GNU Binutils

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GNU Binutils
Developed by GNU Project
Latest release 2.18 (August 2007)
Genre programming tools
License GPL
Website www.gnu.org/software/binutils/

The GNU Binary Utilities, or binutils, is a collection of programming tools for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats. The current versions were originally written by programmers at Cygnus Solutions using the Binary File Descriptor library (libbfd). They are typically used in conjunction with GNU Compiler Collection, make, and GDB.

Originally the package consisted of only the minor utilities, but later the GNU Assembler (GAS) and GNU Linker (GLD) were included in releases, since their functionality is so closely related.

Most of the binutils are rather simple programs. Most of the complexity is encapsulated in the libbfd and libopcodes libraries, which they share.

The original BFD versions were written by David Henkel-Wallace and Steve Chamberlain. Past maintainers have included Ken Raeburn and Ian Lance Taylor. As of 2005 the current maintainer is Nick Clifton.

[edit] Commands

The binutils include the following commands:

as 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
nlmconv object file conversion to a NetWare Loadable Module
nm list symbols in object files
objcopy copy object files, possibly making changes
objdump dump information about object files
ranlib generate indexes for archives
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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links