C++FILT(1)

✨ NAME ✨

okay bestie, gather round — this one's c++filt, and it's here to demangle C++ and Java symbols. that's the whole vibe. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

c++filt [-_|--strip-underscores]
        [-j|--java]
        [-n|--no-strip-underscores]
        [-p|--no-params]
        [-s format|--format=format]
        [--help]  [--version]  [symbol...]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so here's the tea, bestie ☕ — C++ and Java both do function overloading, which is a fancy way of saying you can write a million functions with the same name as long as each one takes parameters of different types. cute, right? but there's a catch.

every C++ and Java function name gets encoded into a low-level assembly label. that process? it's called mangling. 😭 iconic but unreadable.

and c++filt does the inverse mapping: it decodes (aka demangles) those low-level names back into user-level names, so the linker can keep all your overloaded functions from clashing into each other. it's giving main character energy honestly. ✨

every alphanumeric word you see in the input — and by alphanumeric we mean letters, digits, underscores, dollars, or periods — is a potential label. if that label decodes into a C++ name, the C++ name replaces the low-level name in the output. slay. 💅

you can use c++filt to decipher individual symbols like this:

c++filt <symbol>

and if you don't give it any symbol arguments at all? no problem, bestie. c++filt just reads symbol names from the standard input and writes the demangled names to the standard output. all results get printed on the standard output. periodt. 🌸

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -_, --strip-underscores — okay so on some systems, both the C and the C++ compilers slap an underscore in front of every single name. like, the C name "foo" becomes the low-level name "_foo". rude. this option removes that initial underscore. and whether c++filt removes the underscore by default? that's target dependent, so don't @ me. 🙈
• -j, --java — prints demangled names using Java syntax. the default is to use C++ syntax. pick your fighter. 💜
• -n, --no-strip-underscores — do not remove the initial underscore. that's it, that's the option.
• -p, --no-params — when demangling the name of a function, don't display the types of the function's parameters. minimalist queen. 👑
• -s format, --format=format — c++filt can decode various methods of mangling, used by different compilers, and the argument to this option picks which method it uses:
  • "auto" — automatic selection based on executable (this is the default method)
  • "gnu" — the one used by the GNU C++ compiler (g++)
  • "lucid" — the one used by the Lucid compiler (lcc)
  • "arm" — the one specified by the C++ Annotated Reference Manual
  • "hp" — the one used by the HP compiler (aCC)
  • "edg" — the one used by the EDG compiler
  • "gnu-v3" — the one used by the GNU C++ compiler (g++) with the V3 ABI.
  • "java" — the one used by the GNU Java compiler (gcj)
  • "gnat" — the one used by the GNU Ada compiler (GNAT).
• --help — prints a summary of the options to c++filt and exits. bye bestie 🫶
• --version — prints the version number of c++filt and exits. ✨

🍓 FOOTNOTES 🍓

1. MS-DOS does not allow "+" characters in file names, so on MS-DOS this program is named CXXFILT. no plus signs allowed, we don't make the rules. 😭

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• the Info entries for binutils.

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 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 1.1 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 🥹 this was binutils-2.15.97, dated 2005-04-20, and yeah — the manual it lives in is literally called C++FILT(1). mwah. 💖💅✨