elf-size-analyze

elf-size-analyze is a Python tool that uses regular binutils programs (readelf, nm, c++filt) to extract information about symbols and sections from an ELF file and filters them. Information is presented in a tree based on paths to files where the symbols have been defined.

It's main usage is optimization of memory usage (FLASHH/RAM/etc.) by inspecting which modules/symbols in code contribute the most to final size. Main output format is an ASCII tree, but it supports other formats, e.g. JSON (for usage in other scripts), or HTML-based visualization (e.g. static HTML or Plotly graph).

This script was initially based on size_report from Zephyr Project scripts (some old version), but it has been almost fully rewritten but the idea is the same.

Gallery

Plotly treemap	Plotly sunburst	HTML table

Requirements

• Python 3
• binutils: readelf, nm, c++filt (optional)

Installation

For normal usage it's best to install from PyPI:

pip install elf-size-analyze

There are some optional dependencies not installed by default, e.g. to include support for Plotly graphs output use

pip insatll elf-size-analyze[plotly]

For development it's recommended to install from sources in virtual environment in editable mode:

python -m venv venv
source ./venv/bin/activate
git clone https://github.com/jedrzejboczar/elf-size-analyze.git
pip install -e ./elf-size-analyze[dev,plotly]

Usage

Select the ELF file to be analyzed. To be able to extract path information about symbols from the ELF file, the program should be compiled with debug information (gcc -g).

If installed using pip then the package provides an entry point and you can just use the elf-size-analyze command. Otherwise use python -m elf_size_analyze from the source directory.

Example usage (assumes that we're using arm-none-eabi-gcc toolchain):

elf-size-analyze -t arm-none-eabi- -w 120 -HaF build/myapp

For more options see help:

elf-size-analyze -h

For HTML output:

elf-size-analyze -t arm-none-eabi- -w 120 -HaF build/myapp -W > /tmp/index.html
firefox /tmp/index.html  # or other browser / xdg-open

For Plotly output (for big executables you might want to use --plotly-max-depth):

elf-size-analyze -t arm-none-eabi- -w 120 -HaF build/myapp --plotly --plotly-type treemap