objdump is a program for displaying various information about object file

Object file

An object file is a file containing relocatable format machine code that is usually not directly executable. Object files are produced by an assembler, compiler, or other language translator, and used as input to the linker....

s. For instance, it can be used as a disassembler

Disassembler

A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A disassembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high-level language rather than an assembly language...

 to view executable

Executable

In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...

 in assembly form. It is part of the GNU Binutils for fine-grained control over executable and other binary data.

For example, to completely disassemble a binary:
objdump -Dslx file

objdump uses the BFD library to read the contents of object files. readelf, also included in the binutils package, is similar to objdump but it can only read ELF

Executable and Linkable Format

In computing, the Executable and Linkable Format is a common standard file format for executables, object code, shared libraries, and core dumps. First published in the System V Application Binary Interface specification, and later in the Tool Interface Standard, it was quickly accepted among...

 files and it does not use the BFD library.

External links

• Binutils-Objdump - Perl interface to objdump