Home Original page

Add an --extract-symbol option to objcopy

Nick Clifton nickc@redhat.com
Thu Mar 1 15:07:00 GMT 2007 
Hi Richard,

> binutils/
> 200x-xx-xx  Phil Edwards  <phil@codesourcery.com>
> 	    Richard Sandiford  <richard@codesourcery.com>
> 
> 	* NEWS: Mention addition of --extract-symbol.
> 	* doc/binutils.texi: Document it.
> 	* objcopy.c (extract_symbol): New variable.
> 	(OPTION_EXTRACT_SYMBOLS): New command_line_switch.
> 	(copy_options): Add an entry for --extract-symbol.
> 	(copy_usage): Mention --extract-symbol.
> 	(copy_object): Set the start address to zero for --extract-symbol.
> 	Do not copy private BFD data in that case.
> 	(setup_section): Set the size, LMA and VMA to zero for
> 	--extract-symbol.  Do not copy private BFD data in that case.
> 	(copy_section): Do not copy section contents if --extract-symbol
> 	is passed.
> 	(copy_main): Set extract_symbol to TRUE if --extract-symbol
> 	is passed.
> 
> ld/testsuite/
> 	* ld-elf/extract-symbol-1sym.d, ld-elf/extract-symbol-1sec.d,
> 	* ld-elf/extract-symbol-1.s, ld-elf/extract-symbol-1.ld: New tests.
> 	* ld-elf/binutils.exp: Run them.

Approved, please apply.

One minor point:

> Index: binutils/NEWS
> ===================================================================

> +* Add --extract-symbol to objcopy.

It would be nice if you extended this description a little bit.  We use 
the NEWS files to make the release notes for any given particular 
binutils release and just naming a new command line option without 
describing what it does means that it is unlikely to grab the reader's 
attention.  Maybe something like:

   * Add --extract-symbol command line option to objcopy, which will
     strip everything out of an ordinary object file or executable except
     for its symbol table.  Files containing just symbols can be useful
     to some OSes.

Cheers
   Nick
More information about the Binutils mailing list