READELF(1) GNU Development Tools READELF(1)NAME
readelf - Displays information about ELF files.
SYNOPSIS
readelf [-a⎪--all]
[-h⎪--file-header]
[-l⎪--program-headers⎪--segments]
[-S⎪--section-headers⎪--sections]
[-g⎪--section-groups]
[-t⎪--section-details]
[-e⎪--headers]
[-s⎪--syms⎪--symbols]
[-n⎪--notes]
[-r⎪--relocs]
[-u⎪--unwind]
[-d⎪--dynamic]
[-V⎪--version-info]
[-A⎪--arch-specific]
[-D⎪--use-dynamic]
[-x <number or name>⎪--hex-dump=<number or name>]
[-p <number or name>⎪--string-dump=<number or name>]
[-c⎪--archive-index]
[-w[lLiaprmfFsoR]⎪
--debug-dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pub‐
names,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges]]
[-I⎪-histogram]
[-v⎪--version]
[-W⎪--wide]
[-H⎪--help]
elffile...
DESCRIPTION
readelf displays information about one or more ELF format object files.
The options control what particular information to display.
elffile... are the object files to be examined. 32-bit and 64-bit ELF
files are supported, as are archives containing ELF files.
This program performs a similar function to objdump but it goes into
more detail and it exists independently of the BFD library, so if there
is a bug in BFD then readelf will not be affected.
OPTIONS
The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are
equivalent. At least one option besides -v or -H must be given.
-a
--all
Equivalent to specifying --file-header, --program-headers, --sec‐
tions, --symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes and --version-info.
-h
--file-header
Displays the information contained in the ELF header at the start
of the file.
-l
--program-headers
--segments
Displays the information contained in the file's segment headers,
if it has any.
-S
--sections
--section-headers
Displays the information contained in the file's section headers,
if it has any.
-g
--section-groups
Displays the information contained in the file's section groups, if
it has any.
-t
--section-details
Displays the detailed section information. Implies -S.
-s
--symbols
--syms
Displays the entries in symbol table section of the file, if it has
one.
-e
--headers
Display all the headers in the file. Equivalent to -h -l -S.
-n
--notes
Displays the contents of the NOTE segments and/or sections, if any.
-r
--relocs
Displays the contents of the file's relocation section, if it has
one.
-u
--unwind
Displays the contents of the file's unwind section, if it has one.
Only the unwind sections for IA64 ELF files are currently sup‐
ported.
-d
--dynamic
Displays the contents of the file's dynamic section, if it has one.
-V
--version-info
Displays the contents of the version sections in the file, it they
exist.
-A
--arch-specific
Displays architecture-specific information in the file, if there is
any.
-D
--use-dynamic
When displaying symbols, this option makes readelf use the symbol
table in the file's dynamic section, rather than the one in the
symbols section.
-x <number or name>
--hex-dump=<number or name>
Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal
dump. A number identifies a particular section by index in the
section table; any other string identifies all sections with that
name in the object file.
-p <number or name>
--string-dump=<number or name>
Displays the contents of the indicated section as printable
strings. A number identifies a particular section by index in the
section table; any other string identifies all sections with that
name in the object file.
-c
--archive-index
Displays the file symbol index infomation contained in the header
part of binary archives. Performs the same function as the t com‐
mand to ar, but without using the BFD library.
-w[lLiaprmfFsoR]
--debug-dump[=rawline,=decodedline,=info,=abbrev,=pub‐
names,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges]
Displays the contents of the debug sections in the file, if any are
present. If one of the optional letters or words follows the
switch then only data found in those specific sections will be
dumped.
Note: the =decodedline option will display the interpreted contents
of a .debug_line section whereas the =rawline option dumps the con‐
tents in a raw format.
-I
--histogram
Display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the con‐
tents of the symbol tables.
-v
--version
Display the version number of readelf.
-W
--wide
Don't break output lines to fit into 80 columns. By default readelf
breaks section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF
files, so that they fit into 80 columns. This option causes readelf
to print each section header resp. each segment one a single line,
which is far more readable on terminals wider than 80 columns.
-H
--help
Display the command line options understood by readelf.
@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 charac‐
ter 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.
SEE ALSOobjdump(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 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 1.2 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".
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│Availability │ developer/gnu-binutils │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Uncommitted │
└────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘
NOTES
Source for GNU binutils is available on http://opensolaris.org.
binutils-2.18.90 2008-09-10 READELF(1)
