ADDR2LINE(1)

💖 ADDR2LINE(1) — the GNU Development Tools glow-up 💖

okay bestie, sit DOWN, because we're talking about addr2line from the GNU Development Tools lineup. she takes addresses or symbol+offset and turns them into file names and line numbers. it's giving detective but make it debugging. 🔍✨

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✨ 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 ...]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so like, addr2line translates addresses or symbol+offset into file names and line numbers. you hand her an address or a symbol+offset inside an executable, or an offset in a section of a relocatable object, and she digs through the debugging information to figure out which file name and line number are associated with it. no cap, that's the whole gig. 🎀

the executable or relocatable object she should use is specified with the -e option. the default is the file a.out. and the section in the relocatable object to use is specified with the -j option.

addr2line has two modes of operation. two! like a dual-threat icon.

1. in the first mode, hexadecimal addresses or symbol+offset are specified on the command line, and addr2line displays the file name and line number for each address.
2. in the second mode, 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 she can be used in a pipe to convert dynamically chosen addresses. lowkey iconic behaviour honestly. 🦋

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

Two options can generate additional lines before each FILENAME:LINENO line (in that order).

• 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. this is the name of the function containing the address.

One option can generate additional 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 additional 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 the -i option has also been used, then any inlined functions will be displayed in the same manner, but on separate lines, and prefixed by the text (inlined by). 💅

if the file name or function name can not be determined, addr2line will print two question marks in their place. and if the line number can not be determined, addr2line will print 0. she's honest like that.

when symbol+offset is used, +offset is optional, except when the symbol is ambigious with a hex number. the resolved symbols can be mangled or unmangled, except unmangled symbols with + are not allowed. (yes bestie, "ambigious" is exactly how the original spells it, we don't gatekeep typos here 🫶)

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

the long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. pick your fave, she doesn't judge.

• -a, --addresses — display the address before the function name, file and line number information. the address is printed with a 0x prefix so it's easy to spot. 👑
• -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 can be used to choose an appropriate demangling style for your compiler. ✨
• -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. keep it short and cute. 🎀
• -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. it's the whole family tree, no cap. 🌈
• -j, --section — read offsets relative to the specified section instead of absolute addresses.
• -p, --pretty-print — make the output more human friendly: each location are printed on one line. if option -i is specified, lines for all enclosing scopes are prefixed with (inlined by). (again, "each location are printed" is verbatim, we're just vibing 😌)
• -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 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. like, straight up rejected. so don't come crying to the maintainers. 💀

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. it's files all the way down bestie 🐇✨

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

info entries for binutils. go read them, they're the blueprint fr fr.

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

copyright (c) 1991-2025 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".

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that. this was binutils-2.45.50, dated 2026-01-13, and it's the ADDR2LINE(1) moment. go forth and demangle, bestie — but maybe keep the recursion limit on. 🫶💖✨