binutils/objcopy.1

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1991 Free Software Foundation
   2 .\" See section COPYING for conditions for redistribution
   3 .TH objcopy 1 "October 1994" "cygnus support" "GNU Development Tools"
   4 .de BP
   5 .sp
   6 .ti \-.2i
   7 \(**
   8 ..
   9
  10 .SH NAME
  11 objcopy \- copy and translate object files
  12
  13 .SH SYNOPSIS
  14 .hy 0
  15 .na
  16 .TP
  17 .B objcopy
  18 .RB "[\|" \-F\ \fIbfdname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-target=\fIbfdname\fR "\|]"
  19 .RB "[\|" \-I\ \fIbfdname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-input\-target=\fIbfdname\fR "\|]"
  20 .RB "[\|" \-O\ \fIbfdname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-output\-target=\fIbfdname\fR "\|]"
  21 .RB "[\|" \-R\ \fIsectionname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-remove\-section=\fIsectionname\fR "\|]"
  22 .RB "[\|" \-S\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-strip\-all\fR "\|]"
  23 .RB "[\|" \-g\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-strip\-debug\fR "\|]"
  24 .RB "[\|" \-\-strip\-unneeded\fR "\|]"
  25 .RB "[\|" \-K\ \fIsymbolname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-keep\-symbol=\fIsymbolname\fR "\|]"
  26 .RB "[\|" \-N\ \fIsymbolname\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-strip\-symbol=\fIsymbolname\fR "\|]"
  27 .RB "[\|" \-x\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-discard\-all\fR "\|]"
  28 .RB "[\|" \-X\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-discard\-locals\fR "\|]"
  29 .RB "[\|" \-b\ \fIbyte\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-byte=\fIbyte\fR "\|]"
  30 .RB "[\|" \-i\ \fIinterleave\fR\ |\ \fB\-\-interleave=\fIinterleave\fR "\|]"
  31 .RB "[\|" \-\-debugging "\|]"
  32 .RB "[\|" \-\-gap\-fill=\fIval\fR "\|]"
  33 .RB "[\|" \-\-pad\-to=\fIaddress\fR "\|]"
  34 .RB "[\|" \-\-set\-start=\fIval\fR "\|]"
  35 .RB "[\|" \-\-adjust\-start=\fIincr\fR "\|]"
  36 .RB "[\|" \-\-adjust\-vma=\fIincr\fR "\|]"
  37 .RB "[\|" \-\-adjust\-section\-vma=\fIsection{=,+,-}val\fR "\|]"
  38 .RB "[\|" \-\-adjust\-warnings\fR "\|]"
  39 .RB "[\|" \-\-no\-adjust\-warnings\fR "\|]"
  40 .RB "[\|" \-\-set\-section\-flags=\fIsection=flags\fR "\|]"
  41 .RB "[\|" \-\-add\-section=\fIsectionname=filename\fR "\|]"
  42 .RB "[\|" \-\-change\-leading\-char\fR "\|]"
  43 .RB "[\|" \-\-remove\-leading\-char\fR "\|]"
  44 .RB "[\|" \-\-weaken\fR "\|]"
  45 .RB "[\|" \-v\ |\ \-\-verbose\fR "\|]"
  46 .RB "[\|" \-V\ |\ \-\-version\fR "\|]"
  47 .RB "[\|" \-\-help\fR "\|]"
  48 .B infile
  49 .RB "[\|" outfile\fR "\|]"
  50 .SH DESCRIPTION
  51 The GNU
  52 .B objcopy
  53 utility copies the contents of an object file to another.
  54 .B objcopy
  55 uses the GNU BFD Library to read and write the object files.  It can
  56 write the destination object file in a format different from that of
  57 the source object file.  The exact behavior of
  58 .B objcopy
  59 is controlled by command-line options.
  60 .PP
  61 .B objcopy
  62 creates temporary files to do its translations and deletes them
  63 afterward.
  64 .B objcopy
  65 uses BFD to do all its translation work; it knows about all the
  66 formats BFD knows about, and thus is able to recognize most formats
  67 without being told explicitly.
  68 .PP
  69 .B objcopy
  70 can be used to generate S-records by using an output target of
  71 .B srec
  72 (e.g., use
  73 .B -O srec).
  74 .PP
  75 .B objcopy
  76 can be used to generate a raw binary file by using an output target of
  77 .B binary
  78 (e.g., use
  79 .B -O binary).
  80 When
  81 .B objcopy
  82 generates a raw binary file, it will essentially produce a memory dump
  83 of the contents of the input object file.  All symbols and relocation
  84 information will be discarded.  The memory dump will start at the
  85 virtual address of the lowest section copied into the output file.
  86 .PP
  87 When generating an S-record or a raw binary file, it may be helpful to
  88 use
  89 .B -S
  90 to remove sections containing debugging information.  In some cases
  91 .B -R
  92 will be useful to remove sections which contain information which is
  93 not needed by the binary file.
  94 .PP
  95 .I infile
  96 and
  97 .I outfile
  98 are the source and output files respectively.  If you do not specify
  99 .IR outfile ,
 100 .B objcopy
 101 creates a temporary file and destructively renames the result with the
 102 name of the input file.
 103
 104 .SH OPTIONS
 105 .TP
 106 .B \-I \fIbfdname\fR, \fB\-\-input\-target=\fIbfdname
 107 Consider the source file's object format to be
 108 .IR bfdname ,
 109 rather than attempting to deduce it.
 110 .TP
 111 .B \-O \fIbfdname\fR, \fB\-\-output\-target=\fIbfdname
 112 Write the output file using the object format
 113 .IR bfdname .
 114 .TP
 115 .B \-F \fIbfdname\fR, \fB\-\-target=\fIbfdname
 116 Use
 117 .I bfdname
 118 as the object format for both the input and the output file; i.e.
 119 simply transfer data from source to destination with no translation.
 120 .TP
 121 .B \-R \fIsectionname\fR, \fB\-\-remove-section=\fIsectionname
 122 Remove the named section from the file.  This option may be given more
 123 than once.  Note that using this option inappropriately may make the
 124 output file unusable.
 125 .TP
 126 .B \-S\fR, \fB\-\-strip\-all
 127 Do not copy relocation and symbol information from the source file.
 128 .TP
 129 .B \-g\fR, \fB\-\-strip\-debug
 130 Do not copy debugging symbols from the source file.
 131 .TP
 132 .B \-\-strip\-unneeded
 133 Strip all symbols that are not needed for relocation processing.
 134 .TP
 135 .B \-K \fIsymbolname\fR, \fB\-\-keep\-symbol=\fIsymbolname
 136 Copy only symbol \fIsymbolname\fP from the source file. This option
 137 may be given more than once.
 138 .TP
 139 .B \-N \fIsymbolname\fR, \fB\-\-strip\-symbol=\fIsymbolname
 140 Do not copy symbol \fIsymbolname\fP from the source file. This option
 141 may be given more than once, and may be combined with strip options
 142 other than \fB\-K\fR.
 143 .TP
 144 .B \-x\fR, \fB \-\-discard\-all
 145 Do not copy non-global symbols from the source file.
 146 .TP
 147 .B \-X\fR, \fB\-\-discard\-locals
 148 Do not copy compiler-generated local symbols. (These usually start
 149 with "L" or ".").
 150 .TP
 151 .B \-b \fIbyte\fR, \fB\-\-byte=\fIbyte
 152 Keep only every \fIbyte\fPth byte of the input file (header data is
 153 not affected).  \fIbyte\fP can be in the range from 0 to the
 154 interleave-1.  This option is useful for creating files to program
 155 ROMs.  It is typically used with an srec output target.
 156 .TP
 157 .B \-i \fIinterleave\fR, \fB\-\-interleave=\fIinterleave
 158 Only copy one out of every \fIinterleave\fP bytes.  Which one to copy is
 159 selected by the \fB\-b\fP or \fB\-\-byte\fP option.  The default is 4.
 160 The interleave is ignored if neither \fB\-b\fP nor \fB\-\-byte\fP is given.
 161 .TP
 162 .B \-\-debugging
 163 Convert debugging information, if possible.  This is not the default
 164 because only certain debugging formats are supported, and the
 165 conversion process can be time consuming.
 166 .TP
 167 .B \-\-gap\-fill=\fIval
 168 Fill gaps between sections with \fIval\fP.  This is done by increasing
 169 the size of the section with the lower address, and filling in the extra
 170 space created with \fIval\fP.
 171 .TP
 172 .B \-\-pad\-to=\fIaddress
 173 Pad the output file up to the virtual address \fIaddress\fP.  This is
 174 done by increasing the size of the last section.  The extra space is
 175 filled in with the value specified by \fB\-\-gap\-fill\fP (default
 176 zero).
 177 .TP
 178 .B \fB\-\-set\-start=\fIval
 179 Set the start address of the new file to \fIval\fP.  Not all object
 180 file formats support setting the start address.
 181 .TP
 182 .B \fB\-\-adjust\-start=\fIincr
 183 Adjust the start address by adding \fIincr\fP.  Not all object file
 184 formats support setting the start address.
 185 .TP
 186 .B \fB\-\-adjust\-vma=\fIincr
 187 Adjust the address of all sections, as well as the start address, by
 188 adding \fIincr\fP.  Some object file formats do not permit section
 189 addresses to be changed arbitrarily.  Note that this does not relocate
 190 the sections; if the program expects sections to be loaded at a
 191 certain address, and this option is used to change the sections such
 192 that they are loaded at a different address, the program may fail.
 193 .TP
 194 .B \fB\-\-adjust\-section\-vma=\fIsection{=,+,-}val
 195 Set or adjust the address of the named \fIsection\fP.  If \fI=\fP is
 196 used, the section address is set to \fIval\fP.  Otherwise, \fIval\fP
 197 is added to or subtracted from the section address.  See the comments
 198 under \fB\-\-adjust\-vma\fP, above.  If \fIsection\fP does not exist
 199 in the input file, a warning will be issued, unless
 200 \fB\-\-no\-adjust\-warnings\fP is used.
 201 .TP
 202 .B \fB\-\-adjust\-warnings
 203 If \fB\-\-adjust\-section\-vma\fP is used, and the named section does
 204 not exist, issue a warning.  This is the default.
 205 .TP
 206 .B \fB\-\-no\-adjust\-warnings
 207 Do not issue a warning if \fB\-\-adjust\-section\-vma\fP is used, even
 208 if the named section does not exist.
 209 .TP
 210 .B \fB\-\-set\-section\-flags=\fIsection=flags
 211 Set the flags for the named section.  The \fIflags\fP argument is a
 212 comma separated string of flag names.  The recognized names are
 213 \fIalloc\fP, \fIload\fP, \fIreadonly\fP, \fIcode\fP, \fIdata\fP, and
 214 \fIrom\fP.  Not all flags are meaningful for all object file
 215 formats.
 216 .TP
 217 .B \fB\-\-add\-section=\fIsectionname=filename
 218 Add a new section named \fIsectionname\fR while copying the file.  The
 219 contents of the new section are taken from the file \fIfilename\fR.
 220 The size of the section will be the size of the file.  This option
 221 only works on file formats which can support sections with arbitrary
 222 names.
 223 .TP
 224 .B \-\-change\-leading\-char
 225 Some object file formats use special characters at the start of
 226 symbols.  The most common such character is underscore, which compilers
 227 often add before every symbol.  This option tells
 228 .B objcopy
 229 to change the leading character of every symbol when it converts
 230 between object file formats.  If the object file formats use the same
 231 leading character, this option has no effect.  Otherwise, it will add
 232 a character, or remove a character, or change a character, as
 233 appropriate.
 234 .TP
 235 .B \-\-remove\-leading\-char
 236 If the first character of a global symbol is a special symbol leading
 237 character used by the object file format, remove the character.  The
 238 most common symbol leading character is underscore.  This option will
 239 remove a leading underscore from all global symbols.  This can be
 240 useful if you want to link together objects of different file formats
 241 with different conventions for symbol names.  This is different from
 242 @code{--change-leading-char} because it always changes the symbol name
 243 when appropriate, regardless of the object file format of the output
 244 .TP
 245 .B\-\-weaken
 246 Change all global symbols in the file to be weak.
 247 .TP
 248 .B \-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose
 249 Verbose output: list all object files modified.  In the case of
 250 archives, "\fBobjcopy \-V\fR" lists all members of the archive.
 251 .TP
 252 .B \-V\fR, \fB\-\-version
 253 Show the version number of
 254 .B objcopy
 255 and exit.
 256 .TP
 257 .B \-\-help
 258 Show a summary of the options to
 259 .B objcopy
 260 and exit.
 261 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 262 .RB "`\|" binutils "\|'"
 263 entry in
 264 .B
 265 info\c
 266 \&;
 267 .I
 268 The GNU Binary Utilities\c
 269 \&, Roland H. Pesch (June 1993).
 270
 271 .SH COPYING
 272 Copyright (c) 1993, 94, 95, 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 273 .PP
 274 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
 275 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
 276 are preserved on all copies.
 277 .PP
 278 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
 279 manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
 280 entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
 281 permission notice identical to this one.
 282 .PP
 283 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
 284 manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
 285 versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
 286 translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
 287 the original English.