NAME

       abilint - validate an abigail ABI representation

       abilint  parses  the native XML representation of an ABI as emitted by abidw.  Once it has parsed the XML
       representation of the ABI, abilint builds and in-memory model from it.  It then tries to save it back  to
       an  XML  form,  to  standard output.  If that read-write operation succeeds chances are the input XML ABI
       representation is meaningful.

       Note that the main intent of this tool to help debugging issues in the underlying Libabigail library.

       Note also that abilint can also read an ELF input file, build  the  in-memory  model  for  its  ABI,  and
       serialize  that  model  back  into  XML  to  standard  output.   In that case, the ELF input file must be
       accompanied with its debug information in the DWARF format.

INVOCATION

          abilint [options] [<abi-file1>]

OPTIONS

          • --annotate

            Annotate the ABIXML output with comments  above  most  elements.   The  comments  are  made  of  the
            pretty-printed  form  of  types, declaration or even ELF symbols.  The purpose is to make the ABIXML
            output more human-readable for debugging or documenting purposes.

          • --ctf

            Extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present in the given object.

          • --debug-info-dir <path>

            When reading an ELF input file which debug information is split  out  into  a  separate  file,  this
            options tells abilint where to find that separate debug information file.

            Note  that  path must point to the root directory under which the debug information is arranged in a
            tree-like manner.  Under Red Hat based systems, that directory is usually <root>/usr/lib/debug.

            Note also that this option is not mandatory for split debug information installed by  your  system’s
            package manager because then abidiff knows where to find it.

          • --diff

            For XML inputs, perform a text diff between the input and the memory model saved back to disk.  This
            can help to spot issues in the handling of the XML format by the underlying Libabigail library.

          • --header-file | --hf <header-file-path>

            Specifies  where  to  find  one of the public headers of the abi file that the tool has to consider.
            The tool will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers.

          • --headers-dir | --hd <headers-directory-path-1>

            Specifies where to find the public headers of  the  first  shared  library  that  the  tool  has  to
            consider.  The tool will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers.

          • --help

            Display a short help message and exits.

          • --noout

            Do  not display anything on standard output.  The return code of the command is the only way to know
            if the command succeeded.

          • --suppressions | suppr <path-to-suppression-specifications-file>

            Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppression-specifications-file.  Note  that
            this  option  can  appear  multiple  times  on  the command line.  In that case, all of the provided
            suppression specification files are taken into account.  ABI artifacts matched  by  the  suppression
            specifications are suppressed from the output of this tool.

          • --stdin | --

            Read the input content from standard input.

          • --tu

            Expect the input XML to represent a single translation unit.

          • –verbose

            Shows  verbose  messages  about  internal  stuff.  This is used to debug the tool and its underlying
            library.

          • –version | -v

            Display the version of the program and exit.

AUTHOR

       Dodji Seketeli

COPYRIGHT

       2014-2025, Red Hat, Inc.

                                                  Jul 31, 2025                                        ABILINT(1)