Go to main content

man pages section 1: User Commands

Exit Print View

Updated: July 2017
 
 

nm (1g)

Name

nm - list symbols from object files

Synopsis

nm [-a|--debug-syms]
[-g|--extern-only][--plugin name]
[-B] [-C|--demangle[=style]] [-D|--dynamic]
[-S|--print-size] [-s|--print-armap]
[-A|-o|--print-file-name][--special-syms]
[-n|-v|--numeric-sort] [-p|--no-sort]
[-r|--reverse-sort] [--size-sort] [-u|--undefined-only]
[-t radix|--radix=radix] [-P|--portability]
[--target=bfdname] [-fformat|--format=format]
[--defined-only] [-l|--line-numbers] [--no-demangle]
[-V|--version] [-X 32_64] [--help]  [objfile...]

Description

NM(1)                        GNU Development Tools                       NM(1)



NAME
       nm - list symbols from object files

SYNOPSIS
       nm [-a|--debug-syms]
          [-g|--extern-only][--plugin name]
          [-B] [-C|--demangle[=style]] [-D|--dynamic]
          [-S|--print-size] [-s|--print-armap]
          [-A|-o|--print-file-name][--special-syms]
          [-n|-v|--numeric-sort] [-p|--no-sort]
          [-r|--reverse-sort] [--size-sort] [-u|--undefined-only]
          [-t radix|--radix=radix] [-P|--portability]
          [--target=bfdname] [-fformat|--format=format]
          [--defined-only] [-l|--line-numbers] [--no-demangle]
          [-V|--version] [-X 32_64] [--help]  [objfile...]

DESCRIPTION
       GNU nm lists the symbols from object files objfile....  If no object
       files are listed as arguments, nm assumes the file a.out.

       For each symbol, nm shows:

       o   The symbol value, in the radix selected by options (see below), or
           hexadecimal by default.

       o   The symbol type.  At least the following types are used; others
           are, as well, depending on the object file format.  If lowercase,
           the symbol is usually local; if uppercase, the symbol is global
           (external).  There are however a few lowercase symbols that are
           shown for special global symbols ("u", "v" and "w").

           "A" The symbol's value is absolute, and will not be changed by
               further linking.

           "B"
           "b" The symbol is in the uninitialized data section (known as BSS).

           "C" The symbol is common.  Common symbols are uninitialized data.
               When linking, multiple common symbols may appear with the same
               name.  If the symbol is defined anywhere, the common symbols
               are treated as undefined references.

           "D"
           "d" The symbol is in the initialized data section.

           "G"
           "g" The symbol is in an initialized data section for small objects.
               Some object file formats permit more efficient access to small
               data objects, such as a global int variable as opposed to a
               large global array.

           "i" For PE format files this indicates that the symbol is in a
               section specific to the implementation of DLLs.  For ELF format
               files this indicates that the symbol is an indirect function.
               This is a GNU extension to the standard set of ELF symbol
               types.  It indicates a symbol which if referenced by a
               relocation does not evaluate to its address, but instead must
               be invoked at runtime.  The runtime execution will then return
               the value to be used in the relocation.

           "N" The symbol is a debugging symbol.

           "p" The symbols is in a stack unwind section.

           "R"
           "r" The symbol is in a read only data section.

           "S"
           "s" The symbol is in an uninitialized data section for small
               objects.

           "T"
           "t" The symbol is in the text (code) section.

           "U" The symbol is undefined.

           "u" The symbol is a unique global symbol.  This is a GNU extension
               to the standard set of ELF symbol bindings.  For such a symbol
               the dynamic linker will make sure that in the entire process
               there is just one symbol with this name and type in use.

           "V"
           "v" The symbol is a weak object.  When a weak defined symbol is
               linked with a normal defined symbol, the normal defined symbol
               is used with no error.  When a weak undefined symbol is linked
               and the symbol is not defined, the value of the weak symbol
               becomes zero with no error.  On some systems, uppercase
               indicates that a default value has been specified.

           "W"
           "w" The symbol is a weak symbol that has not been specifically
               tagged as a weak object symbol.  When a weak defined symbol is
               linked with a normal defined symbol, the normal defined symbol
               is used with no error.  When a weak undefined symbol is linked
               and the symbol is not defined, the value of the symbol is
               determined in a system-specific manner without error.  On some
               systems, uppercase indicates that a default value has been
               specified.

           "-" The symbol is a stabs symbol in an a.out object file.  In this
               case, the next values printed are the stabs other field, the
               stabs desc field, and the stab type.  Stabs symbols are used to
               hold debugging information.

           "?" The symbol type is unknown, or object file format specific.

       o   The symbol name.

OPTIONS
       The long and short forms of options, shown here as alternatives, are
       equivalent.

       -A
       -o
       --print-file-name
           Precede each symbol by the name of the input file (or archive
           member) in which it was found, rather than identifying the input
           file once only, before all of its symbols.

       -a
       --debug-syms
           Display all symbols, even debugger-only symbols; normally these are
           not listed.

       -B  The same as --format=bsd (for compatibility with the MIPS nm).

       -C
       --demangle[=style]
           Decode (demangle) low-level symbol names into user-level names.
           Besides removing any initial underscore prepended by the system,
           this makes C++ function names readable. Different compilers have
           different mangling styles. The optional demangling style argument
           can be used to choose an appropriate demangling style for your
           compiler.

       --no-demangle
           Do not demangle low-level symbol names.  This is the default.

       -D
       --dynamic
           Display the dynamic symbols rather than the normal symbols.  This
           is only meaningful for dynamic objects, such as certain types of
           shared libraries.

       -f format
       --format=format
           Use the output format format, which can be "bsd", "sysv", or
           "posix".  The default is "bsd".  Only the first character of format
           is significant; it can be either upper or lower case.

       -g
       --extern-only
           Display only external symbols.

       --plugin name
           Load the plugin called name to add support for extra target types.
           This option is only available if the toolchain has been built with
           plugin support enabled.

       -l
       --line-numbers
           For each symbol, use debugging information to try to find a
           filename and line number.  For a defined symbol, look for the line
           number of the address of the symbol.  For an undefined symbol, look
           for the line number of a relocation entry which refers to the
           symbol.  If line number information can be found, print it after
           the other symbol information.

       -n
       -v
       --numeric-sort
           Sort symbols numerically by their addresses, rather than
           alphabetically by their names.

       -p
       --no-sort
           Do not bother to sort the symbols in any order; print them in the
           order encountered.

       -P
       --portability
           Use the POSIX.2 standard output format instead of the default
           format.  Equivalent to -f posix.

       -S
       --print-size
           Print both value and size of defined symbols for the "bsd" output
           style.  This option has no effect for object formats that do not
           record symbol sizes, unless --size-sort is also used in which case
           a calculated size is displayed.

       -s
       --print-armap
           When listing symbols from archive members, include the index: a
           mapping (stored in the archive by ar or ranlib) of which modules
           contain definitions for which names.

       -r
       --reverse-sort
           Reverse the order of the sort (whether numeric or alphabetic); let
           the last come first.

       --size-sort
           Sort symbols by size.  The size is computed as the difference
           between the value of the symbol and the value of the symbol with
           the next higher value.  If the "bsd" output format is used the size
           of the symbol is printed, rather than the value, and -S must be
           used in order both size and value to be printed.

       --special-syms
           Display symbols which have a target-specific special meaning.
           These symbols are usually used by the target for some special
           processing and are not normally helpful when included included in
           the normal symbol lists.  For example for ARM targets this option
           would skip the mapping symbols used to mark transitions between ARM
           code, THUMB code and data.

       -t radix
       --radix=radix
           Use radix as the radix for printing the symbol values.  It must be
           d for decimal, o for octal, or x for hexadecimal.

       --target=bfdname
           Specify an object code format other than your system's default
           format.

       -u
       --undefined-only
           Display only undefined symbols (those external to each object
           file).

       --defined-only
           Display only defined symbols for each object file.

       -V
       --version
           Show the version number of nm and exit.

       -X  This option is ignored for compatibility with the AIX version of
           nm.  It takes one parameter which must be the string 32_64.  The
           default mode of AIX nm corresponds to -X 32, which is not supported
           by GNU nm.

       --help
           Show a summary of the options to nm and exit.

       @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.


ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:


       +---------------+------------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE |    ATTRIBUTE VALUE     |
       +---------------+------------------------+
       |Availability   | developer/gnu-binutils |
       +---------------+------------------------+
       |Stability      | Uncommitted            |
       +---------------+------------------------+
SEE ALSO
       ar(1), objdump(1), ranlib(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, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,
       2012 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 1.3 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".



NOTES
       This software was built from source available at
       https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland.  The original community
       source was downloaded from
       http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/binutils-2.23.1.tar.bz2

       Further information about this software can be found on the open source
       community website at http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/.



binutils-2.23.1                   2012-11-13                             NM(1)