ADDR2LINE(1)

📦 version 2.47, in arch rolling

💅 ADDR2LINE(1) — ok bestie, this is the addr2line page from the GNU Development Tools crew

No cap, this little icon turns addresses into actual human-readable locations. Let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

addr2line — converts addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

addr2line [-a|--addresses]
          [-b bfdname|--target=bfdname]
          [-C|--demangle[=style]]
          [-r|--no-recurse-limit]
          [-R|--recurse-limit]
          [-e filename|--exe=filename]
          [-f|--functions] [-s|--basename]
          [-i|--inlines]
          [-p|--pretty-print]
          [-j|--section=name]
          [-H|--help] [-V|--version]
          [addr addr ...]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So addr2line literally translates addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers. You hand it an address (or a symbol+offset) in an executable, or an offset in a section of a relocatable object, and it digs through the debugging info to figure out which file name and line number go with it. Obsessed. 🔥

The executable or relocatable object you want it to look at is set with the -e option. If you don't say anything, the default is the file a.out. The section in the relocatable object is picked with the -j option.

addr2line has two modes of operation, bestie:

  1. In the first one, you put hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset right on the command line, and addr2line shows the file name and line number for each address.
  2. In the second one, addr2line reads hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset from standard input and prints the file name and line number for each address on standard output. In this mode you can drop it into a pipe to convert dynamically chosen addresses. main character energy fr fr. 🦋

The output format is FILENAME:LINENO. By default, each input address generates one line of output.

Two options can generate extra lines before each FILENAME:LINENO line (in that order, okay 👀):

  • If the -a option is used, then a line with the input address is displayed.
  • If the -f option is used, then a line with the FUNCTIONNAME is displayed. That's the name of the function containing the address.

And one option can generate extra lines after the FILENAME:LINENO line:

  • If the -i option is used and the code at the given address is present there because of inlining by the compiler, then extra lines are displayed afterwards. One or two extra lines (if the -f option is used) are displayed for each inlined function.

Alternatively, if the -p option is used, then each input address generates a single, long, output line containing the address, the function name, the file name and the line number. And if -i has also been used, then any inlined functions get displayed the same way but on separate lines, prefixed by the text (inlined by). 💅

If the file name or function name can't be determined, addr2line prints two question marks in their place. If the line number can't be determined, addr2line prints 0. Not me crying over missing debug info 😭

When symbol+offset is used, +offset is optional — except when the symbol is ambiguous with a hex number. The resolved symbols can be mangled or unmangled, except unmangled symbols with + are not allowed. iykyk.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. Pick your fighter 🎀

  • -a, --addresses — Display the address before the function name, file and line number information. The address is printed with a 0x prefix so you can spot it instantly, easy peasy.
  • -b bfdname, --target=bfdname — Specify that the object-code format for the object files is bfdname.
  • -C, --demangle[=style] — Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names. Besides removing any initial underscore prepended by the system, this makes C++ function names readable. Different compilers have different mangling styles, so the optional demangling style argument lets you choose the appropriate demangling style for your compiler. slay. 💜
  • -e filename, --exe=filename — Specify the name of the executable for which addresses should be translated. The default file is a.out.
  • -f, --functions — Display function names as well as file and line number information.
  • -s, --basenames — Display only the base of each file name.
  • -i, --inlines — If the address belongs to a function that was inlined, the source information for all enclosing scopes back to the first non-inlined function will also be printed. For example, if "main" inlines "callee1" which inlines "callee2", and the address is from "callee2", the source information for "callee1" and "main" will also be printed. nesting dolls but make it debug info 🪆
  • -j, --section — Read offsets relative to the specified section instead of absolute addresses.
  • -p, --pretty-print — Make the output more human friendly: each location is printed on one line. If option -i is specified, lines for all enclosing scopes are prefixed with (inlined by).
  • -r, -R, --recurse-limit, --no-recurse-limit, --recursion-limit, --no-recursion-limit — Enables or disables a limit on the amount of recursion performed whilst demangling strings. Since the name mangling formats allow for an infinite level of recursion, it's possible to create strings whose decoding will exhaust the amount of stack space available on the host machine, triggering a memory fault. The limit tries to prevent this from happening by restricting recursion to 2048 levels of nesting.

The default is for this limit to be enabled, but disabling it may be necessary in order to demangle truly complicated names. Note however that if the recursion limit is disabled then stack exhaustion is possible, and any bug reports about such an event will be rejected. 💀

The -r option is a synonym for the --no-recurse-limit option. The -R option is a synonym for the --recurse-limit option.

Note this option is only effective if the -C or --demangle option has been enabled.

  • @file — Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.

Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively. 🧚

ngl the -r / -R recursion thing is the one to be careful with — turn the limit off and stack exhaustion is on the table, and the bug reports get rejected. you've been warned, bestie 🍓

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Info entries for binutils. go read them, they're giving lore ✨

Copyright (c) 1991-2026 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 1.3 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 thing, you ate that 💅 this was binutils-2.47, dated 2026-08-26 — periodt, go convert some addresses 🌈💖

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