NM(1)

📦 version 2.47, in arch rolling

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this is the nm page from the GNU Development Tools manual, section 1, and it is literally about one thing: list symbols from object files. that's the whole name vibe, bestie — nm = symbol gossip for object files. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the entire invocation situation, copied exactly so nobody has to squint at the original:

nm [-A|-o|--print-file-name]
   [-a|--debug-syms]
   [-B|--format=bsd]
   [-C|--demangle[=style]]
   [-D|--dynamic]
   [-fformat|--format=format]
   [-g|--extern-only]
   [-h|--help]
   [--ifunc-chars=CHARS]
   [-j|--format=just-symbols]
   [-l|--line-numbers] [--inlines]
   [-n|-v|--numeric-sort]
   [-P|--portability]
   [-p|--no-sort]
   [-r|--reverse-sort]
   [-S|--print-size]
   [-s|--print-armap]
   [-t radix|--radix=radix]
   [-u|--undefined-only]
   [-U|--defined-only]
   [-V|--version]
   [-W|--no-weak]
   [-X 32_64]
   [--no-demangle]
   [--no-recurse-limit|--recurse-limit]]
   [--plugin name]
   [--size-sort]
   [--special-syms]
   [--synthetic]
   [--target=bfdname]
   [--unicode=method]
   [--with-symbol-versions]
   [--without-symbol-versions]
   [objfile...]

yep, that's a lot of brackets. it's giving choose-your-own-adventure but make it linker-adjacent. 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

GNU nm lists the symbols from object files objfile.... If no object files are listed as arguments, nm assumes the file a.out. iconic default behavior, honestly.

For each symbol, nm shows:

  • The symbol value — in the radix selected by options (see below), or hexadecimal by default. 🔢
  • The symbol type — At least the following types are used; others are, as well, depending on the object file format. If lowercase, the symbol is usually local; if uppercase, the symbol is global (external). There are however a few lowercase symbols that are shown for special global symbols (u, v and w).
    • A — The symbol's value is absolute, and will not be changed by further linking. locked in, no edits. 🔒
    • B / b — The symbol is in the BSS data section. This section typically contains zero-initialized or uninitialized data, although the exact behavior is system dependent.
    • C / c — The symbol is common. Common symbols are uninitialized data. When linking, multiple common symbols may appear with the same name. If the symbol is defined anywhere, the common symbols are treated as undefined references. The lower case c character is used when the symbol is in a special section for small commons.
    • D / d — The symbol is in the initialized data section.
    • G / g — The symbol is in an initialized data section for small objects. Some object file formats permit more efficient access to small data objects, such as a global int variable as opposed to a large global array.
    • i — For PE format files this indicates that the symbol is in a section specific to the implementation of DLLs. For ELF format files this indicates that the symbol is an indirect function. This is a GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol types. It indicates a symbol which if referenced by a relocation does not evaluate to its address, but instead must be invoked at runtime. The runtime execution will then return the value to be used in the relocation. Note - the actual symbols display for GNU indirect symbols is controlled by the --ifunc-chars command line option. If this option has been provided then the first character in the string will be used for global indirect function symbols. If the string contains a second character then that will be used for local indirect function symbols.
    • I — The symbol is an indirect reference to another symbol.
    • N — The symbol is a debugging symbol.
    • n — The symbol is in a non-data, non-code, non-debug read-only section.
    • p — The symbol is in a stack unwind section.
    • R / r — The symbol is in a read only data section.
    • S / s — The symbol is in an uninitialized or zero-initialized data section for small objects.
    • T / t — The symbol is in the text (code) section.
    • U — The symbol is undefined.
    • u — The symbol is a unique global symbol. This is a GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings. For such a symbol the dynamic linker will make sure that in the entire process there is just one symbol with this name and type in use.
    • V / v — The symbol is a weak object. When a weak defined symbol is linked with a normal defined symbol, the normal defined symbol is used with no error. When a weak undefined symbol is linked and the symbol is not defined, the value of the weak symbol becomes zero with no error. On some systems, uppercase indicates that a default value has been specified.
    • W / w — The symbol is a weak symbol that has not been specifically tagged as a weak object symbol. When a weak defined symbol is linked with a normal defined symbol, the normal defined symbol is used with no error. When a weak undefined symbol is linked and the symbol is not defined, the value of the symbol is determined in a system-specific manner without error. On some systems, uppercase indicates that a default value has been specified.
    • - — The symbol is a stabs symbol in an a.out object file. In this case, the next values printed are the stabs other field, the stabs desc field, and the stab type. Stabs symbols are used to hold debugging information.
    • ? — The symbol type is unknown, or object file format specific.
  • The symbol name — If a symbol has version information associated with it, then the version information is displayed as well. If the versioned symbol is undefined or hidden from linker, the version string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @ character. For example foo@VER_1. If the version is the default version to be used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol, then it is displayed as a suffix preceded by two @ characters. For example foo@@VER_2. 🏷️

periodt. 💅

💖 OPTIONS 💖

okay so real talk: the long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent — same energy, different fit 💅.

  • -A, -o, --print-file-name — put the name of the input file (or archive member) where each symbol was found right before the symbol, instead of naming the input file only once before all its symbols. file-name glow-up, but per symbol ✨
  • -a, --debug-syms — show all the symbols, even debugger-only ones. normally those little guys are not listed.
  • -B — same as --format=bsd, and it's there for compatibility with the MIPS nm. legacy icon behavior 💅
  • -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. the optional demangling style argument can be used to choose an appropriate demangling style for your compiler. C++ names, translated from gremlin 🧚
  • --no-demangle — do not demangle low-level symbol names. this is the default.
  • --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 is 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. bestie, do not come for the maintainers after turning off the safety rail 🙈

  • -D, --dynamic — display the dynamic symbols rather than the normal symbols. this is only meaningful for dynamic objects, such as certain types of shared libraries. dynamic object tea ☕
  • -f format, --format=format — use the output format format, which can be "bsd", "sysv", "posix" or "just-symbols". the default is "bsd". only the first character of format is significant; it can be either upper or lower case. first letter ate, no cap ✨
  • -g, --extern-only — display only external symbols. extroverts only, basically 💅
  • -h, --help — show a summary of the options to nm and exit. the built-in cheat sheet 🫶
  • --ifunc-chars=CHARS — when displaying GNU indirect function symbols, nm will default to using the "i" character for both local indirect functions and global indirect functions. the --ifunc-chars option allows the user to specify a string containing one or two characters. the first character will be used for global indirect function symbols and the second character, if present, will be used for local indirect function symbols. two little characters, very main character energy 👑
  • -j — the same as --format=just-symbols. just the symbols, ma'am 🍓
  • -l, --line-numbers — for each symbol, use debugging information to try to find a filename and line number. for a defined symbol, look for the line number of the address of the symbol. for an undefined symbol, look for the line number of a relocation entry which refers to the symbol. if line number information can be found, print it after the other symbol information. source-location detective work 🔍
  • --inlines — when option -l is active, if the address belongs to a function that was inlined, then this option causes the source information for all enclosing scopes back to the first non-inlined function to be printed as well. for example, if "main" inlines "callee1" which inlines "callee2", and address is from "callee2", the source information for "callee1" and "main" will also be printed. the whole inline family tree, exposed 😭
  • -n, -v, --numeric-sort — sort symbols numerically by their addresses, rather than alphabetically by their names. number order supremacy 🔥
  • -p, --no-sort — do not bother to sort the symbols in any order; print them in the order encountered. chaos order, but make it intentional 💅
  • -P, --portability — use the POSIX.2 standard output format instead of the default format. equivalent to -f posix. POSIX girlie behavior ✨
  • -r, --reverse-sort — reverse the order of the sort (whether numeric or alphabetic); let the last come first. flip the order, serve looks 💅
  • -S, --print-size — print both value and size of defined symbols for the "bsd" output style. this option has no effect for object formats that do not record symbol sizes, unless --size-sort is also used in which case a calculated size is displayed. value AND size, double feature 🎀
  • -s, --print-armap — when listing symbols from archive members, include the index: a mapping (stored in the archive by ar or ranlib) of which modules contain definitions for which names. archive index, but make it readable 🫶
  • -t radix, --radix=radix — use radix as the radix for printing the symbol values. it must be d for decimal, o for octal, or x for hexadecimal. pick your number flavor: d, o, or x 🍓
  • -u, --undefined-only — display only undefined symbols (those external to each object file). by default both defined and undefined symbols are displayed. undefined only, mysterious and external 💀
  • -U, --defined-only — display only defined symbols for each object file. by default both defined and undefined symbols are displayed. defined only, grounded and secure ✨
  • -V, --version — show the version number of nm and exit. version check, very demure 👑
  • -X — this option is ignored for compatibility with the AIX version of nm. it takes one parameter which must be the string 32_64. the default mode of AIX nm corresponds to -X 32, which is not supported by GNU nm. AIX compatibility tea, but GNU said no to -X 32 🫶
  • --plugin name — load the plugin called name to add support for extra target types. this option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled.

if --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled, then nm iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used. alphabetic plugin auditions, first claim wins 💅

please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option. in order to make nm use the linker plugin it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. for GCC based compilations the linker plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. for Clang based compilations it is called LLVMgold.so. the GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one. copy the newest GCC plugin and vibe on 🧚

  • --size-sort — sort symbols by size. for ELF objects symbol sizes are read from the ELF, for other object types the symbol sizes are computed as the difference between the value of the symbol and the value of the symbol with the next higher value. if the "bsd" output format is used the size of the symbol is printed, rather than the value, and -S must be used in order both size and value to be printed.
note — this option does not work if --undefined-only has been enabled as undefined symbols have no size. no size, no sorting, bestie 😭
  • --special-syms — display symbols which have a target-specific special meaning. these symbols are usually used by the target for some special processing and are not normally helpful when included in the normal symbol lists. for example for ARM targets this option would skip the mapping symbols used to mark transitions between ARM code, THUMB code and data. target-specific lore, ARM edition 🎀
  • --synthetic — include synthetic symbols in the output. these are special symbols created by the linker for various purposes. they are not shown by default since they are not part of the binary's original source code. linker-made symbols, not source-code born ✨
  • --unicode=[default|invalid|locale|escape|hex|highlight] — controls the display of UTF-8 encoded multibyte characters in strings. the default (--unicode=default) is to give them no special treatment. the --unicode=locale option displays the sequence in the current locale, which may or may not support them. the options --unicode=hex and --unicode=invalid display them as hex byte sequences enclosed by either angle brackets or curly braces.

the --unicode=escape option displays them as escape sequences (\uxxxx) and the --unicode=highlight option displays them as escape sequences highlighted in red (if supported by the output device). the colouring is intended to draw attention to the presence of unicode sequences where they might not be expected. unicode sightings, highlighted for the group chat 🌈

  • -W, --no-weak — do not display weak symbols. weak symbols, we simply do not see them 💅
  • --with-symbol-versions, --without-symbol-versions — enables or disables the display of symbol version information. the version string is displayed as a suffix to the symbol name, preceded by an @ character. for example foo@VER_1. if the version is the default version to be used when resolving unversioned references to the symbol then it is displayed as a suffix preceded by two @ characters. for example foo@@VER_2. by default, symbol version information is displayed. @ for regular version tea, @@ for default-version main character energy 👑
  • --target=bfdname — specify an object code format other than your system's default format. choose your own object-code adventure 🦋
  • @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. no file? no problem, it just stays as @file 💅

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. quotes, backslashes, recursive @file lore — iykyk 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go check out ar(1), objdump(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils. the whole binutils friend group 🫶

legal tea, bestie — keep every word of this part, okay? 💅

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".

and that's the whole glow-up, bestie — source/version binutils-2.47, dated 2026-08-26, page NM(1). mwah 💋✨

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