How to determine which compiler has been used to compile an executable?

Question

From a compiled file, can I see which compiler has been used to generate the file?

Answer 1

In some cases you can run ldd on the binary and find out which standard library it's linked against. For example on Solaris gcc vs Sun CC vs whatever.

For C++ code, you can also dump some of the symbols, find a mangled function name, and then figure out which demangler generates the correct original name.

Answer 2

Try, IDA Pro which identifies the libraries and tools used to build up executable file.

Answer 3

Many compilers/linkers insert a .comment section in the output file which identifies them. There are also a number of more subtle behaviors you could create compiler fingerprints off of, but I know of no existing tools for this.

If you have the source, the easiest solution would be to try compiling with each compiler in question until you get a binary that matches byte-for-byte (or even closely).

Answer 4

There's also the good old 'strings' utility. Dumps all ascii-ish looking strings it finds in the binary. Different compilers embed different amounts of information in the binaries they produce, but many will actually include obviously identifying strings.