Provided by: abicheck_1.2-5ubuntu1_all 
NAME
abicheck - check application binaries for calls to private or evolving symbols in libraries and for
static linking of some system libraries.
SYNOPSIS
abicheck [-h] [-k] [-a] [-I] [-v] [-f listfile] [-o outfile] [-p pattern] [-e pattern] [-j njobs] [-l
library] [-L ldpath] [(-s|-S) dbfile] [(-d|-D) dbfile] [-O dbfile] [-A listfile] files
DESCRIPTION
abicheck is run on application binaries and issues warnings whenever any of the following three
conditions are detected:
• Private symbol usage. Private symbols are functions or data variables in a library package that are
internal to that package. They are used by the libraries in the package for internal communication and
are not part of the API/ABI that application developers should use.
• Evolving symbol usage. Evolving symbols are functions or data variables in a library package that are
intended for developer consumption, but have been marked as "evolving" or "unstable" in the sense that
they may become incompatible or disappear on a later release of the library package.
• Static linking. Static linking of system libraries (for example, libc.a) into an application is
generally not a good idea because the system library code it "locks" into the application binary may
become incompatible with later releases of the system. abicheck attempts to detect static linking of a
few system libraries.
The default behavior is, for each binary object checked, to examine direct calls from that binary object
only. The -l option allows the libraries the binary object brings in to have their calls checked as well.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-k Keep on checking binaries even if there are serious errors (dynamic linker reports unresolved
symbols, ldd(1) failures, no symbols detected).
-h Print out long form of help.
-v Verbose. Print out additional information.
-f listfile
The listfile is a file containing a list of binary objects to check, one per line. This list is
appended to any files provided as arguments on the command line. If listfile is "-", then stdin
is used.
-o outfile
Write output to outfile instead of stdout.
-p pattern
Modify the version name pattern match labelling private version sets. Default is /private/ using a
case-insensitive match.
If a component of the regex pattern contains two colons in a row: patt1::patt2, then symbol-level
matching will be activated by checking whether version::symbol or library::symbol matches pattern
(where the symbol name, version (if any), and library basename are substituted for symbol,
version, and library). For example,
-p 'FOO_VERS.*::_foopriv'
or
-p 'libfoo.so.*::_foopriv'
-e pattern
Same as -p but for "evolving" interfaces.
-L ldpath
Set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to ldpath before invoking dynamic linker. Use -L ""
to unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
If one of the components of ldpath is the string "find", then all shared libraries in files are
found and their paths inserted into the "find" location. Note that the order will random.
-l library
Add the basename or full pathname of the shared library library to the list of objects to be
checked for making private calls. This option may occur more than once on the command line and is
additive. By default, only direct calls from a binary to the system libraries are checked. The
-l switch allows checking of indirect calls e.g.: app -> supportlib -> systemlib.
-a Loop through all of the binaries before checking and collect the list of all shared objects. Take
the basename of each shared object found and act as though it was specified with the -l option
option and then run the abicheck checks. This way, calls from all "application internal" objects
are checked rather than just the direct calls. (Useful when shared objects do not have their
dependencies recorded.)
-I Ignore shared libraries in checking, only check executables. Compatible with -a, libraries will
be searched for first but then not checked.
-d dbfile, -D dbfile
Specify fallback flat-file symbol database for the dynamic (public vs. private) test. These
classifications will be used if the library is not versioned (i.e. classification does not exist
in the library itself). Use -D to indicate that only information from dbfile should be used.
Lines in dbfile can be of one of these forms:
library|symbol
library|class|symbol
library|FILE=path
library must be the full path to the library to be specified (it cannot be a basename).
The first form marks symbol as private.
The second form marks symbol with class where class may be public, private, or evolving.
The third form indicates the file path should be opened on demand when library is first
encountered. File path contains lines of the first two forms except for the library field. The
third form is a speedup to avoid processing many classification lines for libraries never
encountered in the run.
-O dbfile
Specify an override file to modify the symbol classification for the dynamic (public vs. private)
test. The format for the override file is like:
library|symbol|class
The library can be the full path or basename. If library is "__SKIP__" the symbol will be ignored
for any library it is found in. The class can be "public", "private", "evolving", or "deleted".
The "deleted" class is special-cased, means the symbol was deleted from the library on some
release. The symbol "__ALL__" for the "deleted" class means the entire library was deleted or is
otherwise unstable to use.
Examples:
libfoo.so.1|__bar|private
/lib/libxyz.so.1|baz|public
__SKIP__|__fputwc_xpg5
These settings override any classification inside the library (from library versioning, obtainable
from pvs(1), etc).
-A listfile
Set the ABI libraries of interest to the libraries listed in listfile (full pathnames, one per
line). Only calls into these libraries will be checked; all other library calls will be ignored.
-s dbfile, -S dbfile
Specify more extensive symbol databases for the static linking test. dbfile may be a comma
separated list of files. If a file is a static archive (lib*.a) it is processed to extract the
symbols. Otherwise it is a database file consisting of lines of the form symbol|library:module
for example:
shmat|/usr/lib/libc.a:shmsys.o
shmctl|/usr/lib/libc.a:shmsys.o
shmdt|/usr/lib/libc.a:shmsys.o
shmget|/usr/lib/libc.a:shmsys.o
...
When all symbols in a module.o are defined in the application, static linking of that module (and
corresponding library archive) is assumed. Use -S to indicate that only the static link test
should be performed.
Use -S int to do only the static link check and using the internal database.
Use -s none or -S none to skip the static linking check entirely.
-j njobs
Run njobs in parallel as separate processes. Implies -k. Primarily intended for multiple CPU
machines where njobs should be close to the number of processors. Output is collected in tmp
files and printed all at once near the end of the run as each job finishes.
If njobs is "-", "detect", or "n", then njobs will be set to a number depending on the number of
processors on the current machine (if that can be determined).
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
files A list of application binary objects to check.
OUTPUT
There is one line per problem (there may be multiple problems per binary checked) which look like the
following:
If no problems were found:
filename: OK
If private symbol usage:
filename: PRIVATE (library:private_version) private_sym
If evolving symbol usage:
filename: EVOLVING (library:evolving_vers) evolving_sym
If file statically linked in a system archive library:
filename: STATIC_LINK (archive)
If checking of the file was skipped:
filename: SKIP (reason)
Under use of the deleted class in the -O override file option, these problems may be found:
If a symbol has been deleted from the library on some release:
filename: DELETED_SYM: symbol/library
(library will be "unbound" if the symbol was unbound)
If an entire library has been deleted on some release or is otherwise unstable to use:
filename: UNSTABLE_LIB: library-soname = library-path
(library-path may be "file not found" if the library could not be found)
The following problems will cause a fatal error unless the -k option is used:
If the dynamic linker could not resolve N symbols when ldd -r was run:
filename: UNBOUND_SYMBOLS: N
If the dynamic linker found no dynamic bindings:
filename: NO_BINDINGS
If ldd -r with LD_DEBUG=files,bindings failed:
filename: LDD_ERROR
In these latter three cases run ldd -r on the binary file for more information on what went wrong (note
that abicheck runs ldd -r with LD_DEBUG=files,bindings set). On some systems the dynamic linker will not
process SUID programs with LD_DEBUG set (this usually results in NO_BINDINGS in the abicheck output).
Note that if you are running abicheck on a shared library (for example, libfoo.so) that has not been
built with -l lib flags to record its library dependencies, then the "unbound symbols" problem is very
likely. There is not much that can be done besides rebuilding the library or checking an application
binary that uses the library and using the -l option of abicheck.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 No errors and no problems found.
1 A fatal error occurred.
2 No fatal errors occurred, but some binaries had problems detected.
NOTES
Only ELF objects are checked.
In the -s -S -d and -O dbfiles the '#' character starts a comment line in the usual way.
Unless one is using the "::" custom matches supplied via the -p or -e flags, abicheck can only check
against system libraries that have had symbol versioning applied to them (i.e. the private and/or
evolving information recorded for each symbol in the library itself). For more info about symbol
versioning, see the "Solaris Linker and Libraries Guide" answerbook at the URL
http://docs.sun.com/ab2/coll.45.13 and the Commands/Version-Script section of the GNU linker "ld" info
page.
The default symbol version name matching patterns are case insensitive matches to the strings "private"
and "evolving" for the private and evolving cases, respectively.
Odd filenames containing the single-quote character or newline will be skipped; such characters interfere
with calling commands via the shell.
To recurse directories use find(1) and either collect the output to a file for use with the -f option, or
in a pipe in via:
find ... | abicheck -f - ...
BUGS
The program is dependent on the form of the runtime linker's debug output. Since this output is intended
to be human readable rather than machine readable, abicheck will break whenever the output format
changes. On Solaris it is possible that the Link Auditing C interface could be used to avoid this
problem.
On Linux when ldd(1) is run on a SUID binary, it (ldd and the dynamic-linker) will sometimes actually run
the binary. On Linux SUID/SGID binaries are currently skipped even if the user is root; test unprivileged
copies instead.
SEE ALSO
ld(1), ldd(1),
26 August 2003 abicheck(1)