strip (Unix)
Developer(s) | AT&T Bell Laboratories |
---|---|
Initial release | June 12, 1972 |
Operating system | Unix and Unix-like, Microsoft Windows |
Type | Command |
In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the strip
program removes inessential information from executable binary programs and object files, thus potentially resulting in better performance and sometimes significantly less disk space usage ('inessential information' means information that is not required for correct functioning of the binary in normal execution). This information may consist of debugging and symbol information; however the standard leaves the scope of changes up to the implementer.
Furthermore, the use of strip
can improve the security of the binary against reverse engineering. It will be more difficult to analyze a binary without its information and object's names.
The effect of strip
can be achieved directly by the linker. For instance, in GNU Compiler Collection this option is "-s
".
The GNU Project ships an implementation of strip
as part of the GNU Binutils package. strip
has been ported to other operating systems including Microsoft Windows.
See also
- Stripped binary
- Executable compression
- List of Unix commands
- Strings (Unix)
- Debug symbol
- Symbol table
References
- "strip", The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2, The Open Group, 1997
External links
- The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group – Shell and Utilities Reference,