mcs(1)

mcs -- manipulate the comment section of an object file

Synopsis

   mcs [-a string] [-c] [-d] [-n name] [-p] [-V] file . . .

Description

The mcs command is used to manipulate a section, by default the ``.comment'' section, in an ELF object file. It is used to add to, delete, print, and compress the contents of a section in an ELF object file, and only print the contents of a section in a COFF object file. mcs must be given one or more of the options described below. It applies each of the options in order to each file.

The following options are available.

-a string: Append string to the comment section of the ELF object files. If string contains embedded blanks, it must be enclosed in quotation marks.
-c: Compress the contents of the comment section of the ELF object files. All duplicate entries are removed. The ordering of the remaining entries is not disturbed.
-d: Delete the contents of the comment section from the ELF object files. The section header for the comment section is also removed.
-n name: Specify the name of the comment section to access if other than ``.comment''. By default, mcs deals with the section named ``.comment''. This option can be used to specify another section.
-P: Print the uninterpreted contents of the comment section on the standard output. The section contents are not formatted. All data, including raw binary data, are printed.
-p: Print the contents of the comment section on the standard output. Each section printed is tagged by the name of the file from which it was extracted, using the format filename[member_name]: for archive files; and filename: for other files.
-V: Print, on standard error, the version number of mcs.

If the input file is an archive [see ar(4)], the archive is treated as a set of individual files. For example, if the -a option is specified, the string is appended to the comment section of each ELF object file in the archive; if the archive member is not an ELF object file, then it is left unchanged.

If mcs is executed on an archive file the archive symbol table will be removed, unless only the -p option has been specified. The archive symbol table must be restored by executing the ar command with the -s option before the archive can be linked by the ld command. mcs will produce appropriate warning messages when this situation arises.

International functions

Characters from supplementary code sets can be used in ``object-files''. Comments using characters from supplementary code sets can be specified with the -a option.

Examples

mcs -p file # Print file's comment section

mcs -a string file # Append string to file's comment section

Files

TMPDIR/mcs*: temporary files
TMPDIR: usually /var/tmp but can be redefined by setting the environment variable TMPDIR [see tempnam in tmpnam(3S)].

References

a.out(4), ar(1), ar(4), as(1), cc(1), ld(1), tmpnam(3S)

Notices

mcs cannot add to, delete or compress the contents of a section that is contained within a segment.

The section name specified in name with the -n option must contain ASCII characters only.