How to disassemble a binary executable in Linux to get the assembly code?

Question

I was told to use a disassembler. Does gcc have anything built in? What is the easiest way to do this?

Answer 1

Let's say that you have:

#include <iostream>

double foo(double x)
{
  asm("# MyTag BEGIN"); // <- asm comment,
                        //    used later to locate piece of code
  double y = 2 * x + 1;

  asm("# MyTag END");

  return y;
}

int main()
{
  std::cout << foo(2);
}

To get assembly code using gcc you can do:

 g++ prog.cpp -c -S -o - -masm=intel | c++filt | grep -vE '\s+\.'

c++filt demangles symbols

grep -vE '\s+\.' removes some useless information

Now if you want to visualize the tagged part, simply use:

g++ prog.cpp -c -S -o - -masm=intel | c++filt | grep -vE '\s+\.' | grep "MyTag BEGIN" -A 20

With my computer I get:

    # MyTag BEGIN
# 0 "" 2
#NO_APP
    movsd   xmm0, QWORD PTR -24[rbp]
    movapd  xmm1, xmm0
    addsd   xmm1, xmm0
    addsd   xmm0, xmm1
    movsd   QWORD PTR -8[rbp], xmm0
#APP
# 9 "poub.cpp" 1
    # MyTag END
# 0 "" 2
#NO_APP
    movsd   xmm0, QWORD PTR -8[rbp]
    pop rbp
    ret
.LFE1814:
main:
.LFB1815:
    push    rbp
    mov rbp, rsp

---

A more friendly approach is to use: Compiler Explorer

Answer 2

Use IDA Pro and the Decompiler.

Answer 3

You might find ODA useful. It's a web-based disassembler that supports tons of architectures.

http://onlinedisassembler.com/