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title: "lief-dwarfdump - LIEF Documentation"
description: "lief-dwarfdump reconstructs C/C++ declarations from the DWARF debug information of a binary. It is a Rust command-line front end for the declaration API."
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# [lief-dwarfdump](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#lief-dwarfdump>)

`lief-dwarfdump` reconstructs C/C++ declarations from the DWARF debug information of a binary. It is a Rust command-line front end for the [declaration](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/extended/dwarf/index.html#extended-dwarf-to-decl>) API.

> **LIEF Extended**
> 
> DWARF support is an [extended](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/extended/intro.html#extended-intro>) feature.

## [Usage](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#usage>)

The tool takes the binary or the DWARF file to read, and generates the C/C++ declaration.

### [Complete Dump](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#complete-dump>)

Without any options, `lief-dwarfdump` prints every compilation unit:

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump liblinker
/*
 * Producer: Binary Ninja DWARF Export Plugin
 */

/*
 * Addr: 0x0000
 * size: 0x0040
 */
static Elf64_Header __elf_header;

[...]

/*
 * Address: 0xec50
 */
void _exit(int status);
```

By default, only functions and variables are rendered. `--show-types` can be used to emit the definition of the types they reference:

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump --show-types liblinker
```

### [By Address](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#by-address>)

`--address` selects a single function by its virtual address, along with its stack variables.

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump --address 0x1ed4 libdexprotector.so.dwarf
/*
 * Address: 0x1ed4
 */
jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM *vm, void *reserved) {
    /* Start: 0x001eec */ {
        /* Start: 0x001ef8 */ {
          Call the JNI_OnLoad from the payload loaded by the first DT_INIT_ARRAY constructor
        } /* End: 0x001efc */
    } /* End: 0x001f10 */
}
```

### [By Name](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#by-name>)

`--function` selects a single function by its (demangled) name:

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump --function dp_mmap_payload libdexprotector.so.dwarf
/*
 * Address: 0x0c44
 */
bool dp_mmap_payload(void *start, unsigned long long size, mmap_info_t *info) {
    /*
     * Stack addr: -0x00f8
     * size: 0x0038
     */
    cipher_context_t cipher_ctx;
    [...]
}
```

### [By Type](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#by-type>)

`--type` selects a single type by its short name:

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump --type key_t libdexprotector.so.dwarf
unsigned char[32]
```

## [Compilation](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#compilation>)

`lief-dwarfdump` links against the [Extended Rust SDK](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/extended/intro.html#extended-intro>). Set [LIEF\_RUST\_PRECOMPILED](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/api/rust/index.html#lief-rust-precompiled>) at the extracted SDK, then build the tool with `cargo` from the `tools/lief-dwarfdump` directory:

```bash
$ export LIEF_RUST_PRECOMPILED=$(pwd)/LIEF-extended-rust-0.16.0.2378-Linux-x86_64
$ cargo build [--release]
$ ./target/{release,debug}/lief-dwarfdump --version
```

## [Man Page](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#man-page>)

Given the `lief-dwarfdump` binary, you can generate a man page using the following command:

```bash
$ lief-dwarfdump --generate-manpage ./lief-dwarfdump.1
```

This functionality is provided by [clap\_mangen](<https://crates.io/crates/clap_mangen>).

## [Shell Completion](<https://lief.re/doc/latest/tools/lief-dwarfdump/index.html#shell-completion>)

Thanks to [clap](<https://github.com/clap-rs/clap>) and its `clap_complete` extension, you can generate auto-completion for various shells:

```bash
$ ./lief-dwarfdump --generate {bash, elvish, fish, powershell, zsh}
```