Explore and Analyze ELF Firmware Binaries in VS Code

The ELF File Explorer is a custom editor built into CodeFusion Studio that lets you quickly parse and analyze compiled firmware binaries. Rather than reaching for separate tooling, you can open any ELF-format file directly in VS Code and immediately inspect its memory layout, symbol table, metadata, and statistics — all in a single interactive view. This dramatically reduces time spent debugging and profiling while giving you deeper insight into your application’s structure.

Supported file formats

The ELF File Explorer can open any file that contains a valid ELF header. The following file extensions are recognized automatically: AXF DOJ DXE ELF EXE KO MOD O OUT PRX PUFF SO

Opening an ELF file

From the Activity Bar
From the Explorer

Open the CFS panel

Click the CodeFusion Studio icon in the VS Code Activity Bar to open the CFS side panel.

Click Open ELF File

Under the ELF File Explorer section, click Open ELF File.

Navigate to your binary

In the file picker, navigate to the ELF file in your project’s build folder — for example, m4/build/m4.elf.

Once a file is open, navigation icons on the left side of the editor let you switch between four main views: Statistics, Metadata, Symbols, and Memory Layout. A help icon in the top-right corner provides context-sensitive guidance for the currently active view.

Statistics

The Statistics page gives a high-level overview of the ELF file across five sections.

File Overview

Summarizes key metadata for the binary:

Field	Description
Format	ELF 32-bit or 64-bit
Data Encoding	Endianness — little or big endian
File Type	Executable, relocatable, shared object, or core file
Architecture	Target architecture (for example, Arm or x86)
ABI Version	Application Binary Interface version
Debug Info	Indicates whether the file contains debugging information
Stripping	Indicates whether symbol information has been stripped

Main Section Sizes

Shows total memory consumed, broken down by data type:

Text — Executable code
Data — Initialized global and static variables
Bss — Zero-initialized and uninitialized data

Symbol Types

Displays the count of functions and variables grouped by binding type: global, local, and weak. Filters above the table let you narrow the view to all, text, data, or bss symbols.

Sections

A table showing details for every section contained within the ELF file.

Largest Symbols

Lists the ten largest symbols in the binary. Filters above the table let you narrow by all, text, data, or bss symbols.

Metadata

The Metadata page displays a breakdown of text, data, and bss sizes alongside the full ELF header contents, including architecture, data layout, ELF version, and flags.

Header Info

Contains the ELF file type, target architecture, entry point address, and program/section header details — required for the OS to correctly load and execute the binary.

AEABI Attributes

ARM Embedded ABI attributes that convey the target architecture, floating-point configuration, and optimization level. These ensure toolchain and runtime compatibility.

Heuristic Information

Indicates detected metadata for Zephyr and MSDK firmware platforms, which may include Flash and RAM sizes and other platform-specific data.

Symbols Explorer

The Symbol Explorer presents a sortable, filterable table of every symbol in the ELF file. Click any column header to sort; use the SQL query interface for precise filtering.

The Symbol Explorer query engine is powered by AlaSQL. Supported syntax and functions are limited to what AlaSQL provides — refer to the AlaSQL documentation for the full feature set.

Available columns

The default query (SELECT *) returns these fields:

Column	Type	Description
`id`	integer	Unique identifier for the symbol
`name`	string	Symbol name
`type`	string	Kind of entity the symbol represents
`address`	integer	Memory address where the symbol is located
`section`	string	Section in which the symbol is defined
`size`	integer	Size of the symbol in bytes
`localstack`	integer	Worst-case local stack usage for a function (excluding callees)
`stack`	integer	Worst-case total stack usage for a function (including callees)
`bind`	string	Linkage type — for example, `local` or `global`
`visibility`	string	Accessibility from other modules — for example, `default` or `hidden`
`path`	string	Source file where the symbol is defined

The localstack, stack, and path columns are only populated when the relevant data is present in the ELF. Stack data requires the following GCC flags at build time:

-fdump-rtl-expand -fstack-usage -fdump-rtl-dfinish -fdump-ipa-cgraph -gdwarf-4

These flags are enabled by default in CodeFusion Studio projects.

Generating compiler data for stack analysis

To produce stack usage (SU) and call graph (CGRAPH) data with GCC, compile your firmware with:

-fstack-usage -fdump-ipa-cgraph -gdwarf-4

Zephyr
MSDK

Add the following lines to your CMakeLists.txt:

zephyr_cc_option(-fstack-usage)
zephyr_cc_option(-fdump-ipa-cgraph)
zephyr_cc_option(-gdwarf-4)

Add the following lines to your Makefile:

PROJ_CFLAGS += -fstack-usage
PROJ_CFLAGS += -fdump-ipa-cgraph
PROJ_CFLAGS += -gdwarf-4

Stack usage and call graph data can only be parsed when generated by GCC. Binaries built with other toolchains will not populate the localstack or stack columns.

SQL query examples

Use the quick lookup field above the table to filter by name or address without writing SQL. Enter a text or numeric value and press Enter to auto-generate a query.

Any valid SQL construct is supported, including WHERE, ORDER, LIMIT, LIKE, and REGEXP:

Goal	Query
Show specific columns	`SELECT name, address FROM symbols`
Symbols larger than 100 bytes	`SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE size > 100`
Ten largest symbols	`SELECT * FROM symbols ORDER BY size DESC LIMIT 10`
Symbols in an address range	`SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE address BETWEEN 0x10000000 AND 0x20000000`
Symbols from a specific source file	`SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE path LIKE '%main.c%'`
Symbols whose name starts with a prefix	`SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE name REGEXP '^init.*'`

Queries can be saved using the save icon next to the query field. Click Saved queries to view, edit, or delete saved queries. Saved queries are stored in user settings and persist across workspaces.

Memory Layout

The Memory Layout page pairs an interactive visual memory map on the left with a segment table on the right. The map uses the following visual conventions:

Display	Meaning
Stripes	Unused memory
Blank	Read/write memory
Filled	Read-only memory

Hover over a segment in the map to see a summary and highlight the corresponding table row, or hover over a table row to highlight its segment in the map.

Overlapping segments are rendered as smaller rectangles to the right of the main segment. Small segments may appear larger than their actual size for readability — always refer to the reported size values for accuracy.

Segments

Clicking a segment in the table drills down to the sections it contains.

Field	Description
Id	Unique identifier for the segment
Type	Purpose of the segment — for example, loadable or dynamic
Address	Start address of the segment
Size	Size in bytes
Flags	Permissions: R (read), W (write), X (executable)
Align	Memory alignment requirement in bytes

Sections in a segment

Clicking a segment reveals the sections it contains:

Field	Description
Id	Unique identifier for the section
Name	Section name
Address	Start address
Size	Size in bytes
Flags	Section attributes (see table below)
Type	Contents and purpose of the section

Section flag reference

Flag	Meaning
W	Write
A	Alloc
X	Execute
M	Merge
S	Strings
I	Info
L	Link order
O	Extra OS processing required
G	Group
T	TLS
C	Compressed
x	Unknown
o	OS specific
E	Exclude
D	Mbind
y	Purecode
p	Processor specific

Click a section to view the symbols it contains. Use the breadcrumb at the top-left to navigate back to Segments or Sections.

Symbols in a section

Field	Description
Id	Unique identifier for the symbol
Name	Symbol name
Address	Memory address
Size	Size in bytes
Bind	Linkage type — for example, `local` or `global`
Visibility	Accessibility — for example, `default` or `hidden`

CLI reference: `cfsutil elf`

All ELF analysis capabilities are also available from the terminal via the cfsutil command-line utility.

`cfsutil elf analyze`

Provides a high-level summary of the ELF file, including platform detection, stack/heap sizes, and Flash/SRAM sizes.

cfsutil elf analyze <FILEPATH> [--format text|json]

Use --format json to emit machine-readable output suitable for CI pipelines or scripting.

`cfsutil elf info`

Provides in-depth information about the ELF file. At least one switch is required:

cfsutil elf info <FILEPATH> [--format text|json] [-h] [-a] [-c] [-s] [-v]

Switch	Information
`-a`	Attributes
`-c`	Core ELF information
`-h`	ELF header
`-s`	Size
`--format`	Output format: `text` (default) or `json`
`-v`	Verbose output

Example — print the ELF header and section sizes in JSON:

cfsutil elf info firmware.elf -h -s --format json

`cfsutil elf memory`

Provides information on segments, sections, and symbols within the binary.

cfsutil elf memory <FILEPATH> [-s] [-t] [-y] [-i <value>] [-n <value>] [--format text|json] [-d]

Switch	Effect
`-s`	List segments
`-t`	List sections within each segment
`-y`	List symbols within each section
`-d`	Print detailed information (requires `-s`, `-t`, or `-y`)
`-i <value>`	Filter to segment or section with the given ID
`-n <value>`	Filter to segment or section with the given name
`--format`	Output format: `text` (default) or `json`

For -t and -y, sections and symbols can be restricted to a specific segment or section using -i or -n. This command can produce a large amount of output — consider redirecting it to a file.

Example — list all sections and their symbols, filtered to a specific segment:

cfsutil elf memory firmware.elf -t -y -n .text > memory_report.txt

`cfsutil elf symbols`

Runs a SQL query against the symbol table and outputs the matching rows.

cfsutil elf symbols <FILEPATH> <SQLQUERY> [--format text|json] [-f]

Switch	Effect
`-f`	Print the full source file path (when debug info is available)
`--format`	Output format: `text` (default) or `json`

Example queries:

# Show the ten largest symbols
cfsutil elf symbols firmware.elf "SELECT * FROM symbols ORDER BY size DESC LIMIT 10"

# Find all global functions larger than 512 bytes
cfsutil elf symbols firmware.elf "SELECT name, size, address FROM symbols WHERE bind='Global' AND size > 512"

# Symbols from a specific source file, with full paths
cfsutil elf symbols firmware.elf "SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE path LIKE '%main.c%'" -f

# Symbols in a specific address range, as JSON
cfsutil elf symbols firmware.elf \
  "SELECT * FROM symbols WHERE address BETWEEN 0x10000000 AND 0x20000000" \
  --format json

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Developer Tools

Explore and Analyze ELF Firmware Binaries in VS Code

Supported file formats

Opening an ELF file

Navigation

Statistics

Metadata

Header Info

AEABI Attributes

Heuristic Information

Symbols Explorer

Available columns

Generating compiler data for stack analysis

SQL query examples

Memory Layout

Segments

Sections in a segment

Symbols in a section

CLI reference: `cfsutil elf`

`cfsutil elf analyze`

`cfsutil elf info`

`cfsutil elf memory`

`cfsutil elf symbols`

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Workspace & System Planner

Build, Flash & Debug

Embedded AI

Developer Tools

Documentation Index

​Supported file formats

​Opening an ELF file

​Navigation

​Statistics

​Metadata

Header Info

AEABI Attributes

Heuristic Information

​Symbols Explorer

​Available columns

​Generating compiler data for stack analysis

​SQL query examples

​Memory Layout

​Segments

​Sections in a segment

​Symbols in a section

​CLI reference: cfsutil elf

​cfsutil elf analyze

​cfsutil elf info

​cfsutil elf memory

​cfsutil elf symbols

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Supported file formats

Opening an ELF file

Navigation

Statistics

Metadata

Symbols Explorer

Available columns

Generating compiler data for stack analysis

SQL query examples

Memory Layout

Segments

Sections in a segment

Symbols in a section

CLI reference: `cfsutil elf`

`cfsutil elf analyze`

`cfsutil elf info`

`cfsutil elf memory`

`cfsutil elf symbols`