The strip command removes the symbol table, debugging information, and line number information from ELF object files. Once this stripping process has been done, no symbolic debugging access will be available for that file; therefore, this command is normally run only on production modules that have been debugged and tested.

If strip is executed on a common archive file (see ar(3HEAD)) in addition to processing the members, strip will remove the archive symbol table. The archive symbol table must be restored by executing the ar(1) command with the -s option before the archive can be linked by the ld(1) command. strip will produce appropriate warning messages when this situation arises.

strip is used to reduce the file storage overhead taken by the object file.

The amount of information stripped from the ELF object file can be controlled by using any of the following options:

-b

Same effect as the default behavior. This option is obsolete and will be removed in the next release.

-l

Strip line number information only; do not strip the symbol table or debugging information.

-r

Same effect as the default behavior. This option is obsolete and will be removed in the next release.

-V

Print, on standard error, the version number of strip.

-x

Do not strip the symbol table; debugging and line number information may be stripped.

The following operand is supported:

file

A path name referring to an executable file.

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of strip: LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

/tmp/strp*

temporary files

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

ar(1), as(1), ld(1), elf(3ELF), tmpnam(3C), a.out(4), ar(3HEAD), attributes(5), environ(5)

The symbol table section will not be removed if it is contained within a segment, or the file is either a relocatable or dynamic shared object.

The line number and debugging sections will not be removed if they are contained within a segment, or their associated relocation section is contained within a segment.