STRIP(1)

📦
version 2.47 · 3 versions
, in arch rolling

🎀 STRIP(1) 🎀

okay bestie so this is strip from the GNU Development Tools set — yes, that GNU, the big one — and ngl it's about to become your new fave little file-slimming icon 💅

✨ NAME ✨

strip — literally just tosses out symbols and other data from object files. that's the whole vibe. it's giving "declutter my room before the aesthetic photoshoot" 🧹✨

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

like, yes, that's a lot of brackets, but every single one of them is carrying its weight fr fr 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so GNU strip discards all symbols from object files — the ones you hand it as objfile. like, all of them. gone. poof 💨

and bestie, the list of object files? it may include archives 👀 so you're not limited to plain old .o files, mwahaha.

⚠️ but here's the thing — at least one object file must be given. you can't just run strip into the void and expect the universe to answer. it needs something. 💀

and this next bit is the one that gets people, so listen up: strip modifies the files named in its argument, rather than writing modified copies under different names. 😭

like— it does it in place. it's not making a cute little file.stripped next to your original. it's editing the actual file you pointed at. so if you were expecting a backup, uh, that's a you problem, not a strip problem 🙈

main character energy, honestly: it walks in, takes what it wants, and leaves. 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay bestie, here's the whole menu of little switches you can sprinkle on ✨ every single one, no skips 💅

  • -F bfdname, --target=bfdname — treats the original objfile like it's a file in the object code format bfdname, and then rewrites it in that same format. same format in, same format out, iconic 🎀
  • --help — shows you a lil summary of the options strip has and then dips out. the "what can u even do" button 🫶
  • --info — displays a whole list of every architecture and object format that's actually available. like a vibe check for your toolchain 🌈
  • -I bfdname, --input-target=bfdname — treats the original objfile as a file with the object code format bfdname. just the input side, no rewriting promises 💖
  • -O bfdname, --output-target=bfdname — replaces objfile with a file in the output format bfdname. this one's about what comes out the other side ✨
  • -R sectionname, --remove-section=sectionname — removes any section named sectionname from the output file, on top of whatever sections would get removed anyway. you can give this option more than once, go off 👑
⚠️ heads up: using this inappropriately may make the output file unusable. like, genuinely broken. no cap.

the wildcard character * may be given at the end of sectionname — if so, then any section starting with sectionname will be removed. 🦋

and 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 literally the "not this one bestie" flag 🙈

  • --keep-section=sectionpattern — when removing sections from the output file, keeps the sections that match sectionpattern. the safe-keeping list 💜
  • --remove-relocations=sectionpattern — removes relocations from the output file for any section matching sectionpattern. this option may be given more than once. and yeah — using this 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 pattern '.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'. same energy, different section 🫶

  • --strip-section-headers — strips section headers. this option is specific to ELF files. it implies --strip-all and --merge-notes. package deal, no opting out 💅
  • -s, --strip-all — removes all symbols. every last one. gone. not me being dramatic, that's just what it does 💀
  • -g, -S, -d, --strip-debug — removes debugging symbols only. just the debug ones, everything else stays cozy 🌸
  • --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. it's a "contents only" situation ✨
  • --strip-unneeded — removes all symbols that aren't needed for relocation processing, in addition to the debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug. the overachiever option 🔥
  • -K symbolname, --keep-symbol=symbolname — when stripping symbols, keeps symbol symbolname even if it would normally get stripped. this option may be given more than once. protect ur faves 🥺
  • -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. dedupe era 🎀
  • -N symbolname, --strip-symbol=symbolname — removes 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 many ways to say bye 👋
  • -o file — puts the stripped output in file, rather than replacing the existing file. when this argument is used, only one objfile argument may be specified. one in, one out, that's the rule 🦋
  • -p, --preserve-dates — preserves the access and modification dates of the file. timestamps untouched, respect the originals ⭐
  • -D, --enable-deterministic-archives — operates in deterministic mode. when copying archive members and writing the archive index, uses zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and uses consistent file modes for all files. everything uniform, nothing leaking metadata 💜

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, uses their actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values. the real-real values, unfiltered 🙈

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. 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 ! flips it, iconic behavior 🧚

  • -x, --discard-all — removes non-global symbols. locals, you're out 💀
  • -X, --discard-locals — removes compiler-generated local symbols. these usually start with L or .. compiler-made, compiler-said, we're deleting 😌
  • --keep-section-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retains any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped. section-name symbols get a hall pass 🎟️
  • --keep-file-symbols — when stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retains any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get stripped. same hall pass, but for filenames 💖
  • --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. the debug info is the main character now 👑
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. lowkey genius 🧠

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:

  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 "strip --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, we love to see it 🌸

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. so like... don't try it, bestie 😭
  • --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. feature-gated, as they say 🔒

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. alphabetical, first-come-first-served, very democratic ✨

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. copying is caring 🫶
  • -V, --version — shows the version number for strip. which era of binutils are we in 💅
  • -v, --verbose — verbose output: lists all object files modified. in the case of archives, strip -v lists all members of the archive. it will literally tell you everything it touched 🗣️
  • @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. no file? no problem, it just stays as-is 🤷

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. files within files within files, it's giving inception 🌀

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

  • the Info entries for binutils. that's the whole list, go read the docs bestie 📚

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". legal stuff but make it cute 💜

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this lil masterpiece is from binutils-2.47 and it's dated 2026-09-30 — go forth and strip responsibly, mwah 💋✨🦋

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