Ignore dwarf symbols completely during analysis

[Ruturaj4]

I am using binaries compiled with -g flag and hence the debug symbols are retained. In my case, I can't strip the binaries and as I have auxiliary analysis involving pyelftools. Additionally the dwarf symbols are altered to fake types.

I am using ghidra in headless and would like to completely ignore these symbols during analysis.
I looked at "setAnalysisOption", but I don't know what options to disable so that ghidra would completely ignore dwarf symbols.

[astrelsky]

Try something like the following:

from ghidra.program.model.listing import Program

options = currentProgram.getOptions(Program.ANALYSIS_PROPERTIES)
options.setBoolean('DWARF', False)
options.setBoolean('DWARF Line Number', False)

It should be just as trivial in Java. The tricky part is knowing the option names to use. You can get a list of the names via options.getOptionNames()

[Ruturaj4]

Thanks! @astrelsky I appreciate your quick response.

[Ruturaj4]

@astrelsky Does this require reanalysis? As it still seems to keep the dwarf analysis.

INFO  ANALYZING all memory and code: /hmmer.exe (HeadlessAnalyzer)  
INFO  Packed database cache: /tmp/r668v698-Ghidra/packed-db-cache (PackedDatabaseCache)  
INFO  Applied data type archive: generic_clib_64 (ApplyDataArchiveAnalyzer)  
INFO  -----------------------------------------------------
    ASCII Strings                              0.606 secs
    Apply Data Archives                        0.149 secs
    Call Convention ID                         0.004 secs
    Call-Fixup Installer                       0.006 secs
    Create Address Tables                      0.088 secs
    Create Function                            0.000 secs
    DWARF                                      0.182 secs
    Data Reference                             0.087 secs
    Decompiler Switch Analysis                 0.214 secs
    Demangler GNU                              0.026 secs
    Disassemble Entry Points                   0.032 secs
    ELF Scalar Operand References              1.183 secs
    Embedded Media                             0.017 secs
    External Entry References                  0.000 secs
    External Symbol Resolver                   0.004 secs
    Function ID                                0.658 secs
    Function Start Search                      0.040 secs
    Function Start Search After Code           0.010 secs
    Function Start Search After Data           0.009 secs
    GCC Exception Handlers                     0.396 secs
    Non-Returning Functions - Discovered       0.127 secs
    Non-Returning Functions - Known            0.022 secs
    Reference                                  0.140 secs
    Shared Return Calls                        0.241 secs
    Stack                                      0.484 secs
    Subroutine References                      0.187 secs
    x86 Constant Reference Analyzer            3.560 secs

Or should I use another prescript to disable these options?

[Ruturaj4]

disabling the analysis in the preScript solved the issue.

[astrelsky]

I'm not sure when analysis runs for headless scripts but it just needs to happen before analysis.

[Ruturaj4]

ohh I was running the postScript, but thanks that makes sense