GNU Binutils

GNU Binutils

Developer(s)	GNU Project
Stable release	2.31 / 14 July 2018 (2018-07-14)
Repository	sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git
Type	Programming tools
License	GNU GPL
Website	www.gnu.org/software/binutils/

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.

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.

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
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 indices 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

elfutils

Ulrich Drepper wrote elfutils, to replace GNU Binutils, purely for Linux and with support only for ELF and DWARF.

See also

• GNU Core Utilities
• List of Unix utilities
• GNU Debugger

External links

• GNU Binutils homepage
• Binutils for Linux