DSYMUTIL(1)

💖 DSYMUTIL(1) — like, the whole manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is the dsymutil(1) page from the LLVM manual, and I'm gonna walk you through it like we're on facetime and I'm explaining it between sips of iced matcha. it's giving "niche but iconic" — dSYM files are literally the whole personality here. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

dsymutil — manipulate archived DWARF debug symbol files. that's the whole vibe. it fiddles with your .dSYMs and we're obsessed.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dsymutil [options] executable

yep, that's it. options first, executable last, no cap.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea, bestie: dsymutil links up all the DWARF debug info it can find in the object files for an executable — we're talking about executable here — and it does that by peeking at the debug symbol info chillin' in its symbol table. 🫶

by default the linked debug info gets dropped into a .dSYM bundle with the same name as the executable. cute, predictable, slay. ✨

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --accelerator=<accelerator type> — tell it which flavor of accelerator table you want. the valid options are 'Apple', 'Dwarf', 'Default' and 'None'. pick your fighter. 🌈
• --arch <arch> — only link DWARF debug info for the CPU architecture types you name. architectures can be specified by name. lowkey important: when you use this option, an error gets returned if any architectures can't be properly linked. 🔥 you can stack this option multiple times — once for each desired architecture. by default all CPU architectures get linked, and any architecture that can't be properly linked will make dsymutil return an error. so like, no silent failures, we love boundaries.
• --build-variant-suffix <suffix=buildvariant> — specify the build variant suffix used to build the executable file. there can be multiple variants for the binary of a product, each built slightly differently. the most common build variants are 'debug' and 'profile'. setting the DYLD_IMAGE_SUFFIX environment variable will cause dyld to load the specified variant at runtime. iykyk. 🧚
• --dump-debug-map — dump the executable's debug-map (that's the list of the object files containing the debug information) in YAML format and exit. no DWARF link will take place. like, it just looks and leaves. 💀
  • -D <path> — specify a directory that contain dSYM files to search for. this is used for mergeable libraries, so dsymutil knows where to look for dSYM files with debug information about symbols present in those libraries. 🍓
• --fat64 — use a 64-bit header when emitting universal binaries. big header energy.
• --flat, -f — produce a flat dSYM file. a .dwarf extension will be appended to the executable name unless the output file is specified using the -o option. ✨
• --gen-reproducer — generate a reproducer consisting of the input object files. this is an alias for --reproducer=GenerateOnExit. 🎀
• --help, -h — print this help output. the classic.
• --keep-function-for-static — make a static variable keep the enclosing function even if it would have been omitted otherwise. protective gf behavior, honestly. 🫶
• --minimize, -z — when used when creating a dSYM file, this option will suppress the emission of the .debug_inlines, .debug_pubnames, and .debug_pubtypes sections, since dsymutil currently has better equivalents: .apple_names and .apple_types. when used in conjunction with the --update option, this option will cause redundant accelerator tables to be removed. it's giving spring cleaning. 🧹
• --no-odr — do not use ODR (One Definition Rule) for uniquing C++ types. that rule? we're ignoring it. 🙈
• --no-output — do the link in memory, but do not emit the result file. all the effort, none of the paperwork. 💀
• --no-swiftmodule-timestamp — don't check the timestamp for swiftmodule files. time is a construct anyway.
• --num-threads <threads>, -j <threads> — specifies the maximum number (n) of simultaneous threads to use when linking multiple architectures. multitasking icon behavior. 👑
• --object-prefix-map <prefix=remapped> — remap object file paths (but no source paths) before processing. use this for Clang objects where the module cache location was remapped using -fdebug-prefix-map; it helps dsymutil find the Clang module cache. 🦋
• --oso-prepend-path <path> — specifies a path to prepend to all debug symbol object file paths. ✨
• --out <filename>, -o <filename> — specifies an alternate path to place the dSYM bundle. the default dSYM bundle path is created by appending .dSYM to the executable name. 🌸
• -q, --quiet — enable quiet mode and limit output. shhh, we're being mysterious. 🤫
• --remarks-drop-without-debug — drop remarks without valid debug locations. without this flags, all remarks are kept. (yes, the original says "flags". we keep the lore.) 🔥
• --remarks-output-format <format> — specify the format to be used when serializing the linked remarks.
• --remarks-prepend-path <path> — specify a directory to prepend the paths of the external remark files. 🎀
• --reproducer <mode> — specify the reproducer generation mode. valid options are 'GenerateOnExit', 'GenerateOnCrash', 'Use', 'Off'. pick your mode, bestie. 💅
• --statistics — print statistics about the contribution of each object file to the linked debug info. this prints a table after linking with the object file name, the size of the debug info in the object file (in bytes) and the size contributed (in bytes) to the linked dSYM. the table is sorted by the output size, listing the object files with the largest contribution first. leaderboard moment fr fr. 🏆
• -s, --symtab — dumps the symbol table found in executable or object file(s) and exits. peek at the receipts and dip. ⭐
• -S — output textual assembly instead of a binary dSYM companion file. ✨
• --toolchain <toolchain> — embed the toolchain in the dSYM bundle's property list. 🎀
• -u, --update — update an existing dSYM file to contain the latest accelerator tables and other DWARF optimizations. this option will rebuild the .apple_names and .apple_types hashed accelerator tables. glow-up for your dSYM. 👑
• --use-reproducer <path> — use the object files from the given reproducer path. alias for --reproducer=Use. 🫶
• --verbose — display verbose information when linking. she's telling you everything. 😭
• --verify — run the DWARF verifier on the linked DWARF debug info. vibe check, but for debug info. ✅
• -v, --version — display the version of the tool. 🌈
• -y — treat executable as a YAML debug-map rather than an executable. plot twist. 💀

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🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

dsymutil returns 0 if the DWARF debug information was linked successfully. otherwise, it returns 1. that's the whole mood ring: 0 = slay, 1 = not slay. 🫶

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• llvm-dwarfdump(1) — go read that one too, bestie, it's the sibling.

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

maintained by the LLVM Team (https://llvm.org/). literal icons. 👑

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

2003-2025, LLVM Project 💖

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and that's the page, bestie!! 🌸 this whole thing was LLVM, page DSYMUTIL(1), dated 2025-01-17, and the footer says 19 — which, sure, a number, we love her. now go link some DWARF and text me when you're done 🦋✨💅