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NAME | INVOCATION | ENVIRONMENT | OPTIONS | RETURN VALUE | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT | COLOPHON |
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ABIPKGDIFF(1) Libabigail ABIPKGDIFF(1)
abipkgdiff - compare ABIs of ELF files in software packages
abipkgdiff compares the Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) of the
]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\ binaries contained in two sets of software packages. The
software package formats currently supported are ]8;;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_%28file_format%29\Deb]8;;\, ]8;;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager\RPM]8;;\, ]8;;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_%28computing%29\tar]8;;\
archives (either compressed or not) and plain directories that
contain binaries.
The ABI of the binaries contained in the second set of packages is
compared against the ABI of the binaries contained in the first
set of packages.
For a comprehensive ABI change report that includes changes about
function and variable sub-types, the two input package sets must
be accompanied with their debug information packages that contain
debug information either in ]8;;http://www.dwarfstd.org\DWARF]8;;\, ]8;;https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/oracle/binutils-gdb/files/ctf-spec.pdf\CTF]8;;\ or in ]8;;https://docs.kernel.org/bpf/btf.html\BTF]8;;\ formats. Please
note however that some packages contain binaries that embed the
debug information directly in a section of said binaries. In
those cases, obviously, no separate debug information package is
needed as the tool will find the debug information inside the
binaries.
By default, abipkgdiff uses debug information in ]8;;http://www.dwarfstd.org\DWARF]8;;\ format, if
present, otherwise it compares binaries interfaces using debug
information in ]8;;https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/oracle/binutils-gdb/files/ctf-spec.pdf\CTF]8;;\ or in ]8;;https://docs.kernel.org/bpf/btf.html\BTF]8;;\ formats, if present. Finally, if no
debug info in these formats is found, it only considers ]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\
symbols and report about their addition or removal.
This tool uses the libabigail library to analyze the binary as
well as its associated debug information. Here is its general
mode of operation.
When instructed to do so, a binary and its associated debug
information is read and analyzed. To that effect, libabigail
analyzes by default the descriptions of the types reachable by the
interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible outside of
their translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an
Application Binary Interface Corpus is constructed by only
considering the subset of types reachable from interfaces
associated to ]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\ symbols that are defined and exported by the
binary. It's that final ABI corpus which libabigail considers as
representing the ABI of the analyzed binary.
Libabigail then has capabilities to generate textual
representations of ABI Corpora, compare them, analyze their
changes and report about them.
abipkgdiff [options] <package1> <package2>
package1 and package2 are the packages that contain the binaries
to be compared.
An alternate invocation style would be:
abipkgdiff [options] --set1 <pkg1-v1> <pkg2-v1> <pkg3-v1> \
--set2 <pkg1-v2> <pkg2-v2> <pkg3-v2>
where the ABI of binaries contained in the second set of packages
are compared against binaries contained in the first set of
packages.
abipkgdiff loads two default suppression specifications files,
merges their content and use it to filter out ABI change reports
that might be considered as false positives to users.
• Default system-wide suppression specification file
It's located by the optional environment variable
LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that environment
variable is not set, then abipkgdiff tries to load the
suppression file $libdir/libabigail/libabigail-default.abignore.
If that file is not present, then no default system-wide
suppression specification file is loaded.
• Default user suppression specification file.
It's located by the optional environment
LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_USER_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that environment
variable is not set, then abipkgdiff tries to load the
suppression file $HOME/.abignore. If that file is not present,
then no default user suppression specification is loaded.
In addition to those default suppression specification files,
abipkgdiff will also look inside the packages being compared and
if it sees a file that ends with the extension .abignore, then it
will consider it as a suppression specification and it will
combine it to the default suppression specification that might be
already loaded.
The user might as well use the --suppressions option (that is
documented further below) to provide a suppression specification.
• --allow-non-exported-interfaces
When looking at the debug information accompanying a binary,
this tool analyzes the descriptions of the types reachable by
the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible
outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only considering the
subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\
symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It's
those final ABI Corpora that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all
the interfaces that are visible from outside their
translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when
those binaries are applications, as opposed to shared
libraries. One example of such applications is the ]8;;https://kernel.org/\Linux
Kernel]8;;\. Analyzing massive ABI Corpora like these can be
extremely slow.
In the presence of an "average sized" binary however one can
afford having libabigail analyze all interfaces that are
visible outside of their translation unit, using this option.
Note that this option is turned on by default, unless we are
in the presence of the ]8;;https://kernel.org/\Linux Kernel]8;;\.
• --btf
This is used to compare packages with ]8;;https://docs.kernel.org/bpf/btf.html\BTF]8;;\ debug
information, if present.
• --ctf
This is used to compare packages with ]8;;https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/oracle/binutils-gdb/files/ctf-spec.pdf\CTF]8;;\ debug
information, if present.
• --debug-info-pkg1 | --d1 <path>
For cases where the debug information for package1 is split
out into a separate file, tells abipkgdiff where to find that
separate debug information package.
Note that the debug info for package1 can have been split
into several different debug info packages. In that case,
several instances of this options can be provided, along with
those several different debug info packages.
• --debug-info-pkg2 | --d2 <path>
For cases where the debug information for package2 is split
out into a separate file, tells abipkgdiff where to find that
separate debug information package.
Note that the debug info for package2 can have been split
into several different debug info packages. In that case,
several instances of this options can be provided, along with
those several different debug info packages.
• --devel-pkg1 | --devel1 <path>
Specifies where to find the ]8;;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines?rd=Packaging/Guidelines#Devel_Packages\Development Package]8;;\ associated
with the first package to be compared. That ]8;;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines?rd=Packaging/Guidelines#Devel_Packages\Development
Package]8;;\ at path should at least contain header files in which
public types exposed by the libraries (of the first package
to be compared) are defined. When this option is provided,
the tool filters out reports about ABI changes to types that
are NOT defined in these header files.
• --devel-pkg2 | --devel2 <path>
Specifies where to find the ]8;;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines?rd=Packaging/Guidelines#Devel_Packages\Development Package]8;;\ associated
with the second package to be compared. That ]8;;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines?rd=Packaging/Guidelines#Devel_Packages\Development
Package]8;;\ at path should at least contains header files in
which public types exposed by the libraries (of the second
package to be compared) are defined. When this option is
provided, the tool filters out reports about ABI changes to
types that are NOT defined in these header files.
• --drop-private-types
This option is to be used with the --devel-pkg1 and
--devel-pkg2 options. With this option, types that are NOT
defined in the headers are entirely dropped from the internal
representation build by Libabigail to represent the ABI.
They thus don't have to be filtered out from the final ABI
change report because they are not even present in
Libabigail's representation.
Without this option however, those private types are kept in
the internal representation and later filtered out from the
report.
This options thus potentially makes Libabigail consume less
memory. It's meant to be mainly used to optimize the memory
consumption of the tool on binaries with a lot of publicly
defined and exported types.
• --dso-only
Compare ELF files that are shared libraries, only. Do not
compare executable files, for instance.
• --exported-interfaces-only
By default, when looking at the debug information
accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the descriptions of
the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and
variables) that are visible outside of their translation
unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is
constructed by only considering the subset of types reachable
from interfaces associated to ]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\ symbols that are defined
and exported by the binary. It's those final ABI Corpora
that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all
the interfaces that are visible from outside their
translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when
those binaries are applications, as opposed to shared
libraries. One example of such applications is the ]8;;https://kernel.org/\Linux
Kernel]8;;\. Analyzing massive ABI corpora like these can be
extremely slow.
To mitigate that performance issue, this option allows
libabigail to only analyze types that are reachable from
interfaces associated with defined and exported ]8;;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format\ELF]8;;\ symbols.
Note that this option is turned on by default when analyzing
the ]8;;https://kernel.org/\Linux Kernel]8;;\. Otherwise, it's turned off by default.
• --fail-no-dbg
Make the program fail and return a non-zero exit code if
couldn't read any of the debug information that comes from
the debug info packages that were given on the command line.
If no debug info package were provided on the command line
then this option is not active.
Note that the non-zero exit code returned by the program as a
result of this option is the constant ABIDIFF_ERROR. To know
the numerical value of that constant, please refer to the
exit code documentation.
• --full-impact|-f
When comparing two Linux Kernel packages, this function
instructs abipkgdiff to emit the so-called full impact
report, which is the default report kind emitted by the
abidiff tool:
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fn(C&)' at test-v1.cc:13:1 has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'C&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct C' at test-v1.cc:7:1:
type size hasn't changed
1 data member change:
type of 'leaf* C::m0' changed:
in pointed to type 'struct leaf' at test-v1.cc:1:1:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
$
• --harmless
In the diff report, display only the harmless changes. By
default, the harmless changes are filtered out of the diff
report keep the clutter to a minimum and have a greater
chance to spot real ABI issues.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --impacted-interfaces
When showing leaf changes, this option instructs abipkgdiff
to show the list of impacted interfaces. This option is thus
to be used in addition to the --leaf-changes-only option, or,
when comparing two Linux Kernel packages. Otherwise, it's
simply ignored.
• --keep-tmp-files
Do not erase the temporary directory files that are created
during the execution of the tool.
• --leaf-changes-only|-l only show leaf changes, so don't show
impact analysis report. This option implies --redundant
The typical output of abipkgdiff and abidiff when comparing
two binaries, that we shall call full impact report, looks
like this
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fn(C&)' at test-v1.cc:13:1 has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'C&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct C' at test-v1.cc:7:1:
type size hasn't changed
1 data member change:
type of 'leaf* C::m0' changed:
in pointed to type 'struct leaf' at test-v1.cc:1:1:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
$
So in that example the report emits information about how the
data member insertion change of "struct leaf" is reachable
from function "void fn(C&)". In other words, the report not
only shows the data member change on "struct leaf", but it
also shows the impact of that change on the function "void
fn(C&)".
In abidiff (and abipkgdiff) parlance, the change on "struct
leaf" is called a leaf change. So the --leaf-changes-only
--impacted-interfaces options show, well, only the leaf
change. And it goes like this:
$ abidiff -l libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
'struct leaf' changed:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
one impacted interface:
function void fn(C&)
$
Note how the report ends up by showing the list of interfaces
impacted by the leaf change. That's the effect of the
additional --impacted-interfaces option.
Now if you don't want to see that list of impacted
interfaces, then you can just avoid using the
--impacted-interface option. You can learn about that option
below, in any case.
Please note that when comparing two Linux Kernel packages,
it's this leaf changes report that is emitted, by default.
The normal so-called full impact report can be emitted with
the option --full-impact which is documented later below.
• --linux-kernel-abi-whitelist | -w <path-to-whitelist>
When comparing two Linux kernel RPM packages, this option
points to the white list of names of ELF symbols of functions
and variables that must be compared for ABI changes. That
white list is called a "Linux kernel ABI white list".
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not
present in that white list will not be considered by the ABI
comparison process.
If this option is not provided -- thus if no white list is
provided -- then the ABI of all publicly defined and exported
functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel binaries
are compared.
Please note that if a white list package is given in
parameter, this option handles it just fine, like if the --wp
option was used.
• --no-abignore
Do not search the package for the presence of suppression
files.
• --no-added-binaries
Do not show the list of binaries that got added to the second
package.
Please note that the presence of such added binaries is not
considered like an ABI change by this tool; as such, it
doesn't have any impact on the exit code of the tool. It
does only have an informational value. Removed binaries are,
however, considered as an ABI change.
• --no-added-syms
Do not show the list of functions, variables, or any symbol
that was added.
• --no-assume-odr-for-cplusplus
When analysing a binary originating from C++ code using ]8;;http://www.dwarfstd.org\DWARF]8;;\
debug information, libabigail assumes the ]8;;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Definition_Rule\One Definition Rule]8;;\
to speed-up the analysis. In that case, when several types
have the same name in the binary, they are assumed to all be
equal.
This option disables that assumption and instructs libabigail
to actually actually compare the types to determine if they
are equal.
• --no-default-suppression
Do not load the default suppression specification files.
• --no-leverage-dwarf-factorization
When analysing a binary which ]8;;http://www.dwarfstd.org\DWARF]8;;\ debug information was
processed with the ]8;;https://sourceware.org/dwz\DWZ]8;;\ tool, the type information is supposed
to be already factorized. That context is used by libabigail
to perform some speed optimizations.
This option disables those optimizations.
• --no-linkage-name
In the resulting report, do not display the linkage names of
the added, removed, or changed functions or variables.
• --no-parallel
By default, abipkgdiff will use all the processors it has
available to execute concurrently. This option tells it not
to extract packages or run comparisons in parallel.
• --non-reachable-types|-t
Analyze and emit change reports for all the types of the
binary, including those that are not reachable from global
functions and variables.
This option might incur some serious performance degradation
as the number of types analyzed can be huge. However, if
paired with the --devel-pkg{1,2} options, the additional
non-reachable types analyzed are restricted to those defined
in the public headers files carried by the referenced
development packages, thus hopefully making the performance
hit acceptable.
Also, using this option alongside suppression specifications
(by also using the --suppressions option) might help keep the
number of analyzed types (and the potential performance
degradation) in control.
Note that without this option, only types that are reachable
from global functions and variables are analyzed, so the tool
detects and reports changes on these reachable types only.
• --no-show-locs
Do not show information about where in the second shared
library the respective type was changed.
• --no-show-relative-offset-changes
Without this option, when the offset of a data member
changes, the change report not only mentions the older
and newer offset, but it also mentions by how many bits
the data member changes. With this option, the latter is
not shown.
• --no-unreferenced-symbols
In the resulting report, do not display change information
about function and variable symbols that are not referenced
by any debug information. Note that for these symbols not
referenced by any debug information, the change information
displayed is either added or removed symbols.
• --show-bits
Show sizes and offsets in bits, not bytes. This option is
activated by default.
• --show-bytes
Show sizes and offsets in bytes, not bits. By default, sizes
and offsets are shown in bits.
• --show-dec
Show sizes and offsets in decimal base. This option is
activated by default.
• --show-hex
Show sizes and offsets in hexadecimal base.
• --show-identical-binaries
Show the names of the all binaries compared, including the
binaries whose ABI compare equal. By default, when this
option is not provided, only binaries with ABI changes are
mentionned in the output.
• --private-dso
By default, abipkgdiff does not compare DSOs that are private
to the RPM package. A private DSO is a DSO which SONAME is
NOT advertised in the "provides" property of the RPM.
This option instructs abipkgdiff to also compare DSOs that
are NOT advertised in the "provides" property of the RPM.
Please note that the fact that (by default) abipkgdiff skips
private DSO is a feature that is available only for RPMs, at
the moment. We would happily accept patches adding that
feature for other package formats.
• --redundant
In the diff reports, do display redundant changes. A
redundant change is a change that has been displayed
elsewhere in a given report.
• --self-check
This is used to test the underlying Libabigail library. When
in used, the command expects only on input package, along
with its associated debug info packages. The command then
compares each binary inside the package against its own
ABIXML representation. The result of the comparison should
yield the empty set if Libabigail behaves correctly.
Otherwise, it means there is an issue that ought to be fixed.
This option is used by people interested in Libabigail
development for regression testing purposes. Here is an
example of the use of this option:
$ abipkgdiff --self-check --d1 mesa-libGLU-debuginfo-9.0.1-3.fc33.x86_64.rpm mesa-libGLU-9.0.1-3.fc33.x86_64.rpm
==== SELF CHECK SUCCEEDED for 'libGLU.so.1.3.1' ====
$
• --set1 <package1-path> <package2-path> <package2-path> ...
Specifies the first set of packages whose binaries are to be
compared against the second one. Note that the second set of
packages is to be specified using the option --set2.
• --set2 <package1-path> <package2-path> <package2-path> ...
Specifies the second set of packages whose binaries are to be
compared against the second one. Note that the first set of
packages is to be specified using the option --set1.
• --suppressions | --suppr <path-to-suppressions>
Use a suppression specification file located at
path-to-suppressions. Note that this option can appear
multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the
suppression specification files are taken into account.
Please note that, by default, if this option is not provided,
then the default suppression specification files are loaded .
• --version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
• --wp <path-to-whitelist-package>
When comparing two Linux kernel RPM packages, this option
points an RPM package containining several white lists of
names of ELF symbols of functions and variables that must be
compared for ABI changes. Those white lists are called
"Linux kernel ABI white lists".
From the content of that white list package, this program
then chooses the appropriate Linux kernel ABI white list to
consider when comparing the ABI of Linux kernel binaries
contained in the Linux kernel packages provided on the
command line.
That choosen Linux kernel ABI white list contains the list of
names of ELF symbols of functions and variables that must be
compared for ABI changes.
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not
present in that white list will not be considered by the ABI
comparison process.
Note that this option can be provided twice (not mor than
twice), specifying one white list package for each Linux
Kernel package that is provided on the command line.
If this option is not provided -- thus if no white list is
provided -- then the ABI of all publicly defined and exported
functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel binaries
are compared.
• --verbose
Emit verbose progress messages.
• --verbose-diff
Emit timed verbose progress messages about the diffing
process. This option implies the --verbose one.
The exit code of the abipkgdiff command is either 0 if the ABI of
the binaries compared are equal, or non-zero if they differ or if
the tool encountered an error.
In the later case, the value of the exit code is the same as for
the abidiff tool.
Dodji Seketeli
2014-2025, Red Hat, Inc.
This page is part of the libabigail (ABI Generic Analysis and
Instrumentation Library) project. Information about the project
can be found at ⟨https://sourceware.org/libabigail/⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, see
⟨http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=libabigail⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://sourceware.org/git/libabigail.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-07-28.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
Aug 11, 2025 ABIPKGDIFF(1)
|
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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