READELF(1)

💖 readelf(1) — GNU Development Tools 💖

okay bestie, grab a boba, we're reading ELF files together and honestly? it's giving main character energy ✨ this is the manual for readelf, straight out of the GNU Development Tools crew.

🌸 NAME 🌸

readelf — Displays information about ELF files. no cap, that's literally the whole job 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

readelf [-a|--all]
        [-h|--file-header]
        [-l|--program-headers|--segments]
        [-S|--section-headers|--sections]
        [-g|--section-groups]
        [-e|--headers]
        [-s|--syms|--symbols]
        [-n|--notes]
        [-r|--relocs]
        [-u|--unwind]
        [-d|--dynamic]
        [-V|--version-info]
        [-A|--arch-specific]
        [-D|--use-dynamic]
        [-x <number>|--hex-dump=<number>]
        [-w[liaprmfFsoR]|
         --debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges]]
        [-I|-histogram]
        [-v|--version]
        [-W|--wide]
        [-H|--help]
        elffile...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

readelf shows you the tea ☕ about one or more ELF format object files. The options you pass decide what particular information actually gets displayed. slay.

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. so many vibes, all welcome 💅

this program does a similar thing to objdump, but bestie 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. icon behaviour, honestly 👑

🎀 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 — like, you gotta actually ask for something, girlie 🙈

• -a, --all — equivalent to specifying --file-header, --program-headers, --sections, --symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes and --version-info. it's the "gimme everything" button 💖
• -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.
• -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.
• -s, --symbols, --syms — displays the entries in the symbol table section of the file, if it has one.
• -e, --headers — display all the headers in the file. equivalent to -h -l -S. three for the price of one, we love a bundle 🎁
• -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 are currently supported — so if you're on anything else, this one's lowkey not the move, bestie 😭
• -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, it they exist. (yes, the original says "it they exist", we are keeping the queen's typo verbatim, no editing 💀)
• -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 table in the file's dynamic section, rather than the one in the symbols section. plot twist 🔥
• -x <number>, --hex-dump=<number> — displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal dump. numbers stay numbers, bestie.
• -w[liaprmfFsoR], --debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges] — displays the contents of the debug sections in the file, if any are present. if one of the optional letters or words follows the switch then only data found in those specific sections will be dumped. choose your fighter 🧚
• -I, --histogram — display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the contents of the symbol tables. pretty graph moment ✨
• -v, --version — display the version number of readelf. (just the version, no ELF tea, don't get it twisted 💅)
• -W, --wide — don't break output lines to fit into 80 columns. by default readelf breaks section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF files, so that they fit into 80 columns. this option causes readelf to print each section header resp. each segment one a single line, which is far more readable on terminals wider than 80 columns. wide girl winter ❄️
• -H, --help — display the command line options understood by readelf. your lil cheat sheet 🫶

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

objdump(1), and the Info entries for binutils. go read those too, bestie, we support the whole squad 💜

👑 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''.

ok that's the whole page, every single flag accounted for, not one detail left behind, periodt 💅

and that's a wrap on the readelf manual, bestie — this whole thing came from binutils-2.15.97, dated 2005-04-20. vintage but iconic, like a thrifted jacket that somehow still eats every time 🎀 bye girlie, go read some ELF headers 💖✨