STRIP(1)

okay so bestie, this is STRIP(1) from GNU Development Tools, and she's literally here to explain the whole vibe. No cap, she's iconic. 💅✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

• strip — discard symbols and other data from object files 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the exact shape of the command, bestie — every bracket and flag stays exactly as written. 🎀

       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]
             [--plugin name]
             [-v |--verbose] [-V|--version]
             [--help] [--info]
             objfile...

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so the tea: GNU strip discards all symbols from object files objfile. 🫶 That's the main character move.

The list of object files may include archives — yes, archives are invited to the group chat too. 🌸

At least one object file must be given, so please don't roll up with zero objfiles. 😭 At least one is the bare minimum, fr fr.

⚠️ bestie, this part matters: strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing modified copies under different names. It's not doing a little "save as" moment — it changes the files you named. 💀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -F bfdname, --target=bfdname — tells strip "bestie, treat the original objfile as if it were in the object code format bfdname", and then rewrite it in that same format. In and out, same vibe 💅
• --help — shows you a summary of all the options strip has and then dips. So helpful of her 👑
• --info — displays a list showing every architecture and object format that's available to you. Window shopping, basically 🛍️
• -I bfdname, --input-target=bfdname — treat the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. Just the input side of the story.
• -O bfdname, --output-target=bfdname — replace objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. Glow-up, format edition ✨
• -R sectionname, --remove-section=sectionname — removes any section named sectionname from the output file, on top of whatever sections would've gotten removed anyway. You can hand her this option more than once, she doesn't mind. Fair warning though: using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable 😭 The wildcard character * may be given at the end of sectionname — if you do that, then any section starting with sectionname gets removed.

And here's the twist 🌀 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. Like, 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 giving "nope, not her" energy 💅

• --keep-section=sectionpattern — when removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match sectionpattern. Protect her at all costs 🫶
• --remove-relocations=sectionpattern — removes relocations from the output file for any section matching sectionpattern. Yeah, you can say this more than once. And yeah, using this option inappropriately may make the output file unusable — same warning, same stakes, no cap. Wildcard characters are accepted in sectionpattern. For example:

          --remove-relocations=.text.*

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

Same ! plot twist as before: if the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not have their relocations 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'. Iconic behaviour honestly 💀

• --strip-section-headers — strips section headers. This one is specific to ELF files only, and it implies --strip-all and --merge-notes. Package deal 🎀
• -s, --strip-all — removes all symbols. All of them. Gone. Not a single one left 🫥
• -g, -S, -d, --strip-debug — removes debugging symbols only. Chill mode, way less aggressive than -s 🌸
• --strip-dwo — removes 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 info — she's not gonna repeat herself iykyk.
• --strip-unneeded — removes all symbols that aren't needed for relocation processing, in addition to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug. So it's the debug strip plus extra 🧹
• -K symbolname, --keep-symbol=symbolname — when stripping symbols, keep the symbol symbolname even if it would normally get stripped. You can pass this more than once — collect them all 💖
• -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 you're stripping debug or DWO information. Defaults, but make it fashion ✨
• -N symbolname, --strip-symbol=symbolname — removes the symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be given more than once, and may be combined with strip options other than -K. Mix and match, just not with -K 🚫
• -o file — puts the stripped output in file instead of replacing the existing file. Heads up: when this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified. One in, one out 🎯
• -p, --preserve-dates — preserves the access and modification dates of the file. Time capsule behaviour 🕰️
• -D, --enable-deterministic-archives — operates 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. Everything uniform, everything cute ��

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 — does 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. Keep your real identity, bestie 💁‍♀️

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

• -w, --wildcard — permits 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. And 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". Chaotic but make it precise 🌀

• -x, --discard-all — removes non-global symbols. Bye locals 👋
• -X, --discard-locals — removes compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with L or ..) Compiler's little leftovers, swept away 🧹
• --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. Protect the section-name girlies 🫶
• --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. Same energy, different symbols 💖
• --only-keep-debug — strips 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. It's like keeping the label on the jar even though the jar's empty 🫙

The intention is that this option gets used together 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. Two: a debugging information file which is only needed if debugging abilities are required. The suggested procedure to create these files is as follows:

1. Link the executable as normal. Assuming that it is called "foo" then...
2. Run "objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to create a file containing the debugging info.
3. Run "objcopy --strip-debug foo" to create a stripped executable.
4. 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:

1. Link the executable as normal.
2. Copy "foo" to "foo.full"
3. Run "strip --strip-debug foo"
4. 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. Flexible! 💅

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. One file, one link, that's the rule 🎀

• --plugin name — loads 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. No plugin support, no plugin option, sorry bestie 😔

If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled, then strip iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order, and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used. First come, first served 🏃‍♀️

Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option. In order to make strip 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-paste her into the right folder and you're golden ✨

• -V, --version — shows the version number for strip. Know your girl's lore 📖
• -v, --verbose — verbose output: lists all object files modified. And in the case of archives, strip -v lists all members of the archive. She's a talker, let her talk 🗣️💬
• @file — reads 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 🐇🕳️

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

The Info entries for binutils. That's it, that's the list, go read the info pages bestie 📚

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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". Legal slay, read the fine print 🫶

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And that's the whole page, diva 💜 This gem is from binutils-2.45.1, dated 2026-01-23, and it's the STRIP(1) manual — go forth and strip responsibly ✨🎀🦋