LLVM-SIZE(1)

📦
version 21.1.8 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💅 LLVM-SIZE(1) — the manual, but make it make sense ✨

okay so real talk, this whole page lives under the manual name LLVM, and today's main character is llvm-size. bestie, let's get into it 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

llvm-size — prints size information. that's it, that's the vibe. it tells you how big stuff is 📏

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

llvm-size [options] [input...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

llvm-size is that girl who prints size information for binary files. it is literally intended to be a drop-in replacement for GNU's size, no cap 💅

the tool prints size information for each input you specify. if you specify no input, the program prints size information for a.out (yes, the default just happens, iconic behaviour). if "-" is specified as an input file, llvm-size reads a file from the standard input stream. and if an input is an archive, size information will be displayed for all its members — every single one, we don't skip 💖

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -A — equivalent to --format with a value of sysv.
  • --arch=<arch> — architecture(s) from Mach-O universal binaries to display information for.
  • -B — equivalent to --format with a value of berkeley.
  • --common — include ELF common symbol sizes in bss size for berkeley output format, or as a separate section entry for sysv output. if not specified, these symbols are ignored (they simply do not get an invite to the party 🙈).
  • -d — equivalent to --radix with a value of 10.
  • -l — display verbose address and offset information for segments and sections in Mach-O files in darwin format. extra detail, extra slay 🔥
  • --format=<format> — set the output format to the <format> specified. available <format> options are berkeley (the default), sysv and darwin.

Berkeley output summarises text, data and bss sizes in each file, as shown below for a typical pair of ELF files:

$ llvm-size --format=berkeley test.o test2.o
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
    182      16       5     203      cb test.elf
     82       8       1      91      5b test2.o

for Mach-O files, the output format is slightly different:

$ llvm-size --format=berkeley macho.obj macho2.obj
__TEXT  __DATA  __OBJC  others  dec     hex
4       8       0       0       12      c       macho.obj
16      32      0       0       48      30      macho2.obj

Sysv output displays size and address information for most sections, with each file being listed separately:

$ llvm-size --format=sysv test.elf test2.o
   test.elf  :
   section       size      addr
   .eh_frame       92   2097496
   .text           90   2101248
   .data           16   2105344
   .bss             5   2105360
   .comment       209         0
   Total          412

   test2.o  :
   section             size   addr
   .text                 26      0
   .data                  8      0
   .bss                   1      0
   .comment             106      0
   .note.GNU-stack        0      0
   .eh_frame             56      0
   .llvm_addrsig          2      0
   Total                199

darwin format only affects Mach-O input files. if an input of a different file format is specified, llvm-size falls back to berkeley format (she adapts, she's flexible 💁). when producing darwin format, the tool displays information about segments and sections:

$ llvm-size --format=darwin macho.obj macho2.obj
   macho.obj:
   Segment : 12
           Section (__TEXT, __text): 4
           Section (__DATA, __data): 8
           total 12
   total 12
   macho2.obj:
   Segment : 48
           Section (__TEXT, __text): 16
           Section (__DATA, __data): 32
           total 48
   total 48
  • --help, -h — display a summary of command line options. your little helper 🧚
  • -m — equivalent to --format with a value of darwin.
  • -o — equivalent to --radix with a value of 8.
  • --radix=<value> — display size information in the specified radix. permitted values are 8, 10 (the default) and 16 for octal, decimal and hexadecimal output respectively.

example:

$ llvm-size --radix=8 test.o
   text    data     bss     oct     hex filename
   0152      04      04     162      72 test.o

$ llvm-size --radix=10 test.o
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
    106       4       4     114      72 test.o

$ llvm-size --radix=16 test.o
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
   0x6a     0x4     0x4     114      72 test.o
  • --totals, -t — applies only to berkeley output format. display the totals for all listed fields, in addition to the individual file listings. the grand finale numbers 👑

example:

$ llvm-size --totals test.elf test2.o
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
    182      16       5     203      cb test.elf
     82       8       1      91      5b test2.o
    264      24       6     294     126 (TOTALS)
  • --version — display the version of the llvm-size executable.
  • -x — equivalent to --radix with a value of 16.
  • @<FILE> — read command-line options from response file <FILE>. very "here's my list, don't @ me" energy, except literally do 🍓

💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

llvm-size exits with a non-zero exit code if there is an error. otherwise, it exits with code 0. so if you get a 0, you ate. if you don't, something went wrong, and that's the whole story 😭

🙈 BUGS 🙈

to report bugs, please visit <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/labels/tools:llvm-size/>. be nice, be specific, bestie 💜

👑 Author 👑

maintained by the LLVM Team (<https://llvm.org/>). they're the main characters here, fr fr.

2003-2026, LLVM Project

and that's the whole page 🎀 — this was LLVM-SIZE(1), page 21, dated 2026-05-15, from the LLVM manual. go forth and measure things, bestie 💖✨🦋

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