SIZE(1)

📦
version 2.47 · 3 versions
, in arch rolling

💅 SIZE(1) 💅

okay bestie, so this is the size page from GNU Development Tools, and it's genuinely one of the most useful little gremlins in the binutils fam. it just... tells you how big stuff is. iconic behavior honestly ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

size — list section sizes and total size of binary files 🫶

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

size [-A|-B|-G|--format=compatibility]
     [--help]
     [-d|-o|-x|--radix=number]
     [--common]
     [-t|--totals]
     [--target=bfdname] [-V|--version]
     [-f]
     [objfile...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the GNU size utility lists the section sizes and the total size for each of the binary files objfile on its argument list. that's the whole vibe. 💖

by default you get one line of output per file — or per module, if the file happens to be an archive. slay.

objfile... are the files to be examined. and if you specify literally none of them? it just falls back to the file "a.out" instead. no cap, that's the default. 🦋

👑 OPTIONS 👑

the command-line options have the following meanings, and yes we're going through every single one because you deserve to know:

  • -A, -B, -G, --format=compatibility — using one of these you get to choose whether the output from GNU size resembles output from System V size (that's -A, or --format=sysv), or Berkeley size (that's -B, or --format=berkeley). the default is the one-line format similar to Berkeley's. alternatively you can pick the GNU format output (that's -G, or --format=gnu) — it's similar to Berkeley's output format, but sizes are counted differently. yes, differently. keep reading. 🔥

here's an example of the Berkeley (default) format of output from size:

        $ size --format=Berkeley ranlib size
           text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
         294880   81920   11592  388392   5ed28 ranlib
         294880   81920   11888  388688   5ee50 size

so the Berkeley style output counts read only data in the "text" column, not in the "data" column, and the "dec" and "hex" columns both display the sum of the "text", "data", and "bss" columns in decimal and hexadecimal respectively. told you. 💅

the GNU format counts read only data in the "data" column, not the "text" column, and only displays the sum of the "text", "data", and "bss" columns once, in the "total" column. the --radix option can be used to change the number base for all columns. here's the same data displayed with GNU conventions:

        $ size --format=GNU ranlib size
              text       data        bss      total filename
            279880      96920      11592     388392 ranlib
            279880      96920      11888     388688 size

and this is the same data, but displayed closer to System V conventions:

        $ size --format=SysV ranlib size
        ranlib  :
        section         size         addr
        .text         294880         8192
        .data          81920       303104
        .bss           11592       385024
        Total         388392

        size  :
        section         size         addr
        .text         294880         8192
        .data          81920       303104
        .bss           11888       385024
        Total         388688

three formats, three whole aesthetics. 🎀

  • --help, -h, -H, -? — show a summary of acceptable arguments and options. four whole ways to ask for help, they really said redundancy is self-care. 😭
  • -d, -o, -x, --radix=number — using one of these you control whether the size of each section is given in decimal (-d, or --radix=10), octal (-o, or --radix=8), or hexadecimal (-x, or --radix=16). and in --radix=number, only the three values (8, 10, 16) are supported — don't get creative, bestie. also: the total size is always given in two radices; decimal and hexadecimal for -d or -x output, or octal and hexadecimal if you're using -o. ✨
  • --common — print total size of common symbols in each file. when using Berkeley or GNU format these are included in the bss size. iykyk. 🧚
  • -t, --totals — show totals of all objects listed (Berkeley or GNU format mode only). so if you're in SysV mode, this one's just gonna sit there. 🙈
  • --target=bfdname — specify that the object-code format for objfile is bfdname. this option may not be necessary; size can automatically recognize many formats. it's giving "optional but supportive." 💜
  • -v, -V, --version — display the version number of size. simple, clean, iconic. ⭐
  • -f — ignored. literally ignored. this option is used by other versions of the size program, but it is not supported by the GNU Binutils version. so it's there, it parses, and it does absolutely nothing. 💀
  • @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 turtles all the way down, fr fr. 🐢

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

ar(1), objdump(1), readelf(1), and the Info entries for binutils. go read them, they're all main character energy in their own way. 🌈

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 page, bestie! this one's from binutils-2.47, dated 2026-09-30, and it lives at SIZE(1) in the manual. mwah. 💋🌸

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