STRIP(1)

📦

version 2.40.50~ti1ubuntu1 · 2 versions

2.40.50~ti1ubuntu1 · ubuntu noble (latest)
2.22~msp20120406 · ubuntu jammy

💅 STRIP(1) — GNU Development Tools

okay bestie, welcome to strip, the little tool that goes through your object files and throws away the stuff you don't need. it's giving minimalist. it's giving "i'm not a hoarder, i'm a curator." and honestly? iconic. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

strip — discard symbols and other data from object files 🗑️✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

strip [-F bfdname |--target=bfdname]
      [-I bfdname |--input-target=bfdname]
      [-O bfdname |--output-target=bfdname]
      [-s|--strip-all]
      [-S|-g|-d|--strip-debug]
      [--strip-dwo]
      [-K symbolname|--keep-symbol=symbolname]
      [-M|--merge-notes][--no-merge-notes]
      [-N symbolname |--strip-symbol=symbolname]
      [-w|--wildcard]
      [-x|--discard-all] [-X |--discard-locals]
      [-R sectionname |--remove-section=sectionname]
      [--keep-section=sectionpattern]
      [--remove-relocations=sectionpattern]
      [--strip-section-headers]
      [-o file] [-p|--preserve-dates]
      [-D|--enable-deterministic-archives]
      [-U|--disable-deterministic-archives]
      [--keep-section-symbols]
      [--keep-file-symbols]
      [--only-keep-debug]
      [-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
      [--help] [--info]
      objfile...

like, look at all those flags. she's got range. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

GNU strip discards all symbols from object files objfile. the list of object files can include archives, so you can just toss a whole archive at her and she'll handle it. but bestie — at least one object file must be given. she's not doing anything for free. 🫶

strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing modified copies under different names. so like… she edits in place. no backup, no second draft. the way that she just does that. 😭

⚠️ yeah that means your originals are gone-gone. just so we're clear. periodt.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

-F bfdname, --target=bfdname — treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname, and rewrite it in the same format. same in, same out, just tidier. 💖
--help — show a summary of the options to strip and exit. your little cheat sheet. 🎀
--info — display a list showing all architectures and object formats available. a full menu of what she can work with. 🌈
-I bfdname, --input-target=bfdname — treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. input side only, she's not assuming anything. 👑
-O bfdname, --output-target=bfdname — replace objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. glow-up but make it binary. ✨
-R sectionname, --remove-section=sectionname — remove any section named sectionname from the output file, in addition to whatever sections would otherwise be removed. this option may be given more than once. note that using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable. 😭 the wildcard character * may be given at the end of sectionname. if so, then any section starting with sectionname will be removed.

if the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not be removed even if an earlier use of --remove-section on the same command line would otherwise remove it. for example:

--remove-section=.text.* --remove-section=!.text.foo

will remove all sections matching the pattern '.text.*', but will not remove the section '.text.foo'. the ! is basically the "not you bestie, you stay" flag. 🫶

--keep-section=sectionpattern — when removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match sectionpattern. protective queen behaviour. 💜
--remove-relocations=sectionpattern — remove relocations from the output file for any section matching sectionpattern. this option may be given more than once. note that using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable. 😭 wildcard characters are accepted in sectionpattern. for example:

--remove-relocations=.text.*

will remove the relocations for all sections matching the patter '.text.*'.

if the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not have their relocation removed even if an earlier use of --remove-relocations on the same command line would otherwise cause the relocations to be removed. for example:

--remove-relocations=.text.* --remove-relocations=!.text.foo

will remove all relocations for sections matching the pattern '.text.*', but will not remove relocations for the section '.text.foo'. 💅

--strip-section-headers — strip section headers. this option is specific to ELF files. implies --strip-all and --merge-notes. so she's not asking, she's just doing all three. 😌
-s, --strip-all — remove all symbols. everything. gone. the great purge. 🔥
-g, -S, -d, --strip-debug — remove debugging symbols only. just the debug stuff, she's not being dramatic about it. 🌸
--strip-dwo — remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining debugging sections and all symbols intact. see the description of this option in the objcopy section for more information. iykyk. 🧚
--strip-unneeded — remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing in addition to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug. extra thorough, extra slay. ⭐
-K symbolname, --keep-symbol=symbolname — when stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally be stripped. this option may be given more than once. she's got a VIP list and she's honoring it. 👑
-M, --merge-notes, --no-merge-notes — for ELF files, attempt (or do not attempt) to reduce the size of any SHT_NOTE type sections by removing duplicate notes. the default is to attempt this reduction unless stripping debug or DWO information. ✨
-N symbolname, --strip-symbol=symbolname — remove symbol symbolname from the source file. this option may be given more than once, and may be combined with strip options other than -K. so like, you can stack these but don't mix it with the keep-list, that's a whole argument. 💀
-o file — put the stripped output in file, rather than replacing the existing file. when this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified. she can only juggle one at a time when you're redirecting, bestie. 🎀
-p, --preserve-dates — preserve the access and modification dates of the file. timestamps stay exactly where they were, no cap. 🕰️
-D, --enable-deterministic-archives — operate in deterministic mode. when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file modes for all files.

if binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default. it can be disabled with the -U option, below. 🦋

-U, --disable-deterministic-archives — do not operate in deterministic mode. this is the inverse of the -D option, above: when copying archive members and writing the archive index, use their actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values.

this is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives. 🔄

-w, --wildcard — permit regular expressions in symbolnames used in other command line options. the question mark (?), asterisk (*), backslash (\) and square brackets ([]) operators can be used anywhere in the symbol name. if the first character of the symbol name is the exclamation point (!) then the sense of the switch is reversed for that symbol. for example:

-w -K !foo -K fo*

would cause strip to only keep symbols that start with the letters "fo", but to discard the symbol "foo". the audacity. the precision. 🔥

-x, --discard-all — remove non-global symbols. if you're not global, you're not invited. 🙈
-X, --discard-locals — remove compiler-generated local symbols. (these usually start with L or .) 💅
--keep-section-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped. 🫶
--keep-file-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get stripped. 🎀
--only-keep-debug — strip a file, emptying the contents of any sections that would not be stripped by --strip-debug and leaving the debugging sections intact. in ELF files, this preserves all the note sections in the output as well.

note — the section headers of the stripped sections are preserved, including their sizes, but the contents of the section are discarded. the section headers are preserved so that other tools can match up the debuginfo file with the real executable, even if that executable has been relocated to a different address space.

the intention is that this option will be used in conjunction with --add-gnu-debuglink to create a two part executable. one a stripped binary which will occupy less space in RAM and in a distribution and the second a debugging information file which is only needed if debugging abilities are required. the suggested procedure to create these files is as follows:

Link the executable as normal. Assuming that it is called "foo" then...
Run "objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to create a file containing the debugging info.
Run "objcopy --strip-debug foo" to create a stripped executable.
Run "objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo" to add a link to the debugging info into the stripped executable.

note — the choice of ".dbg" as an extension for the debug info file is arbitrary. also the "--only-keep-debug" step is optional. you could instead do this:

Link the executable as normal.
Copy "foo" to "foo.full"
Run "strip --strip-debug foo"
Run "objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.full foo"

i.e., the file pointed to by the --add-gnu-debuglink can be the full executable. it does not have to be a file created by the --only-keep-debug switch. 👑

note — this switch is only intended for use on fully linked files. it does not make sense to use it on object files where the debugging information may be incomplete. besides the gnu_debuglink feature currently only supports the presence of one filename containing debugging information, not multiple filenames on a one-per-object-file basis. 😭

-V, --version — show the version number for strip. ✨
-v, --verbose — verbose output: list all object files modified. in the case of archives, strip -v lists all members of the archive. she's narrating her own work, and honestly? she earned it. 💖
@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 @file inception and it goes as deep as you want it to. 🌀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the Info entries for binutils.

to be continued, bestie… 💜

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

okay bestie, legal era, but make it cute 🎀

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" — go read it, iykyk 📖💜

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🦋 this one's from binutils-2.40.50, dated 2023-07-04, and yeah the title up top still says STRIP(1) like the icon it is 👑 no cap, you now know strip better than half the people who run it. go forth and strip responsibly, mwah 💋🌸

📦 where this page comes from

ubuntu noble: binutils-msp430 2.40.50~ti1ubuntu1 · GPL-3.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-13: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms