objcopy(1)

—

Options · 101

outfile	The input and output files, respectively. If you do not specify outfile, objcopy creates a temporary file and destructively renames the result with the name of infile.
--input-target	Consider the source file's object format to be bfdname, rather than attempting to deduce it.
--output-target	Write the output file using the object format bfdname.
--target	Use bfdname as the object format for both the input and the output file; i.e., simply transfer data from source to destination with no translation.
--binary-architecture	Useful when transforming a architecture-less input file into an object file. In this case the output architecture can be set to bfdarch. This option will be ignored if the input file has a known bfdarch. You can access this binary data inside a program by referencing the special symbols that are created by the conversion process. These symbols are called _binary_objfile_start, _binary_objfile_end and _binary_objfile_size. e.g. you can transform a picture file into an object file and then access it in your code using these symbols.
--only-section	If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not be copied, even if earlier use of --only-section on the same command line would otherwise copy it. For example: --only-section=.text.* --only-section=!.text.foo will copy all sectinos matching '.text.*' but not the section '.text.foo'.
--remove-section	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'.
--keep-section	When removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match sectionpattern.
--remove-relocations	--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'.
--strip-section-headers	Strip section header This option is specific to ELF files. Implies --strip-all and --merge-notes.
--strip-all	Do not copy relocation and symbol information from the source file. Also deletes debug sections.
--strip-debug	Do not copy debugging symbols or sections from the source file.
--strip-unneeded	Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing in addition to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug.
--keep-symbol	When stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally be stripped. This option may be given more than once.
--strip-symbol	Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be given more than once.
--strip-unneeded-symbol	Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file unless it is needed by a relocation. This option may be given more than once.
--keep-global-symbol	Keep only symbol symbolname global. Make all other symbols local to the file, so that they are not visible externally. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the --globalize-symbol or --globalize-symbols options.
--localize-hidden	In an ELF object, mark all symbols that have hidden or internal visibility as local. This option applies on top of symbol-specific localization options such as -L.
--localize-symbol	Convert a global or weak symbol called symbolname into a local symbol, so that it is not visible externally. This option may be given more than once. Note - unique symbols are not converted.
--weaken-symbol	Make symbol symbolname weak. This option may be given more than once.
--globalize-symbol	Give symbol symbolname global scoping so that it is visible outside of the file in which it is defined. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or --keep-global-symbol options.
--wildcard	-w -W !foo -W fo* would cause objcopy to weaken all symbols that start with "fo" except for the symbol "foo".
--discard-all	Do not copy non-global symbols from the source file.
--discard-locals	Do not copy compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with L or ..)
--byte	If interleaving has been enabled via the --interleave option then start the range of bytes to keep at the byteth byte. byte can be in the range from 0 to breadth-1, where breadth is the value given by the --interleave option.
--interleave	This option is useful for creating files to program ROM. It is typically used with an "srec" output target. Note that objcopy will complain if you do not specify the --byte option as well. The default interleave breadth is 4, so with --byte set to 0, objcopy would copy the first byte out of every four bytes from the input to the output.
--interleave-width	The default value for this option is 1. The value of width plus the byte value set by the --byte option must not exceed the interleave breadth set by the --interleave option. This option can be used to create images for two 16-bit flashes interleaved in a 32-bit bus by passing -b 0 -i 4 --interleave-width=2 and -b 2 -i 4 --interleave-width=2 to two objcopy commands. If the input was '12345678' then the outputs would be '1256' and '3478' respectively.
--preserve-dates	This option also copies the date stored in a PE format file's header, unless the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is defined. If it is defined then this variable will be used as the date stored in the header, interpreted as the number of seconds since the Unix epoch.
--enable-deterministic-archives	If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the -U option, below.
--disable-deterministic-archives	This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives.
--debugging	Convert debugging information, if possible. This is not the default because only certain debugging formats are supported, and the conversion process can be time consuming.
--gap-fillval	Fill gaps between sections with val. This operation applies to the load address (LMA) of the sections. It is done by increasing the size of the section with the lower address, and filling in the extra space created with val.
--pad-toaddress	Pad the output file up to the load address address. This is done by increasing the size of the last section. The extra space is filled in with the value specified by --gap-fill (default zero).
--set-startval	Set the start address (also known as the entry address) of the new file to val. Not all object file formats support setting the start address.
--adjust-startincr	Change the start address (also known as the entry address) by adding incr. Not all object file formats support setting the start address.
--adjust-vmaincr	Change the VMA and LMA addresses of all sections, as well as the start address, by adding incr. Some object file formats do not permit section addresses to be changed arbitrarily. Note that this does not relocate the sections; if the program expects sections to be loaded at a certain address, and this option is used to change the sections such that they are loaded at a different address, the program may fail.
--adjust-section-vmasectionpattern{-}val	Set or change both the VMA address and the LMA address of any section matching sectionpattern. If = is used, the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments under --change-addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.
--change-section-lmasectionpattern{-}val	Set or change the LMA address of any sections matching sectionpattern. The LMA address is the address where the section will be loaded into memory at program load time. Normally this is the same as the VMA address, which is the address of the section at program run time, but on some systems, especially those where a program is held in ROM, the two can be different. If = is used, the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments under --change-addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.
--change-section-vmasectionpattern{-}val	Note - changing the VMA of sections in a fully linked binary can be dangerous since there may be code that expects the sections to be located at their old address.
--adjust-warnings	If --change-section-address or --change-section-lma or --change-section-vma is used, and the section pattern does not match any sections, issue a warning. This is the default.
--no-adjust-warnings	Do not issue a warning if --change-section-address or --adjust-section-lma or --adjust-section-vma is used, even if the section pattern does not match any sections.
--set-section-flagssectionpattern	Set the flags for any sections matching sectionpattern. The flags argument is a comma separated string of flag names. The recognized names are alloc, contents, load, noload, readonly, code, data, rom, exclude, share, debug, and large. You can set the contents flag for a section which does not have contents, but it is not meaningful to clear the contents flag of a section which does have contents--just remove the section instead. Not all flags are meaningful for all object file formats. In particular the share flag is only meaningful for COFF format files and not for ELF format files. The ELF x86-64 specific flag large corresponds to SHF_X86_64_LARGE.
--set-section-alignmentsectionpattern	Note - setting a section's alignment will not automatically align its LMA or VMA addresses. If those need to be changed as well then the --change-section-lma and/or --change-section-vma options should be used. Also note that changing VMAs can cause problems in fully linked binaries where there may be code that expects the contents of the sections to be located at their old address.
--add-sectionsectionname	Add a new section named sectionname while copying the file. The contents of the new section are taken from the file filename. The size of the section will be the size of the file. This option only works on file formats which can support sections with arbitrary names. Note - it may be necessary to use the --set-section-flags option to set the attributes of the newly created section.
--dump-sectionsectionname	Place the contents of section named sectionname into the file filename, overwriting any contents that may have been there previously. This option is the inverse of --add-section. This option is similar to the --only-section option except that it does not create a formatted file, it just dumps the contents as raw binary data, without applying any relocations. The option can be specified more than once.
--update-sectionsectionname	Note - it is possible to use --rename-section and --update-section to both update and rename a section from one command line. In this case, pass the original section name to --update-section, and the original and new section names to --rename-section.
--add-symbolname	Add a new symbol named name while copying the file. This option may be specified multiple times. If the section is given, the symbol will be associated with and relative to that section, otherwise it will be an ABS symbol. Specifying an undefined section will result in a fatal error. There is no check for the value, it will be taken as specified. Symbol flags can be specified and not all flags will be meaningful for all object file formats. By default, the symbol will be global. The special flag 'before=othersym' will insert the new symbol in front of the specified othersym, otherwise the symbol(s) will be added at the end of the symbol table in the order they appear.
--rename-sectionoldname	This option is particularly helpful when the input format is binary, since this will always create a section called .data. If for example, you wanted instead to create a section called .rodata containing binary data you could use the following command line to achieve it: objcopy -I binary -O <output_format> -B <architecture> \ --rename-section .data=.rodata,alloc,load,readonly,data,contents \ <input_binary_file> <output_object_file>
--long-section-names	Controls the handling of long section names when processing "COFF" and "PE-COFF" object formats. The default behaviour, keep, is to preserve long section names if any are present in the input file. The enable and disable options forcibly enable or disable the use of long section names in the output object; when disable is in effect, any long section names in the input object will be truncated. The enable option will only emit long section names if any are present in the inputs; this is mostly the same as keep, but it is left undefined whether the enable option might force the creation of an empty string table in the output file.
--change-leading-char	Some object file formats use special characters at the start of symbols. The most common such character is underscore, which compilers often add before every symbol. This option tells objcopy to change the leading character of every symbol when it converts between object file formats. If the object file formats use the same leading character, this option has no effect. Otherwise, it will add a character, or remove a character, or change a character, as appropriate.
--remove-leading-char	If the first character of a global symbol is a special symbol leading character used by the object file format, remove the character. The most common symbol leading character is underscore. This option will remove a leading underscore from all global symbols. This can be useful if you want to link together objects of different file formats with different conventions for symbol names. This is different from --change-leading-char because it always changes the symbol name when appropriate, regardless of the object file format of the output file.
--reverse-bytes	This option is used typically in generating ROM images for problematic target systems. For example, on some target boards, the 32-bit words fetched from 8-bit ROMs are re-assembled in little-endian byte order regardless of the CPU byte order. Depending on the programming model, the endianness of the ROM may need to be modified. Consider a simple file with a section containing the following eight bytes: 12345678. Using --reverse-bytes=2 for the above example, the bytes in the output file would be ordered 21436587. Using --reverse-bytes=4 for the above example, the bytes in the output file would be ordered 43218765. By using --reverse-bytes=2 for the above example, followed by --reverse-bytes=4 on the output file, the bytes in the second output file would be ordered 34127856.
--srec-len	Meaningful only for srec output. Set the maximum length of the Srecords being produced to ival. This length covers both address, data and crc fields.
--srec-forceS3	Meaningful only for srec output. Avoid generation of S1/S2 records, creating S3-only record format.
--redefine-symold	Change the name of a symbol old, to new. This can be useful when one is trying link two things together for which you have no source, and there are name collisions.
--redefine-syms	Apply --redefine-sym to each symbol pair "oldnew" listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol pair per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--weaken	Change all global symbols in the file to be weak. This can be useful when building an object which will be linked against other objects using the -R option to the linker. This option is only effective when using an object file format which supports weak symbols.
--keep-symbols	Apply --keep-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--strip-symbols	Apply --strip-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--strip-unneeded-symbols	Apply --strip-unneeded-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--keep-global-symbols	Apply --keep-global-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--localize-symbols	Apply --localize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--globalize-symbols	Apply --globalize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or --keep-global-symbol options.
--weaken-symbols	Apply --weaken-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.
--alt-machine-code	If the output architecture has alternate machine codes, use the indexth code instead of the default one. This is useful in case a machine is assigned an official code and the tool-chain adopts the new code, but other applications still depend on the original code being used. For ELF based architectures if the index alternative does not exist then the value is treated as an absolute number to be stored in the e_machine field of the ELF header.
--writable-text	Mark the output text as writable. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.
--readonly-text	Make the output text write protected. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.
--pure	Mark the output file as demand paged. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.
--impure	Mark the output file as impure. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.
--prefix-symbols	Prefix all symbols in the output file with string.
--prefix-sections	Prefix all section names in the output file with string.
--prefix-alloc-sections	Prefix all the names of all allocated sections in the output file with string.
--add-gnu-debuglink	If the debug info file is built in one location but it is going to be installed at a later time into a different location then do not use the path to the installed location. The --add-gnu-debuglink option will fail because the installed file does not exist yet. Instead put the debug info file in the current directory and use the --add-gnu-debuglink option without any directory components, like this: objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.debug At debug time the debugger will attempt to look for the separate debug info file in a set of known locations. The exact set of these locations varies depending upon the distribution being used, but it typically includes:
"* A sub-directory of the directory containing the executable"	called .debug
--keep-section-symbols	When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped.
--keep-file-symbols	When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get stripped.
--only-keep-debug	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. 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...
--only-keep-debug	create a file containing the debugging info.
--strip-debug	stripped executable.
--add-gnu-debuglink	to add a link to the debugging info into the stripped executable.
--strip-dwo	Remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining debugging sections and all symbols intact. This option is intended for use by the compiler as part of the -gsplit-dwarf option, which splits debug information between the .o file and a separate .dwo file. The compiler generates all debug information in the same file, then uses the --extract-dwo option to copy the .dwo sections to the .dwo file, then the --strip-dwo option to remove those sections from the original .o file.
--extract-dwo	Extract the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections. See the --strip-dwo option for more information.
--file-alignmentnum	Specify the file alignment. Sections in the file will always begin at file offsets which are multiples of this number. This defaults to 512. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--heapreserve	Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to be used as heap for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--image-basevalue	Use value as the base address of your program or dll. This is the lowest memory location that will be used when your program or dll is loaded. To reduce the need to relocate and improve performance of your dlls, each should have a unique base address and not overlap any other dlls. The default is 0x400000 for executables, and 0x10000000 for dlls. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--section-alignmentnum	Sets the section alignment field in the PE header - if one is present in the binary. Sections in memory will always begin at addresses which are a multiple of this number. Defaults to 0x1000. Note - this option will also set the alignment field in each section's flags. Note - if a section's LMA or VMA addresses are no longer aligned, and those addresses have not been set via the --set-section-lma or --set-section-vma options, and the file has been fully relocated then a warning message will be issued. It will then be up to the user to decide if the LMA and VMA need updating.
--stackreserve	Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to be used as stack for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--subsystemwhich:major.minor	Specifies the subsystem under which your program will execute. The legal values for which are "native", "windows", "console", "posix", "efi-app", "efi-bsd", "efi-rtd", "sal-rtd", and "xbox". You may optionally set the subsystem version also. Numeric values are also accepted for which. [This option is specific to PE targets.]
--extract-symbol	Keep the file's section flags and symbols but remove all section data. Specifically, the option:
--compress-debug-sections	Compress DWARF debug sections using zlib with SHF_COMPRESSED from the ELF ABI. Note - if compression would actually make a section larger, then it is not compressed.
--compress-debug-sections	For ELF files, these options control how DWARF debug sections are compressed. --compress-debug-sections=none is equivalent to --decompress-debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib and --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi are equivalent to --compress-debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu compresses DWARF debug sections using the obsoleted zlib-gnu format. The debug sections are renamed to begin with .zdebug. --compress-debug-sections=zstd compresses DWARF debug sections using zstd. Note - if compression would actually make a section larger, then it is not compressed nor renamed.
--decompress-debug-sections	Decompress DWARF debug sections. For a .zdebug section, the original name is restored.
--elf-stt-common	For ELF files, these options control whether common symbols should be converted to the "STT_COMMON" or "STT_OBJECT" type. --elf-stt-common=yes converts common symbol type to "STT_COMMON". --elf-stt-common=no converts common symbol type to "STT_OBJECT".
--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.
--version	Show the version number of objcopy.
--verilog-data-width	For Verilog output, this options controls the number of bytes converted for each output data element. The input target controls the endianness of the conversion.
--verbose	Verbose output: list all object files modified. In the case of archives, objcopy -V lists all members of the archive.
--help	Show a summary of the options to objcopy.
--info	Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available.
@file	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.

NAME

objcopy - copy and translate object files

objcopy [-Fbfdname|--target=bfdname] [-Ibfdname|--input-target=bfdname] [-Obfdname|--output-target=bfdname] [-Bbfdarch|--binary-architecture=bfdarch] [-S|--strip-all] [-g|--strip-debug] [--strip-unneeded] [-Ksymbolname|--keep-symbol=symbolname] [--keep-file-symbols] [--keep-section-symbols] [-Nsymbolname|--strip-symbol=symbolname] [--strip-unneeded-symbol=symbolname] [-Gsymbolname|--keep-global-symbol=symbolname] [--localize-hidden] [-Lsymbolname|--localize-symbol=symbolname] [--globalize-symbol=symbolname] [--globalize-symbols=filename] [-Wsymbolname|--weaken-symbol=symbolname] [-w|--wildcard] [-x|--discard-all] [-X|--discard-locals] [-bbyte|--byte=byte] [-i [breadth]|--interleave[=breadth]] [--interleave-width=width] [-jsectionpattern|--only-section=sectionpattern] [-Rsectionpattern|--remove-section=sectionpattern] [--keep-section=sectionpattern] [--remove-relocations=sectionpattern] [--strip-section-headers] [-p|--preserve-dates] [-D|--enable-deterministic-archives] [-U|--disable-deterministic-archives] [--debugging] [--gap-fill=val] [--pad-to=address] [--set-start=val] [--adjust-start=incr] [--change-addresses=incr] [--change-section-addresssectionpattern{=,+,-}val] [--change-section-lmasectionpattern{=,+,-}val] [--change-section-vmasectionpattern{=,+,-}val] [--change-warnings] [--no-change-warnings] [--set-section-flagssectionpattern=flags] [--set-section-alignmentsectionpattern=align] [--add-sectionsectionname=filename] [--dump-sectionsectionname=filename] [--update-sectionsectionname=filename] [--rename-sectionoldname=newname[,flags]] [--long-section-names {enable,disable,keep}] [--change-leading-char] [--remove-leading-char] [--reverse-bytes=num] [--srec-len=ival] [--srec-forceS3] [--redefine-symold=new] [--redefine-syms=filename] [--weaken] [--keep-symbols=filename] [--strip-symbols=filename] [--strip-unneeded-symbols=filename] [--keep-global-symbols=filename] [--localize-symbols=filename] [--weaken-symbols=filename] [--add-symbolname=[section:]value[,flags]] [--alt-machine-code=index] [--prefix-symbols=string] [--prefix-sections=string] [--prefix-alloc-sections=string] [--add-gnu-debuglink=path-to-file] [--only-keep-debug] [--strip-dwo] [--extract-dwo] [--extract-symbol] [--writable-text] [--readonly-text] [--pure] [--impure] [--file-alignment=num] [--heap=reserve[,commit]] [--image-base=address] [--section-alignment=num] [--stack=reserve[,commit]] [--subsystem=which:major.minor] [--compress-debug-sections] [--decompress-debug-sections] [--elf-stt-common=val] [--merge-notes] [--no-merge-notes] [--verilog-data-width=val] [-v|--verbose] [-V|--version] [--help] [--info] infile [outfile]

DESCRIPTION

The GNU objcopy utility copies the contents of an object file to another. objcopy uses the GNU BFD Library to read and write the object files. It can write the destination object file in a format different from that of the source object file. The exact behavior of objcopy is controlled by command-line options. Note that objcopy should be able to copy a fully linked file between any two formats. However, copying a relocatable object file between any two formats may not work as expected.

objcopy creates temporary files to do its translations and deletes them afterward. objcopy uses BFD to do all its translation work; it has access to all the formats described in BFD and thus is able to recognize most formats without being told explicitly.

objcopy can be used to generate S-records by using an output target of srec (e.g., use -O srec).

objcopy can be used to generate a raw binary file by using an output target of binary (e.g., use -O binary). When objcopy generates a raw binary file, it will essentially produce a memory dump of the contents of the input object file. All symbols and relocation information will be discarded. The memory dump will start at the load address of the lowest section copied into the output file.

When generating an S-record or a raw binary file, it may be helpful to use -S to remove sections containing debugging information. In some cases -R will be useful to remove sections which contain information that is not needed by the binary file.

Note---objcopy is not able to change the endianness of its input files. If the input format has an endianness (some formats do not), objcopy can only copy the inputs into file formats that have the same endianness or which have no endianness (e.g., srec). (However, see the --reverse-bytes option.)

OPTIONS

infile

outfile

The input and output files, respectively. If you do not specify outfile, objcopy creates a temporary file and destructively renames the result with the name of infile.

-Ibfdname

--input-target=bfdname

Consider the source file's object format to be bfdname, rather than attempting to deduce it.

-Obfdname

--output-target=bfdname

Write the output file using the object format bfdname.

-Fbfdname

--target=bfdname

Use bfdname as the object format for both the input and the output file; i.e., simply transfer data from source to destination with no translation.

-Bbfdarch

--binary-architecture=bfdarch

Useful when transforming a architecture-less input file into an object file. In this case the output architecture can be set to bfdarch. This option will be ignored if the input file has a known bfdarch. You can access this binary data inside a program by referencing the special symbols that are created by the conversion process. These symbols are called _binary_objfile_start, _binary_objfile_end and _binary_objfile_size. e.g. you can transform a picture file into an object file and then access it in your code using these symbols.

-jsectionpattern

--only-section=sectionpattern

If the first character of sectionpattern is the exclamation point (!) then matching sections will not be copied, even if earlier use of --only-section on the same command line would otherwise copy it. For example:

bash

          --only-section=.text.* --only-section=!.text.foo

will copy all sectinos matching '.text.*' but not the section '.text.foo'.

-Rsectionpattern

--remove-section=sectionpattern

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:

bash

          --remove-section=.text.* --remove-section=!.text.foo

will remove all sections matching the pattern '.text.*', but will not remove the section '.text.foo'.

--keep-section=sectionpattern

When removing sections from the output file, keep sections that match sectionpattern.

--remove-relocations=sectionpattern

bash

          --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:

bash

          --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'.

--strip-section-headers

Strip section header This option is specific to ELF files. Implies --strip-all and --merge-notes.

-S

--strip-all

Do not copy relocation and symbol information from the source file. Also deletes debug sections.

-g

--strip-debug

Do not copy debugging symbols or sections from the source file.

--strip-unneeded

Remove all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing in addition to debugging symbols and sections stripped by --strip-debug.

-Ksymbolname

--keep-symbol=symbolname

When stripping symbols, keep symbol symbolname even if it would normally be stripped. This option may be given more than once.

-Nsymbolname

--strip-symbol=symbolname

Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file. This option may be given more than once.

--strip-unneeded-symbol=symbolname

Do not copy symbol symbolname from the source file unless it is needed by a relocation. This option may be given more than once.

-Gsymbolname

--keep-global-symbol=symbolname

Keep only symbol symbolname global. Make all other symbols local to the file, so that they are not visible externally. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the --globalize-symbol or --globalize-symbols options.

--localize-hidden

In an ELF object, mark all symbols that have hidden or internal visibility as local. This option applies on top of symbol-specific localization options such as -L.

-Lsymbolname

--localize-symbol=symbolname

Convert a global or weak symbol called symbolname into a local symbol, so that it is not visible externally. This option may be given more than once. Note - unique symbols are not converted.

-Wsymbolname

--weaken-symbol=symbolname

Make symbol symbolname weak. This option may be given more than once.

--globalize-symbol=symbolname

Give symbol symbolname global scoping so that it is visible outside of the file in which it is defined. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or --keep-global-symbol options.

-w

--wildcard

bash

          -w -W !foo -W fo*

would cause objcopy to weaken all symbols that start with "fo" except for the symbol "foo".

-x

--discard-all

Do not copy non-global symbols from the source file.

-X

--discard-locals

Do not copy compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start with L or ..)

-bbyte

--byte=byte

If interleaving has been enabled via the --interleave option then start the range of bytes to keep at the byteth byte. byte can be in the range from 0 to breadth-1, where breadth is the value given by the --interleave option.

-i [breadth]

--interleave[=breadth]

This option is useful for creating files to program ROM. It is typically used with an "srec" output target. Note that objcopy will complain if you do not specify the --byte option as well.

The default interleave breadth is 4, so with --byte set to 0, objcopy would copy the first byte out of every four bytes from the input to the output.

--interleave-width=width

The default value for this option is 1. The value of width plus the byte value set by the --byte option must not exceed the interleave breadth set by the --interleave option.

This option can be used to create images for two 16-bit flashes interleaved in a 32-bit bus by passing -b 0 -i 4 --interleave-width=2 and -b 2 -i 4 --interleave-width=2 to two objcopy commands. If the input was '12345678' then the outputs would be '1256' and '3478' respectively.

-p

--preserve-dates

This option also copies the date stored in a PE format file's header, unless the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is defined. If it is defined then this variable will be used as the date stored in the header, interpreted as the number of seconds since the Unix epoch.

-D

--enable-deterministic-archives

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

This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives.

--debugging

Convert debugging information, if possible. This is not the default because only certain debugging formats are supported, and the conversion process can be time consuming.

--gap-fillval

Fill gaps between sections with val. This operation applies to the load address (LMA) of the sections. It is done by increasing the size of the section with the lower address, and filling in the extra space created with val.

--pad-toaddress

Pad the output file up to the load address address. This is done by increasing the size of the last section. The extra space is filled in with the value specified by --gap-fill (default zero).

--set-startval

Set the start address (also known as the entry address) of the new file to val. Not all object file formats support setting the start address.

--change-startincr

--adjust-startincr

Change the start address (also known as the entry address) by adding incr. Not all object file formats support setting the start address.

--change-addressesincr

--adjust-vmaincr

Change the VMA and LMA addresses of all sections, as well as the start address, by adding incr. Some object file formats do not permit section addresses to be changed arbitrarily. Note that this does not relocate the sections; if the program expects sections to be loaded at a certain address, and this option is used to change the sections such that they are loaded at a different address, the program may fail.

--change-section-addresssectionpattern{=,+,-}val

--adjust-section-vmasectionpattern{=,+,-}val

Set or change both the VMA address and the LMA address of any section matching sectionpattern. If = is used, the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments under --change-addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.

--change-section-lmasectionpattern{=,+,-}val

Set or change the LMA address of any sections matching sectionpattern. The LMA address is the address where the section will be loaded into memory at program load time. Normally this is the same as the VMA address, which is the address of the section at program run time, but on some systems, especially those where a program is held in ROM, the two can be different. If = is used, the section address is set to val. Otherwise, val is added to or subtracted from the section address. See the comments under --change-addresses, above. If sectionpattern does not match any sections in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless --no-change-warnings is used.

--change-section-vmasectionpattern{=,+,-}val

Note - changing the VMA of sections in a fully linked binary can be dangerous since there may be code that expects the sections to be located at their old address.

--change-warnings

--adjust-warnings

If --change-section-address or --change-section-lma or --change-section-vma is used, and the section pattern does not match any sections, issue a warning. This is the default.

--no-change-warnings

--no-adjust-warnings

Do not issue a warning if --change-section-address or --adjust-section-lma or --adjust-section-vma is used, even if the section pattern does not match any sections.

--set-section-flagssectionpattern=flags

Set the flags for any sections matching sectionpattern. The flags argument is a comma separated string of flag names. The recognized names are alloc, contents, load, noload, readonly, code, data, rom, exclude, share, debug, and large. You can set the contents flag for a section which does not have contents, but it is not meaningful to clear the contents flag of a section which does have contents--just remove the section instead. Not all flags are meaningful for all object file formats. In particular the share flag is only meaningful for COFF format files and not for ELF format files. The ELF x86-64 specific flag large corresponds to SHF_X86_64_LARGE.

--set-section-alignmentsectionpattern=align

Note - setting a section's alignment will not automatically align its LMA or VMA addresses. If those need to be changed as well then the --change-section-lma and/or --change-section-vma options should be used. Also note that changing VMAs can cause problems in fully linked binaries where there may be code that expects the contents of the sections to be located at their old address.

--add-sectionsectionname=filename

Add a new section named sectionname while copying the file. The contents of the new section are taken from the file filename. The size of the section will be the size of the file. This option only works on file formats which can support sections with arbitrary names. Note - it may be necessary to use the --set-section-flags option to set the attributes of the newly created section.

--dump-sectionsectionname=filename

Place the contents of section named sectionname into the file filename, overwriting any contents that may have been there previously. This option is the inverse of --add-section. This option is similar to the --only-section option except that it does not create a formatted file, it just dumps the contents as raw binary data, without applying any relocations. The option can be specified more than once.

--update-sectionsectionname=filename

Note - it is possible to use --rename-section and --update-section to both update and rename a section from one command line. In this case, pass the original section name to --update-section, and the original and new section names to --rename-section.

--add-symbolname=[section:]value[,flags]

Add a new symbol named name while copying the file. This option may be specified multiple times. If the section is given, the symbol will be associated with and relative to that section, otherwise it will be an ABS symbol. Specifying an undefined section will result in a fatal error. There is no check for the value, it will be taken as specified. Symbol flags can be specified and not all flags will be meaningful for all object file formats. By default, the symbol will be global. The special flag 'before=othersym' will insert the new symbol in front of the specified othersym, otherwise the symbol(s) will be added at the end of the symbol table in the order they appear.

--rename-sectionoldname=newname[,flags]

This option is particularly helpful when the input format is binary, since this will always create a section called .data. If for example, you wanted instead to create a section called .rodata containing binary data you could use the following command line to achieve it:

bash

          objcopy -I binary -O <output_format> -B <architecture> \
           --rename-section .data=.rodata,alloc,load,readonly,data,contents \
           <input_binary_file> <output_object_file>

--long-section-names {enable,disable,keep}

Controls the handling of long section names when processing "COFF" and "PE-COFF" object formats. The default behaviour, keep, is to preserve long section names if any are present in the input file. The enable and disable options forcibly enable or disable the use of long section names in the output object; when disable is in effect, any long section names in the input object will be truncated. The enable option will only emit long section names if any are present in the inputs; this is mostly the same as keep, but it is left undefined whether the enable option might force the creation of an empty string table in the output file.

--change-leading-char

Some object file formats use special characters at the start of symbols. The most common such character is underscore, which compilers often add before every symbol. This option tells objcopy to change the leading character of every symbol when it converts between object file formats. If the object file formats use the same leading character, this option has no effect. Otherwise, it will add a character, or remove a character, or change a character, as appropriate.

--remove-leading-char

If the first character of a global symbol is a special symbol leading character used by the object file format, remove the character. The most common symbol leading character is underscore. This option will remove a leading underscore from all global symbols. This can be useful if you want to link together objects of different file formats with different conventions for symbol names. This is different from --change-leading-char because it always changes the symbol name when appropriate, regardless of the object file format of the output file.

--reverse-bytes=num

This option is used typically in generating ROM images for problematic target systems. For example, on some target boards, the 32-bit words fetched from 8-bit ROMs are re-assembled in little-endian byte order regardless of the CPU byte order. Depending on the programming model, the endianness of the ROM may need to be modified.

Consider a simple file with a section containing the following eight bytes: 12345678.

Using --reverse-bytes=2 for the above example, the bytes in the output file would be ordered 21436587.

Using --reverse-bytes=4 for the above example, the bytes in the output file would be ordered 43218765.

By using --reverse-bytes=2 for the above example, followed by --reverse-bytes=4 on the output file, the bytes in the second output file would be ordered 34127856.

--srec-len=ival

Meaningful only for srec output. Set the maximum length of the Srecords being produced to ival. This length covers both address, data and crc fields.

--srec-forceS3

Meaningful only for srec output. Avoid generation of S1/S2 records, creating S3-only record format.

--redefine-symold=new

Change the name of a symbol old, to new. This can be useful when one is trying link two things together for which you have no source, and there are name collisions.

--redefine-syms=filename

Apply --redefine-sym to each symbol pair "oldnew" listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol pair per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--weaken

Change all global symbols in the file to be weak. This can be useful when building an object which will be linked against other objects using the -R option to the linker. This option is only effective when using an object file format which supports weak symbols.

--keep-symbols=filename

Apply --keep-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--strip-symbols=filename

Apply --strip-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--strip-unneeded-symbols=filename

Apply --strip-unneeded-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--keep-global-symbols=filename

Apply --keep-global-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--localize-symbols=filename

Apply --localize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--globalize-symbols=filename

Apply --globalize-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once. Note: this option cannot be used in conjunction with the -G or --keep-global-symbol options.

--weaken-symbols=filename

Apply --weaken-symbol option to each symbol listed in the file filename. filename is simply a flat file, with one symbol name per line. Line comments may be introduced by the hash character. This option may be given more than once.

--alt-machine-code=index

If the output architecture has alternate machine codes, use the indexth code instead of the default one. This is useful in case a machine is assigned an official code and the tool-chain adopts the new code, but other applications still depend on the original code being used. For ELF based architectures if the index alternative does not exist then the value is treated as an absolute number to be stored in the e_machine field of the ELF header.

--writable-text

Mark the output text as writable. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.

--readonly-text

Make the output text write protected. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.

--pure

Mark the output file as demand paged. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.

--impure

Mark the output file as impure. This option isn't meaningful for all object file formats.

--prefix-symbols=string

Prefix all symbols in the output file with string.

--prefix-sections=string

Prefix all section names in the output file with string.

--prefix-alloc-sections=string

Prefix all the names of all allocated sections in the output file with string.

--add-gnu-debuglink=path-to-file

If the debug info file is built in one location but it is going to be installed at a later time into a different location then do not use the path to the installed location. The --add-gnu-debuglink option will fail because the installed file does not exist yet. Instead put the debug info file in the current directory and use the --add-gnu-debuglink option without any directory components, like this:

bash

         objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.debug

At debug time the debugger will attempt to look for the separate debug info file in a set of known locations. The exact set of these locations varies depending upon the distribution being used, but it typically includes:

"* The same directory as the executable."
"* A sub-directory of the directory containing the executable": called .debug
"* A global debug directory such as /usr/lib/debug."

As long as the debug info file has been installed into one of these locations before the debugger is run everything should work correctly.

--keep-section-symbols

When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying section names, which would otherwise get stripped.

--keep-file-symbols

When stripping a file, perhaps with --strip-debug or --strip-unneeded, retain any symbols specifying source file names, which would otherwise get stripped.

--only-keep-debug

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.

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...
1.<Run "objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg" to>: create a file containing the debugging info.
1.<Run "objcopy --strip-debug foo" to create a>: stripped executable.
1.<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.>
1.<Copy "foo" to "foo.full">
1.<Run "objcopy --strip-debug foo">
1.<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.

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.

--strip-dwo

Remove the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections, leaving the remaining debugging sections and all symbols intact. This option is intended for use by the compiler as part of the -gsplit-dwarf option, which splits debug information between the .o file and a separate .dwo file. The compiler generates all debug information in the same file, then uses the --extract-dwo option to copy the .dwo sections to the .dwo file, then the --strip-dwo option to remove those sections from the original .o file.

--extract-dwo

Extract the contents of all DWARF .dwo sections. See the --strip-dwo option for more information.

--file-alignmentnum

Specify the file alignment. Sections in the file will always begin at file offsets which are multiples of this number. This defaults to 512. [This option is specific to PE targets.]

--heapreserve

--heapreserve,commit

Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to be used as heap for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]

--image-basevalue

Use value as the base address of your program or dll. This is the lowest memory location that will be used when your program or dll is loaded. To reduce the need to relocate and improve performance of your dlls, each should have a unique base address and not overlap any other dlls. The default is 0x400000 for executables, and 0x10000000 for dlls. [This option is specific to PE targets.]

--section-alignmentnum

Sets the section alignment field in the PE header - if one is present in the binary. Sections in memory will always begin at addresses which are a multiple of this number. Defaults to 0x1000.

Note - this option will also set the alignment field in each section's flags.

Note - if a section's LMA or VMA addresses are no longer aligned, and those addresses have not been set via the --set-section-lma or --set-section-vma options, and the file has been fully relocated then a warning message will be issued. It will then be up to the user to decide if the LMA and VMA need updating.

--stackreserve

--stackreserve,commit

Specify the number of bytes of memory to reserve (and optionally commit) to be used as stack for this program. [This option is specific to PE targets.]

--subsystemwhich

--subsystemwhich:major

--subsystemwhich:major.minor

Specifies the subsystem under which your program will execute. The legal values for which are "native", "windows", "console", "posix", "efi-app", "efi-bsd", "efi-rtd", "sal-rtd", and "xbox". You may optionally set the subsystem version also. Numeric values are also accepted for which. [This option is specific to PE targets.]

--extract-symbol

Keep the file's section flags and symbols but remove all section data. Specifically, the option:

*<removes the contents of all sections;>
*<sets the size of every section to zero; and>
*<sets the file's start address to zero.>

This option is used to build a .sym file for a VxWorks kernel. It can also be a useful way of reducing the size of a --just-symbols linker input file.

--compress-debug-sections: Compress DWARF debug sections using zlib with SHF_COMPRESSED from the ELF ABI. Note - if compression would actually make a section larger, then it is not compressed.
--compress-debug-sections=none
--compress-debug-sections=zlib
--compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu
--compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi
--compress-debug-sections=zstd: For ELF files, these options control how DWARF debug sections are compressed. --compress-debug-sections=none is equivalent to --decompress-debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib and --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gabi are equivalent to --compress-debug-sections. --compress-debug-sections=zlib-gnu compresses DWARF debug sections using the obsoleted zlib-gnu format. The debug sections are renamed to begin with .zdebug. --compress-debug-sections=zstd compresses DWARF debug sections using zstd. Note - if compression would actually make a section larger, then it is not compressed nor renamed.
--decompress-debug-sections: Decompress DWARF debug sections. For a .zdebug section, the original name is restored.
--elf-stt-common=yes
--elf-stt-common=no: For ELF files, these options control whether common symbols should be converted to the "STT_COMMON" or "STT_OBJECT" type. --elf-stt-common=yes converts common symbol type to "STT_COMMON". --elf-stt-common=no converts common symbol type to "STT_OBJECT".
--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.
-V
--version: Show the version number of objcopy.
--verilog-data-width=bytes: For Verilog output, this options controls the number of bytes converted for each output data element. The input target controls the endianness of the conversion.
-v
--verbose: Verbose output: list all object files modified. In the case of archives, objcopy -V lists all members of the archive.
--help: Show a summary of the options to objcopy.
--info: Display a list showing all architectures and object formats available.
@file: 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.

COPYRIGHT

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".

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