dwz(1) General Commands Manual dwz(1)
NAME
dwz - DWARF optimization and duplicate removal tool
SYNOPSIS
dwz [OPTION...] [FILES]
DESCRIPTION
dwz is a program that attempts to optimize DWARF debugging information contained in ELF shared libraries and ELF executables for size, by
replacing DWARF information representation with equivalent smaller representation where possible and by reducing the amount of duplication
using techniques from DWARF standard appendix E - creating DW_TAG_partial_unit compilation units (CUs) for duplicated information and using
DW_TAG_imported_unit to import it into each CU that needs it.
The tool handles DWARF 32-bit format debugging sections of versions 2, 3 and 4 and GNU extensions on top of those, though using DWARF 4 or
worst case DWARF 3 is strongly recommended.
The tool has two main modes of operation, without the -m option it attempts to optimize DWARF debugging information in each given object
(executable or shared library) individually, with the -m option it afterwards attempts to optimize even more by moving DWARF debugging
information entries (DIEs), strings and macro descriptions duplicated in more than one object into a newly created ELF ET_REL object whose
filename is given as -m option argument. The debug sections in the executables and shared libraries specified on the command line are then
modified again, referring to the entities in the newly created object.
OPTIONS
-m FILE --multifile FILE
Multifile mode. After processing all named executables and shared libraries, attempt to create ELF object FILE and put debugging
information duplicated in more than one object there, afterwards optimize each named executable or shared library even further if
possible.
-h --hardlink
Look for executables or shared libraries hardlinked together, instead of rewriting them individually rewrite just one of them and
hardlink the rest to the first one again.
-M NAME --multifile-name NAME
Specify the name of the common file that should be put into the .gnu_debugaltlink section alongside with its build ID. By default
dwz puts there the argument of the -m option.
-r --relative
Specify that the name of the common file to be put into the .gnu_debugaltlink section is supposed to be relative path from the
directory containing the executable or shared library to the file named in the argument of the -m option. Either -M or -r option
can be specified, but not both.
-q --quiet
Silence up some of the most common messages.
-o FILE --output FILE
This option instructs dwz not to overwrite the specified file, but instead store the new content into FILE. Nothing is written if
dwz exits with non-zero exit code. Can be used only with a single executable or shared library (if there are no arguments at all,
a.out is assumed).
-l COUNT --low-mem-die-limit COUNT
Handle executables or shared libraries containing more than COUNT debugging information entries in their .debug_info section using a
slower and more memory usage friendly mode and don't attempt to optimize that object in multifile mode. The default is 10 million
DIEs. There is a risk that for very large amounts of debugging information in a single shared library or executable there might not
be enough memory (especially when dwz tool is 32-bit binary, it might run out of available virtual address space even sooner).
-L COUNT --max-die-limit COUNT
Don't attempt to optimize executables or shared libraries containing more than COUNT DIEs at all. The default is 50 million DIEs.
-? --help
Print short help and exit.
ARGUMENTS
Command-line arguments should be the executables, shared libraries or their stripped to file separate debug information objects.
EXAMPLES
$ dwz -m .dwz/foobar-1.2.debug -rh
bin/foo.debug bin/foo2.debug foo/lib/libbar.so.debug
will attempt to optimize debugging information in bin/foo.debug, bin/foo2.debug and lib/libbar.so.debug (by modifying the files in place)
and when beneficial also will create .dwz/foobar-1.2.debug file. .gnu_debugaltlink section in the first two files will refer to
../.dwz/foobar-1.2.debug and in the last file to ../../.dwz/foobar-1.2.debug. If e.g. bin/foo.debug and bin/foo2.debug were hardlinked
together initially, they will be hardlinked again and for multifile optimizations considered just as a single file rather than two.
$ dwz -o foo.dwz foo
will not modify foo but instead store the ELF object with optimized debugging information if successful into foo.dwz file it creates.
$ dwz *.debug foo/*.debug
will attempt to optimize debugging information in *.debug and foo/*.debug files, optimizing each file individually in place.
$ dwz
is equivalent to dwz a.out command.
SEE ALSO
http://dwarfstd.org/doc/DWARF4.pdf , gdb(1).
AUTHORS
Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com>.
15 June 2012 dwz(1)