How to stop file names/paths from appearing in compiled C binary

Question

This may be compiler specific, in which case I am using the IAR EWARM 5.50 compiler (firmware development for the STM32 chip).

Our project consists of a bunch of C-code libraries that we compile first, and then the main application which compiles its C-code and then links in those libraries (pretty standard stuff).

However, if I use a hex editor and open up any of the library object files produced or the final application binary, I find a whole bunch of plain text references inside the output binary to the file paths of the C files that were compiled. (eg. I see "C:\Development\trunk\Common\Encryption\SHA_1.c")

Two issues with this:

• we don't really want the file paths being easily readable as that indicates our design some what
• the size of the binary grows if you have your C-files located in a long subdirectory (the binary contains the full path, not just the name)...this is especially important when we're dealing with firmware that has a limited amount of code space (256KB).

Any thoughts on this? I've tried all the switches in the compiler I can think of to "remove debug information", etc., but those paths are still in there.

Answer 1

"The command-line option --no_path_in_file_macros has been added. It removes the path leaving only the filename for the symbols FILE and BASE_FILE." It is defined in the release notes if IAR.

http://supp.iar.com/FilesPublic/UPDINFO/005832/arm/doc/infocenter/iccarm_history.ENU.html

Or you can look for FILE and BASE_FILE macros and remove it you do not want to use the flag.