PatchELF is a simple utility for modifying existing ELF executables and
libraries. In particular, it can do the following:
Change the dynamic loader (“ELF interpreter”) of executables:
$ patchelf --set-interpreter /lib/my-ld-linux.so.2 my-program
Change the RPATH
of executables and libraries:
$ patchelf --set-rpath /opt/my-libs/lib:/other-libs my-program
Shrink the RPATH
of executables and libraries:
$ patchelf --shrink-rpath my-program
This removes from the RPATH
all directories that do not contain a
library referenced by DT_NEEDED
fields of the executable or library.
For instance, if an executable references one library libfoo.so
, has
an RPATH /lib:/usr/lib:/foo/lib
, and libfoo.so
can only be found
in /foo/lib
, then the new RPATH
will be /foo/lib
.
In addition, the --allowed-rpath-prefixes
option can be used for
further rpath tuning. For instance, if an executable has an RPATH
/tmp/build-foo/.libs:/foo/lib
, it is probably desirable to keep
the /foo/lib
reference instead of the /tmp
entry. To accomplish
that, use:
$ patchelf --shrink-rpath --allowed-rpath-prefixes /usr/lib:/foo/lib my-program
Remove declared dependencies on dynamic libraries (DT_NEEDED
entries):
$ patchelf --remove-needed libfoo.so.1 my-program
This option can be given multiple times.
Add a declared dependency on a dynamic library (DT_NEEDED
):
$ patchelf --add-needed libfoo.so.1 my-program
This option can be give multiple times.
Replace a declared dependency on a dynamic library with another one
(DT_NEEDED
):
$ patchelf --replace-needed liboriginal.so.1 libreplacement.so.1 my-program
This option can be give multiple times.
Change SONAME
of a dynamic library:
$ patchelf --set-soname libnewname.so.3.4.5 path/to/libmylibrary.so.1.2.3
./bootstrap.sh
./configure
make
make check
sudo make install
You can build with Nix in several ways.
Building via nix build
will produce the result in ./result/bin/patchelf
. If you would like to build patchelf with musl try nix build .#patchelf-musl
You can launch a development environment with nix develop
and follow the autotools steps above. If you would like to develop with musl try nix develop .#musl
Copyright 2004-2019 Eelco Dolstra edolstra@gmail.com.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
0.14.5 (February 21, 2022):
0.14.4 (February 21, 2022):
0.14.3 (December 05, 2021):
0.14.2 (November 29, 2021):
0.14.1 (November 28, 2021):
0.14 (November 27, 2021):
Changes compared to 0.13:
0.13.1 (November 27, 2021):
0.13 (August 5, 2021):
New --add-rpath
flag.
Bug fixes.
0.12 (August 27, 2020):
New --clear-symbol-version
flag.
Better support for relocating NOTE sections/segments.
Improved the default section alignment choice.
Bug fixes.
0.11 (June 9, 2020):
New --output
flag.
Some bug fixes.
0.10 (March 28, 2019):
Many bug fixes. Please refer to the Git commit log:
https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/commits/master
This release has contributions from Adam Trhoň, Benjamin Hipple,
Bernardo Ramos, Bjørn Forsman, Domen Kožar, Eelco Dolstra, Ezra
Cooper, Felipe Sateler, Jakub Wilk, James Le Cuirot, Karl Millar,
Linus Heckemann, Nathaniel J. Smith, Richard Purdie, Stanislav
Markevich and Tuomas Tynkkynen.
0.9 (February 29, 2016):
Lots of new features. Please refer to the Git commit log:
https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/commits/master
This release has contributions from Aaron D. Marasco, Adrien
Devresse, Alexandre Pretyman, Changli Gao, Chingis Dugarzhapov,
darealshinji, David Sveningsson, Eelco Dolstra, Felipe Sateler,
Jeremy Sanders, Jonas Kuemmerlin, Thomas Tuegel, Tuomas Tynkkynen,
Vincent Danjean and Vladimír Čunát.
0.8 (January 15, 2014):
0.7 (January 7, 2014):
Rewrite section indices in symbol tables. This for instance allows
gdb to show proper backtraces.
Added `–remove-needed’ option.
0.6 (November 7, 2011):
Hacky support for executables created by the Gold linker.
Support segments with an alignment of 0 (contributed by Zack
Weinberg).
Added a manual page (contributed by Jeremy Sanders
jeremy@jeremysanders.net).
0.5 (November 4, 2009):
Various bugfixes.
`–force-rpath’ now deletes the DT_RUNPATH if it is present.
0.4 (June 4, 2008):
Support for growing the RPATH on dynamic libraries.
IA-64 support (not tested) and related 64-bit fixes.
FreeBSD support.
--set-rpath',
–shrink-rpath’ and --print-rpath' now prefer DT_RUNPATH over DT_RPATH, which is obsolete. When updating, if both are present, both are updated. If only DT_RPATH is present, it is converted to DT_RUNPATH unless
–force-rpath’ is specified. If
neither is present, a DT_RUNPATH is added unless `–force-rpath’ is
specified, in which case a DT_RPATH is added.
0.3 (May 24, 2007):
Support for 64-bit ELF binaries (such as on x86_64-linux).
Support for big-endian ELF binaries (such as on powerpc-linux).
Various bugfixes.
0.2 (January 15, 2007):
0.1 (October 11, 2005):