Strip (Unix)

strip is a shell command for removing information from binary executable programs and object files that is not required for execution typically including debugging data, symbol tables, relocation information, and other metadata. The resulting file will have a smaller size, this is also known as a stripped binary.
Using strip can enhance the security of an executable by making it more difficult to reverse-engineer. The absence of symbol and debugging information complicates the program analysis of the binary.
The effect of strip can also be achieved via a compiler or linker to perform the same process. For example, in the GNU C compiler, this is done via the -s option.
The command is available in Unix, Plan 9, and Unix-like systems. The GNU Project includes an implementation in the GNU Binutils package. The command has been implemented in to other operating systems including Windows.