strip (Unix)

strip is a shell command for removing information from binary executable programs and object files that is not required for execution – typically including debugging data, symbol tables, relocation information, and other metadata. The resulting file will have a smaller size. This is also known as a stripped binary.

Using strip can enhance the security of an executable by making it more difficult to reverse-engineer. The absence of symbol and debugging information complicates the program analysis of the binary.

The effect of strip can also be achieved via a compiler or linker to perform the same process. For example, in the GNU C compiler (gcc), this is done via the -s option.

The command is available in Unix, Plan 9, and Unix-like systems. The GNU Project includes an implementation in the GNU Binutils package. The command has been implemented in to other operating systems including Windows.

See also

• Dead code elimination – Compiler optimization to remove code which does not affect the program resultsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Debug symbol – Type of identifier in computer science
• Executable compression – Means of compressing an executable file
• List of POSIX commands
• strings (Unix) – Shell command for extracting printable text from a binary file
• Symbol table – Data structure used by a language translator such as a compiler or interpreter

• "strip", , The Open Group, 1997

External links

• – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
• – Plan 9 Programmer's Manual, Volume 1