LLVM-DWARFDUMP(1)

NAME
llvm-dwarfdump - dump and verify DWARF debug information

SYNOPSIS

llvm-dwarfdump [options] [filename ...]

DESCRIPTION

llvm-dwarfdump parses DWARF sections in object files, archives, and .dSYM bundles and prints their contents in human-readable form. Only the .debug_info section is printed unless one of the section-specific options or --all is specified.

If no input file is specified, a.out is used instead. If - is used as the input file, llvm-dwarfdump reads the input from its standard input stream.

OPTIONS

-a, --all
    Dump all supported DWARF sections.

--arch=<arch>
    Dump DWARF debug information for the specified CPU architecture. Architectures may be specified by name or by number. This option can be specified multiple times, once for each desired architecture. All CPU architectures will be printed by default.

-c, --show-children
    Show a debug info entry's children when selectively printing with the =<offset> argument of --debug-info, or options such as --find or --name.

--color
    Use colors in output.

--error-display=<value>
    Set the level of detail and summary to display when verifying. Implies --verify. The supported values are:

    quiet - Only display whether errors occurred. summary - Display only a summary of the errors found. details - Display each error in detail but no summary. full - Display each error as well as a summary. [default]

-f <name>, --find=<name>
    Search for the exact text <name> in the accelerator tables and print the matching debug information entries. When there is no accelerator tables or the name of the DIE you are looking for is not found in the accelerator tables, try using the slower but more complete --name option.

-F, --show-form
    Show DWARF form types after the DWARF attribute types.

-h, --help
    Show help and usage for this command.

--help-list
    Show help and usage for this command without grouping the options into categories.

-i, --ignore-case
    Ignore case distinctions when using --name.

-n <name>, --name=<name>
    Find and print all debug info entries whose name (DW_AT_name attribute) is <name>.

--lookup=<address>
    Look up <address> in the debug information and print out the file, function, block, and line table details.

-o <path>
    Redirect output to a file specified by <path>, where - is the standard output stream.

-p, --show-parents
    Show a debug info entry's parents when selectively printing with the =<offset> argument of --debug-info, or options such as --find or --name.

--parent-recurse-depth=<N>
    When displaying debug info entry parents, only show them to a maximum depth of <N>.

--quiet
    Use with --verify to not emit to STDOUT.

-r <N>, --recurse-depth=<N>
    When displaying debug info entries, only show children to a maximum depth of <N>.

--show-section-sizes
    Show the sizes of all debug sections, expressed in bytes.

--show-sources
    Print all source files mentioned in the debug information. Absolute paths are given whenever possible.

--statistics
    Collect debug info quality metrics and print the results as machine-readable single-line JSON output. The output format is described in the section below (FORMAT OF STATISTICS OUTPUT).

--summarize-types
    Abbreviate the description of type unit entries.

-x, --regex
    Treat any <name> strings as regular expressions when searching with --name. If --ignore-case is also specified, the regular expression becomes case-insensitive.

-u, --uuid
    Show the UUID for each architecture.

--diff
    Dump the output in a format that is more friendly for comparing DWARF output from two different files.

-v, --verbose
    Display verbose information when dumping. This can help to debug DWARF issues.

--verify
    Verify the structure of the DWARF information by verifying the compile unit chains, DIE relationships graph, address ranges, and more.

--verify-json=<path>
    Output JSON-formatted error summary to the file specified by <path>. Implies --verify. The output format is described in the section below (FORMAT OF VERIFY JSON OUTPUT).

--version
    Display the version of the tool.

--debug-abbrev, --debug-addr, --debug-aranges, --debug-cu-index, --debug-frame [=<offset>], --debug-gnu-pubnames, --debug-gnu-pubtypes, --debug-info [=<offset>], --debug-line [=<offset>], --debug-line-str, --debug-loc [=<offset>], --debug-loclists [=<offset>], --debug-macro, --debug-names, --debug-pubnames, --debug-pubtypes, --debug-ranges, --debug-rnglists, --debug-str, --debug-str-offsets, --debug-tu-index, --debug-types [=<offset>], --eh-frame [=<offset>], --gdb-index, --apple-names, --apple-types, --apple-namespaces, --apple-objc
    Dump the specified DWARF section by name. Only the .debug_info section is shown by default. Some entries support adding an =<offset> as a way to provide an optional offset of the exact entry to dump within the respective section. When an offset is provided, only the entry at that offset will be dumped, else the entire section will be dumped.

    The --debug-macro option prints both the .debug_macro and the .debug_macinfo sections.

    The --debug-frame and --eh-frame options are aliases, in cases where both sections are present one command outputs both.

@<FILE>
    Read command-line options from <FILE>.

FORMAT OF STATISTICS OUTPUT

The --statistics option generates single-line JSON output representing quality metrics of the processed debug info. These metrics are useful to compare changes between two compilers, particularly for judging the effect that a change to the compiler has on the debug info quality.

The output is formatted as key-value pairs. The first pair contains a version number. The following naming scheme is used for the keys:

•   variables ==> local variables and parameters

•   local vars ==> local variables

•   params ==> formal parameters

    For aggregated values, the following keys are used:

•   sum_of_all_variables(...) ==> the sum applied to all variables

•   #bytes ==> the number of bytes

•   #variables - entry values ... ==> the number of variables excluding the entry values etc.

FORMAT OF VERIFY JSON OUTPUT

The format of the JSON output created by the --verify-json is:

    {
      "error-categories": {
        "<first category description>": {"count": 1234},
        "<next category description>": {"count": 4321}
      },
      "error-count": 5555
    }

The following is generated if there are no errors reported:

    {
      "error-categories": {},
      "error-count": 0
    }

EXIT STATUS

llvm-dwarfdump returns 0 if the input files were parsed and dumped successfully. Otherwise, it returns 1.

SEE ALSO

dsymutil(1) <dsymutil.html>

Author
Maintained by the LLVM Team (https://llvm.org/).

Copyright
2003-2026, LLVM Project