How can I examine contents of a data section of an ELF file on Linux?
I've been using objdump to look at assembly code in Linux ELF binaries.
Sometimes there is an indirect jump through a jump table that is stored in the rodata (read-only data) section.
How to get objdump or any other tool to show me the contents of this data section?
I could execute the program and examine the relevant addresses in the debugger, but I don't want to do that because it has to be done interactively.
The ideal answer will identify a tool that will not only show me the contents but will let me control the display format, much as od does.
Answer
objdump -s -j .rodata exefile
gives a side-by-side hex/printable ASCII dump of the contents of the rodata section like:
Contents of section .rodata:
0000 67452301 efcdab89 67452301 efcdab89 gE#.....gE#.....
0010 64636261 68676665 64636261 68676665 dcbahgfedcbahgfe
It doesn't look like there's anything in there to control formatting, but it's a start. You could always undump the hex and feed it to od, I suppose :)