READELF(1) | GNU Development Tools | READELF(1)

# NAME

readelf - Displays information about ELF files.

# SYNOPSIS

readelf [-a|--all]
[-h|--file-header]
[-l|--program-headers|--segments]
[-S|--section-headers|--sections]
[-g|--section-groups]
[-t|--section-details]
[-e|--headers]
[-s|--syms|--symbols]
[-n|--notes]
[-r|--relocs]
[-u|--unwind]
[-d|--dynamic]
[-V|--version-info]
[-A|--arch-specific]
[-D|--use-dynamic]
[-x <number or name>|--hex-dump=<number or name>]
[-w[liaprmfFsoR]|
--debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges]]
[-I|-histogram]
[-v|--version]
[-W|--wide]
[-H|--help]
elffile...

# DESCRIPTION

readelf displays information about one or more ELF format object files. The options control what particular information to display.

elffile... are the object files to be examined. 32-bit and 64-bit ELF files are supported, as are archives containing ELF files.

This program performs a similar function to objdump but it goes into more detail and it exists independently of the BFD library, so if there is a bug in BFD then readelf will not be affected.

# OPTIONS

The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are equivalent. At least one option besides -v or -H must be given.

-a
--all
  Equivalent to specifiying --file-header, --program-headers, --sections, --symbols, --relocs, --dynamic, --notes and --version-info.
-h
--file-header
  Displays the information contained in the ELF header at the start of the file.
-l
--program-headers
--segments
  Displays the information contained in the file's segment headers, if it has any.
-S
--sections
--section-headers
  Displays the information contained in the file's section headers, if it has any.
-g
--section-groups
  Displays the information contained in the file's section groups, if it has any.
-t
--section-details
  Displays the detailed section information. Implies -S.
-s
--symbols
--syms
  Displays the entries in symbol table section of the file, if it has one.
-e
--headers
  Display all the headers in the file. Equivalent to -h -l -S.
-n
--notes
  Displays the contents of the NOTE segments and/or sections, if any.
-r
--relocs
  Displays the contents of the file's relocation section, if it has one.
-u
--unwind
  Displays the contents of the file's unwind section, if it has one. Only the unwind sections for IA64 ELF files are currently supported.
-d
--dynamic
  Displays the contents of the file's dynamic section, if it has one.
-V
--version-info
  Displays the contents of the version sections in the file, it they exist.
-A
--arch-specific
  Displays architecture-specific information in the file, if there is any.
-D
--use-dynamic
  When displaying symbols, this option makes readelf use the symbol table in the file's dynamic section, rather than the one in the symbols section.
-x <number or name>
--hex-dump=<number or name>
  Displays the contents of the indicated section as a hexadecimal dump. A number identifies a particular section by index in the section table; any other string identifies all sections with that name in the object file.
-w[liaprmfFsoR]
--debug-dump[=line,=info,=abbrev,=pubnames,=aranges,=macro,=frames,=frames-interp,=str,=loc,=Ranges]
  Displays the contents of the debug sections in the file, if any are present. If one of the optional letters or words follows the switch then only data found in those specific sections will be dumped.
-I
--histogram
  Display a histogram of bucket list lengths when displaying the contents of the symbol tables.
-v
--version
  Display the version number of readelf.
-W
--wide
  Don't break output lines to fit into 80 columns. By default readelf breaks section header and segment listing lines for 64-bit ELF files, so that they fit into 80 columns. This option causes readelf to print each section header resp. each segment one a single line, which is far more readable on terminals wider than 80 columns.
-H
--help
  Display the command line options understood by readelf.
@file
  Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.

  Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.

# SEE ALSO

objdump(1), and the Info entries for binutils.

# COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

2025-10-12 | binutils-2.17