remove-relocations=.text.*

will remove the relocations for all sections matching the patter .text.*. ✨

if the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not have their relocation removed even if an earlier use of --remove-relocations on the same command line would otherwise cause the relocations to be removed. for example:

          --remove-relocations=.text.* --remove-relocations=!.text.foo

will remove all relocations for sections matching the pattern .text.*, but will not remove relocations for the section .text.foo. 🦋

• --strip-section-headers — strips section headers. this one is specific to ELF files only, so like, ELF girlies only 💅. it implies --strip-all and --merge-notes. 📎
• -s, --strip-all — remove all symbols. all of them. gone. ✂️
• -g, -S, -d, --strip-debug — remove debugging symbols only. just the debug ones, we're being surgical 🩺
• --strip-dwo — remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining debugging sections and all symbols intact. see the description of this option in the objcopy section for more info (iykyk). 🔥
• --strip-unneeded — remove all symbols that aren't needed for relocation processing, on top of the debugging symbols and sections that --strip-debug already strips. two-for-one 💖
• -K symbolname, --keep-symbol=symbolname — when stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally get stripped. this option may be given more than once. protect the babies 🥺
• -M, --merge-notes, --no-merge-notes — for ELF files, attempt (or do not attempt) to reduce the size of any SHT_NOTE type sections by removing duplicate notes. the default is to attempt this reduction unless stripping debug or DWO information. so like, it's on by default, but not always 🤔
• -N symbolname, --strip-symbol=symbolname — 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. (so -K and -N are not a ship, they're exes 😭)
• -o file — put the stripped output in file, rather than replacing the existing file. when this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified. one in, one out 🎀
• -p, --preserve-dates — preserve the access and modification dates of the file. time is a construct, but we're respecting it anyway 🕰️
• -D, --enable-deterministic-archives — operate in deterministic mode. when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file modes for all files. so everything's uniform, slay ✨

if binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default. it can be disabled with the -U option, below. 👇

• -U, --disable-deterministic-archives — do not operate in deterministic mode. this is the inverse of the -D option, above: when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use their actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values. real values, real ones only 💅

this is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives. so like, it flips depending on how your binutils was built, keep up 🦋

• -w, --wildcard — 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. iconic behavior honestly 😌

• -x, --discard-all — remove non-global symbols. bye bestie 👋
• -X, --discard-locals — remove compiler-generated local symbols. (these usually start with L or .) 🔍
• --keep-section-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped. 🫶
• --keep-file-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get stripped. 💖
• --only-keep-debug — strip a file, emptying the contents of any sections that would not be stripped by --strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections intact. in ELF files, this preserves all the note sections in the output as well. 🧚

note — the section headers of the stripped sections are preserved, including their sizes, but the contents of the section are discarded. the section headers are preserved so that other tools can match up the debuginfo file with the real executable, even if that executable has been relocated to a different address space. it's giving "keep the label, lose the contents" 🏷️

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:

1. link the executable as normal. assuming that it is called foo then...
2. run objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg to create a file containing the debugging info.
3. run strip --strip-debug foo to create a stripped executable.
4. run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo 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:

1. link the executable as normal.
2. copy foo to foo.full.
3. run strip --strip-debug foo.
4. run objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.full foo.

i.e., 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. 🙈

note — this switch is only intended for use on fully linked files. it does not make sense to use it on object files where the debugging information may be incomplete. besides, the gnu_debuglink feature currently only supports the presence of one filename containing debugging information, not multiple filenames on a one-per-object-file basis. 🚫

• --plugin name — load the plugin called name to add support for extra target types. this option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled. 🔌

if --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled, then strip iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used. alphabetical, because we're organized 💅

please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option. in order to make strip use the linker plugin it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. for GCC based compilations the linker plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. for Clang based compilations it is called LLVMgold.so. the GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one. so like, newest one wins, no stress ✨

• -V, --version — show the version number for strip. 📢
• -v, --verbose — verbose output: list all object files modified. in the case of archives, strip -v lists all members of the archive. it's giving receipts 🧾
• @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. so it just sits there like 👁️👄👁️

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. 🌀

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

the Info entries for binutils. (go read them, bestie, they're right there 📚)

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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".

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and that's the whole page bestie, we did it 🎉 this little masterpiece is binutils-2.46.1, dated 2026-09-07, and it lives at STRIP(1). go strip something (responsibly, pls, remember the warnings 😭) 💅✨