What exactly does `-rdynamic` do and when exactly is it needed?
-rdynamic exports the symbols of an executable, this mainly addresses scenarios as described in Mike Kinghan's answer, but also it helps e.g. Glibc's backtrace_symbols() symbolizing the backtrace.
Here is a small experiment (test program copied from here)
#include <execinfo.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
/* Obtain a backtrace and print it to stdout. */
void
print_trace (void)
{
void *array[10];
size_t size;
char **strings;
size_t i;
size = backtrace (array, 10);
strings = backtrace_symbols (array, size);
printf ("Obtained %zd stack frames.\n", size);
for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
printf ("%s\n", strings[i]);
free (strings);
}
/* A dummy function to make the backtrace more interesting. */
void
dummy_function (void)
{
print_trace ();
}
int
main (void)
{
dummy_function ();
return 0;
}
compile the program: gcc main.c and run it, the output:
Obtained 5 stack frames.
./a.out() [0x4006ca]
./a.out() [0x400761]
./a.out() [0x40076d]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf0) [0x7f026597f830]
./a.out() [0x4005f9]
Now, compile with -rdynamic, i.e. gcc -rdynamic main.c, and run again:
Obtained 5 stack frames.
./a.out(print_trace+0x28) [0x40094a]
./a.out(dummy_function+0x9) [0x4009e1]
./a.out(main+0x9) [0x4009ed]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf0) [0x7f85b23f2830]
./a.out(_start+0x29) [0x400879]
As you can see, we get a proper stack trace now!
Now, if we investigate ELF's symbol table entry (readelf --dyn-syms a.out):
without -rdynamic
Symbol table '.dynsym' contains 9 entries:
Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name
0: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT UND
1: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND free@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
2: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND puts@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
3: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND backtrace_symbols@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
4: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND backtrace@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
5: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND __stack_chk_fail@GLIBC_2.4 (3)
6: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND printf@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
7: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND __libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
8: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __gmon_start__
with -rdynamic, we have more symbols, including the executable's:
Symbol table '.dynsym' contains 25 entries:
Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name
0: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT UND
1: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND free@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
2: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_deregisterTMCloneTab
3: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND puts@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
4: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND backtrace_symbols@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
5: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND backtrace@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
6: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND __stack_chk_fail@GLIBC_2.4 (3)
7: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND printf@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
8: 0000000000000000 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT UND __libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5 (2)
9: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __gmon_start__
10: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_registerTMCloneTable
11: 0000000000601060 0 NOTYPE GLOBAL DEFAULT 24 _edata
12: 0000000000601050 0 NOTYPE GLOBAL DEFAULT 24 __data_start
13: 0000000000601068 0 NOTYPE GLOBAL DEFAULT 25 _end
14: 00000000004009d8 12 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 dummy_function
15: 0000000000601050 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT 24 data_start
16: 0000000000400a80 4 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT 16 _IO_stdin_used
17: 0000000000400a00 101 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 __libc_csu_init
18: 0000000000400850 42 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 _start
19: 0000000000601060 0 NOTYPE GLOBAL DEFAULT 25 __bss_start
20: 00000000004009e4 16 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 main
21: 00000000004007a0 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 11 _init
22: 0000000000400a70 2 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 __libc_csu_fini
23: 0000000000400a74 0 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 15 _fini
24: 0000000000400922 182 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 14 print_trace
I hope that helps!
Here is a simple example project to illustrate the use of -rdynamic.
bar.c
extern void foo(void);
void bar(void)
{
foo();
}
main.c
#include <dlfcn.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void foo(void)
{
puts("Hello world");
}
int main(void)
{
void * dlh = dlopen("./libbar.so", RTLD_NOW);
if (!dlh) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", dlerror());
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
void (*bar)(void) = dlsym(dlh,"bar");
if (!bar) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", dlerror());
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
bar();
return 0;
}
Makefile
.PHONY: all clean test
LDEXTRAFLAGS ?=
all: prog
bar.o: bar.c
gcc -c -Wall -fpic -o $@ $<
libbar.so: bar.o
gcc -shared -o $@ $<
main.o: main.c
gcc -c -Wall -o $@ $<
prog: main.o | libbar.so
gcc $(LDEXTRAFLAGS) -o $@ $< -L. -lbar -ldl
clean:
rm -f *.o *.so prog
test: prog
./$<
Here, bar.c becomes a shared library libbar.so and main.c becomes
a program that dlopens libbar and calls bar() from that library.
bar() calls foo(), which is external in bar.c and defined in main.c.
So, without -rdynamic:
$ make test
gcc -c -Wall -o main.o main.c
gcc -c -Wall -fpic -o bar.o bar.c
gcc -shared -o libbar.so bar.o
gcc -o prog main.o -L. -lbar -ldl
./prog
./libbar.so: undefined symbol: foo
Makefile:23: recipe for target 'test' failed
And with -rdynamic:
$ make clean
rm -f *.o *.so prog
$ make test LDEXTRAFLAGS=-rdynamic
gcc -c -Wall -o main.o main.c
gcc -c -Wall -fpic -o bar.o bar.c
gcc -shared -o libbar.so bar.o
gcc -rdynamic -o prog main.o -L. -lbar -ldl
./prog
Hello world