The GNU Binutils is a collection of programming tools developed by the Free Software Foundation for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats. They are typically used in conjunction with GCC, make and GDB.

The binutils include the following commands:

• as - assembler
• ld - linker
• addr2line - convert address to file and line
• ar - create, modify, and extract from archives
• c++filt - demangling filter for C++ symbols
• nm - list symbols in object files
• objcopy - copy object files, possibly making changes
• objdump - dump information about object files
• ranlib - generate indexes for archives
• readelf - display content of ELF files
• size _ list total and section sizes
• strings _ list printable strings
• strip _ remove symbols from an object file
• gprof _ Profiler-(computer-science)

Originally the package consisted of only the minor utilities, but later the GNU Assembler (GAS) and GNU Linker (GLD) were included in releases, since their functionality is so closely related.

Most of binutil is a rather simple program; most of the complexity is encapsulated in the BFD and libopcodes libraries that they share.

External link

• GNU binutils page (http://www.gnu.org/directory/GNU/binutils.html)