The GNU Binary Utilities, or binutils, are a set of programming tools for creating and managing binary programs, object files, libraries, profile data, and assembly source code.
 | |
| Developer(s) | GNU Project |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.36.1[1]
/ 6 February 2021 |
| Repository | |
| Type | Programming tools |
| License | GNU GPL |
| Website | www |
Tools
They were originally written by programmers at Cygnus Solutions.
The GNU Binutils are typically used in conjunction with compilers such as the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc), build tools like make, and the GNU Debugger (gdb).
Through the use of the Binary File Descriptor library (libbfd), most tools support the various object file formats supported by libbfd.
H. J. Lu maintains a version of binutils with features purely for Linux.[2]
Commands
The binutils include the following commands:
as |
assembler popularly known as GAS (GNU Assembler) |
ld |
linker |
gprof |
profiler |
addr2line |
convert address to file and line |
ar |
create, modify, and extract from archives |
c++filt |
demangling filter for C++ symbols |
dlltool |
creation of Windows dynamic-link libraries |
gold |
alternative linker for ELF files |
nlmconv |
object file conversion to a NetWare Loadable Module |
ldd |
list libraries imported by object file |
nm |
list symbols exported by object file |
objcopy |
copy object files, possibly making changes |
objdump |
dump information about object files |
ranlib |
generate indices for archives (for compatibility; same as ar -s)
|
readelf |
display content of ELF files |
size |
list total and section sizes |
strings |
list printable strings |
strip |
remove symbols from an object file |
windmc |
generates Windows message resources |
windres |
compiler for Windows resource files |
elfutils
Ulrich Drepper wrote elfutils, to partially replace GNU Binutils, purely for Linux and with support only for ELF and DWARF. It distributes three libraries with it for programmatic access.[3][4]
See also
- GNU Core Utilities
- List of Unix commands
- GNU Debugger
- strace - a tool for system call debugging (enabled by kernel-provided api-s) available on many distributions
References
- ^ Nick Clifton (2021-02-06). "GNU Binutils 2.36.1 has been released" (Mailing list). Retrieved 2021-03-09.
- ^ "README-release.binutils-2.24.51.0.3".
- ^ elfutils home
- ^ elfutils at Drepper's home
External links
- Official website
- ftp://sourceware.org/pub/binutils/snapshots
- Binutils for Linux
- The ELF Tool Chain Project : the BSD license similar project (mirror)