Binutils is a software tool that enables the creation and manipulation of binary and object files. It offers a range of programs to assemble and utilize these files efficiently.
The GNU Binutils package is a collection of essential binary tools that software developers often use for compiling and linking programs. The main tools include ld, the GNU linker, and as, the GNU assembler. However, the package also includes other useful utilities such as addr2line for converting addresses into filenames and line numbers, ar for creating, modifying, and extracting from archives, c++filt for demangling encoded C++ symbols, gprof for displaying profiling information, and nm for listing symbols from object files.
Moreover, objcopy can copy and translate object files, objdump can display information from object files, and ranlib can generate an index to the contents of an archive. Additionally, readelf can display information from any ELF format object file, size can list the section sizes of an object or archive file, strings can list printable strings from files, strip can discard symbols, and windres can be used as a compiler for Windows resource files.
Most of these programs use BFD, the Binary File Descriptor library, for doing low-level manipulation, while many of them also use the opcodes library to assemble and disassemble machine instructions. The binutils have been ported to most major Unix variants as well as Wintel systems. Overall, the GNU Binutils package is a comprehensive utility that programmers can rely on during the software development process.
Moreover, objcopy can copy and translate object files, objdump can display information from object files, and ranlib can generate an index to the contents of an archive. Additionally, readelf can display information from any ELF format object file, size can list the section sizes of an object or archive file, strings can list printable strings from files, strip can discard symbols, and windres can be used as a compiler for Windows resource files.
Most of these programs use BFD, the Binary File Descriptor library, for doing low-level manipulation, while many of them also use the opcodes library to assemble and disassemble machine instructions. The binutils have been ported to most major Unix variants as well as Wintel systems. Overall, the GNU Binutils package is a comprehensive utility that programmers can rely on during the software development process.
What's New
Version 2.20: N/A