LIPO(1)

💖 LIPO(1) · lipo — create or operate on universal files 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

LIPO(1) is the General Commands Manual page for lipo, and lipo creates or operates on universal (multi-architecture) files. Bestie, this is the architecture-blending tool. 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

lipo input_file command [option...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay so, lipo creates or operates on universal (multi-architecture) files. Generally, lipo reads a single input file and writes to a single output file, although some commands and options accept multiple input files. It will only ever write to a single output file, and input files are never modified in place. No cap, that's the rule. 💅

lipo supports a number of commands for creating universal files from single-architecture files, extracting single-architecture files from universal files, and displaying architecture information. It can only perform one such command at a time, although some command flags may appear more than once. Some commands support additional options that can be used with that command. In addition, there are global options that are supported by multiple commands. Keep up, iykyk. 🦋

The arch_type arguments may be any of the supported architecture names listed in the man page arch(3). That's your vibe check for arch names. ✨

🔥 COMMANDS 🔥

• -archs — Display only the architecture names present in a single input file. Each architecture name is a single word, making this option suitable for shell scripting. Unknown architectures will be represented by "unknown" along with the numeric CPU type and CPU subtype values as a single word. 🎀
• -create — Create one universal output file from one or more input files. When input files are specified on the command-line, all of the architectures in each file will be copied into the output file, whereas when input files are included using the global -arch option, only the specified architecture will be copied from that input file. This command requires the -output option. 👑
• -detailed_info — Display a detailed list of the architecture types in the input universal file (all the information in the universal header, for each architecture in the file). It's giving full receipts. 🧾
• -extract arch_type [-extract arch_type...] — Take one universal input file and copy the arch_type from that universal file into a universal output file containing only that architecture. This command requires the -output option. 🍓
• -extract_family arch_type [-extract_family arch_type...] — Take one universal input file and copy all of the arch_types for the family that arch_type is in from that universal file into an output file containing only those architectures. The file will be thin if only one architecture is found or universal otherwise. This command requires the -output option. 🌈
• -info — Display a brief description of each input file along with the names of each architecture type in that input file. Lowkey the quick peek. 👀
• -remove arch_type [-remove arch_type ...] — Take one universal input file and remove the arch_type from that universal file, placing the result in the output file. This command requires the -output option. 💀
• -replace arch_type file_name [-replace arch_type file_name...] — Take one universal input file; in the output file, replace the arch_type contents of the input file with the contents of the specified file_name. This command requires the -output option. 🔁
• -thin arch_type — Take one input file and create a thin output file with the specified arch_type. This command requires the -output option. 🧚
• -verify_arch arch_type ... — Take one input file and verify the specified arch_types are present in the file. If so then exit with a status of 0 else exit with a status of 1. Because more than one arch_type can be verified at once, all of the input files must appear before the -verify_arch flag on the command-line. ✅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -arch arch_type input_file — Tells lipo that input_file contains the specified architecture type. The -arch arch_type specification is unnecessary if input_file is an object file, a universal file, or some other file whose architecture(s) lipo can figure out. 🫶
• -hideARM64 — When creating a universal binary including both 32-bit and 64-bit ARM files, this option will ask lipo to add the 64-bit files at the end and not include them in the count of architectures present in the file. The files must be executable files (Mach-O filetype MH_EXECUTE). This option has no effect if neither 32-bit ARM nor 64-bit ARM files are present, and no other files may be hidden in this way. This option only works with the -create, -remove, and -replace commands, and is only intended for tools and workflows testing a workaround on older systems. 🙈
• -output output_file — Commands that create new files write to the output file specified by the -output flag. This option is required for the -create, -extract, -extract_family, -remove, -replace, and -thin commands. 💾
• -segalign arch_type value — Set the segment alignment of the specified arch_type when creating a universal file containing that architecture. value is a hexadecimal number that must be an integral power of 2. This is only needed when lipo can't figure out the alignment of an input file (currently not an object file), or when it guesses at the alignment too conservatively. The default for files unknown to lipo is 0 (2^0, or an alignment of one byte), and the default alignment for archives is 4 (2^2, or 4-byte alignment). 📐

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

arch(3) — go read it, bestie. 🫶

xoxo 💖 Apple Computer, Inc. · August 31, 2018 · LIPO(1) 🎀