READELF 1 2005-04-20 binutils-2.15.97 GNU Development Tools

### 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] [-e|--headers] [-s|--syms|--symbols] [-n|--notes] [-r|--relocs] [-u|--unwind] [-d|--dynamic] [-V|--version-info] [-A|--arch-specific] [-D|--use-dynamic] [-x |--hex-dump=] [-w[liaprmfFsoR]| --debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=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 specifiying --file-header,
  --program-headers, --sections, --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.
-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 supported.
-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
  --hex-dump= Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal dump.
-w[liaprmfFsoR]
  --debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=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.
-I
  --histogram Display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the contents
  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.

### SEE ALSO

objdump(1), and the Info entries for binutils.

### COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 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 1.1 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''.