c++filt

Solaris utility to translate gibberish symbols after name mangling back into normal C++ gibberish.

c++filt is a filter that demangles any mangled symbols it finds in its input. This lets a programmer translate e.g. "__0FGprintfv, __ct__1XFv, __0fDiosEsetfl" into "printf(void), X::X(void), and ios::setf(long)". Anything else (like "," and "and" above) that doesn't look like a C++ symbol after mangling is kept as it was.

Some uses:

• A dynamically linked program fails to start because it can't find some symbol it needs. Solaris' ld.so prints out a supremely useful message on the lines of "ld.so.1: xyzzy: fatal: relocation error: file xyzzy: symbol __ct__1XFv: referenced symbol not found". Cut and paste through c++filt gives a (slightly) more intelligible error message.
• Your debugger goes bonkers and cannot print out a proper symbol name. Use c++filt (or its command line version, dem) to translate this into what you need.

By and large, such demanglers should be very esoteric tools. That they aren't says reams about the level of integration that a UN*X system, carrying as it does 30 years of history, can afford.