8.3 pic-objdump Utility

The pic-objdump utility displays information about one or more object files. The options control what particular information to display. The output can provide information similar to that of a disassembly listing.

The pic-objdump utility takes ELF object files as input. If no object files are listed as arguments, pic-objdump attempts to read from the file a.out.

The general command-line usage of pic-objdump is:

pic-objdump options OBJFILE...

The OBJFILE… are the object files to be examined. When you specify archives, pic-objdump shows information on each of the member object files.

A common usage of this tool is to obtain a full list file for the entire program. To do this, use the compiler’s -g option when you build the project, then call the pic-objdump application with a command similar to the following.

pic-objdump -SD -l a.out > pic.lst

This will create an pic.lst listing file from the default compiler output file, showing the original C source code and line number information in the listing.

The long and short forms of options, shown in the following table, as alternatives, are equivalent. At least one of the following options -a, -d, -D, -f, -g, -h, -H, -i, -r, -S, -t, -V or -x must be given.

Table 8-7. OBJDUMP Options
Option	Function
`-a` `--archive-header`	If any of the `OBJFILE` files are archives, display the archive header information (in a format similar to `ls -l`). Besides the information you could list with `xc8-ar tv, pic-objdump -a` shows the object file format of each archive member.
`-b format` `--target=format`	Specify the target object file format. The option `-b binary`, fr example, allows the utility to work on a raw binary file.
`-d` `--disassemble`	Display the assembler mnemonics for the machine instructions from `OBJFILE`. This option only disassembles those sections that are expected to contain instructions.
`-D` `--disassemble-all`	Like `-d`, but disassemble the contents of all sections, not just those expected to contain instructions.
`-f` `--file-header`	Display summary information from the overall header of each of the `OBJFILE` files.
`--file-start-context`	Specify that when displaying inter-listed source code/disassembly (assumes `-S`) from a file that has not yet been displayed, extend the context to the start of the file.
`-g` `--debugging`	Display debugging information. This attempts to parse debugging information stored in the file and print it out using a C like syntax. Only certain types of debugging information have been implemented.
`-h` `--section-header` `--header`	Display summary information from the section headers of the object file. Some object file formats, such as `a.out`, do not store the starting address of the file segments. In those situations, although `ld` relocates the sections correctly, using `pic-objdump -h` to list the file section headers cannot show the correct addresses. Instead, it shows the usual addresses, which are implicit for the target.
`-H` `--help`	Print a summary of the options to `pic-objdump` and exit.
`-i` `--info`	Print a list of the object formats and architectures supported and exit.
`-j`name `--section=`name	Display information only for section `name`.
`-l` `--line-numbers`	Label the display (using debugging information) with the filename and source line numbers corresponding to the object code or relocs shown. Only useful with `-d, -D` or `-r`.
`-m arch` `--architecture=arch`	Specify the target architecture.
`-M`options `--disassembler-  options=options`	Pass target specific information to the disassembler. The following options are supported: `symbolic` - Will perform symbolic disassembly.
`-P`, `--private=options`	Display object format specific contents
`--prefix-addresses`	When disassembling, print the complete address on each line. This is the older disassembly format.
`-r` `--reloc`	Print the relocation entries of the file. If used with `-d` or `-D`, the relocations are printed interspersed with the disassembly.
`-s` `--full-contents`	Display the full contents of any sections requested.
`-S` `--source`	Display source code intermixed with disassembly, if possible. Implies `-d`.
`--show-raw-insn`	When disassembling instructions, print the instruction in hex, as well as in symbolic form. This is the default except when `--prefix-addresses` is used.
`--no-show-raw-insn`	When disassembling instructions, do not print the instruction bytes. This is the default when `--prefix-addresses` is used.
`--start-address=`address	Start displaying data at the specified address. This affects the output of the `-d, -r`and `-s` options.
`--stop-address=`address	Stop displaying data at the specified address. This affects the output of the `-d, -r` and `-s` options.
`-t` `--syms`	Print the symbol table entries of the file.
`-V` `--version`	Print the version number of `pic-objdump` and exit.
`-w` `--wide`	Format some lines for output devices that have more than 80 columns.
`-x` `--all-header`	Display all available header information, including the symbol table and relocation entries. Using `-x` is equivalent to specifying all of `-a -f -h -r -t`.
`-z` `--disassemble-zeroes`	Normally the disassembly output will skip blocks of zeros. This option directs the disassembler to disassemble those blocks, just like any other data.