DUMPBIN /DISASM

This option asks that the dump of each code section should include an attempt at disassembly.

Syntax

/disasm[:style]

The /disasm option accepts any number of arguments, including none. The permitted values are simple keywords bytes and nobytes. Anything else is a fatal error (LNK1117).

Behaviour

This option applies to executables (in both PE and LE formats) and to COFF objects (whether as self-standing files or embedded in a library). A section is a code or data section according to whether a particular flag is set or clear in the section header.

For each applicable input file, for each eligible section (as determined by the /range and /section options), if the /disasm option is active and the section is a code section, then DUMPBIN attempts a disassembly of the section’s contents. If a range has been specified with /range, then the disassembly is limited just to that part of the section that fits the range.

The disassembly style is whatever is set last. It affects whether opcodes are shown for disassembled instructions. The general practice is to show opcodes unless explicitly directed not to (with nobytes). However, for files targetted specifically to the IA64 machine, opcodes are shown only if requested (with bytes).

The sophistication of the disassembly depends strongly on what other information is available, whether from elsewhere in the input file or externally from a PDB or DBG file. (If only for the moment, the details are beyond the scope of this article.)

Documentation Status

The optional keywords are not documented in the January 2004 edition of the MSDN Library on CD. They are however listed in the description produced by running the dumpbin /? command.