frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Help with doing statistics over machine code

2•phafu•1y ago
I'd like to do some statistics over the machine code gcc generates, such as a histogram of used instructions, average volatile/preserved registers usage of functions etc. For now just x86_64 SysV-ABI would be enough.

However I'm not aware of any pre-existing tool that lets me easily do this. The options I currently see are either make gcc output assembly and write a parser for the GNU Assembler format (possibly by reusing the asm-parser of the compiler-explorer project), or write a tool that reads (disassembles) object files directly using elfutils.

Any hints, prior work, further ideas, links to useful resources, or any other kind of help would be much appreciated.

Comments

baobun•1y ago
"Static analysis" should be a relevant search term. Assuming you don't need to tie the instructions back to C code then the "gcc" part seems circumstancial for implementation? I guess you might want to parse the ASM into an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) represenation and work on that?

If you do want to tie it back to the source, this looks relevant: http://icps.u-strasbg.fr/~pop/gcc-ast.html

phafu•1y ago
For my purpose I don't need to get back to the original source, no.

The gcc part is only relevant with regards to what dialect of assembler I need to parse. If I go that route, I'd write a parser for the GNU assembler, and that would of course work with any code in that dialect, regardless from which compiler it came from (I haven't checked whether other compilers can produce GNU assembler though).

Show HN: Tasku Cloud – Sync, backup, web app

https://tasku.cloud/
1•nerimasoft•44s ago•0 comments

Cohere and Aleph Alpha Join Forces

https://cohere.com/blog/cohere-alephalpha-join-forces
1•Anon84•48s ago•0 comments

Nasiba

https://www.nasiba.co/
1•paul91zz•1m ago•0 comments

You can now predict anything bruh

https://www.onemarkos.com/p/prior-chat-predictive-intelligence
1•onemarkos•2m ago•0 comments

Intelligent Terminal 0.2.2572: Faster, Smoother, and More Reliable

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/intelligent-terminal-0-2-25-performance-reliability/
1•ibobev•2m ago•0 comments

Missouri governor orders guardrails on Flock cameras and ALPRs

https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2026-09-16/flock-cameras-guardrails-missouri-kehoe
2•lenerdenator•2m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What would you include in an academic workshop on vibe coding?

1•cximenez•4m ago•0 comments

How not to solve Jane Street's ASIC puzzle. Kinda

https://www.babush.me/how-not-to-solve-jane-streets-asic-puzzle.html
1•babush•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Real-Time Bluesky Post Firehose in < 256MB

https://turbolytics.io/demos/bluesky/
1•dm03514•5m ago•1 comments

Signal releases phonenumber-less signups in beta

https://community.signalusers.org/t/beta-feedback-for-the-upcoming-android-8-28-release/76457
1•dherls•7m ago•1 comments

Show HN: MCPJam - the first testing & evaluations platform for MCP servers

https://www.mcpjam.com
2•prathmeshmcp•7m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Key Jump – jump to search results by pressing 1,2,3

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/key-jump/bniglipeipioplnfjikdkjakllkgjidm
1•techsin101•10m ago•0 comments

Getting rid of bad habits without suffering, without clinics, more effective

https://neo.miniproject.fyi
1•Neopsy•10m ago•0 comments

ChatGPT for Word, Excel and PowerPoint

https://chatgpt.com/apps/word/
1•vertigoruntime•11m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Pi-jev-auto-mode – a probability model gates Pi's shell commands

https://github.com/jomatsu/pi-jev-auto-mode
1•jomatsu•13m ago•0 comments

Inside OpenAI’s agentic software factory

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/openai-software-factory
1•gfortaine•13m ago•0 comments

Don't Just Say Hello

https://nohello.net/en/
8•ninju•14m ago•0 comments

Saturn's South Pole Features Newly Formed Atmospheric Decagon

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/saturns-south-pole-features-newly-formed-atmospheric-decagon
1•Betelbuddy•14m ago•0 comments

256GB Mac Mini is too small. You need Elbowroom

https://tomjohnell.com/your-256gb-mac-mini-is-too-small-you-need-elbowroom/
2•tjohnell•15m ago•1 comments

AI could create a 'silicon species' that rivals humans, Microsoft chief warns

https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/09/17/ai-could-create-a-silicon-species-that-rivals-humans-mic...
3•devonnull•16m ago•0 comments

Migrating the GitHub Copilot Runtime to Rust, Using Copilot

https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/migrating-the-github-copilot-runtime-to-rust-using-co...
1•mring33621•16m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Telly, talk to your Mac and it does the clicking

https://www.hey-telly.com/
1•mrutopia•17m ago•1 comments

More Kiwis taking 'hands off' approach with self-driving technology

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/1447009/more-kiwis-taking-hands-off-approach-wi...
3•billybuckwheat•18m ago•0 comments

Robots are asking for tips. But who gets the money?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260818-do-you-have-to-tip-the-robots
5•ent101•18m ago•1 comments

Typesafe's Jev is the fish at the poker table

https://backnotprop.com/blog/jev-poker/
2•ramoz•19m ago•0 comments

DuckDB Queries Inside MySQL

https://villagesql.com/blog/duckdb/
1•deesix•21m ago•1 comments

Monobloc Chair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc_(chair)
2•ginko•21m ago•0 comments

Novgraph: Knowledge graph for codebases that saves you 99% percent tokens

1•Shourya_55•21m ago•0 comments

What happens when you send a message to an LLM (the API call explained)

https://heymeraki.substack.com/p/aie_20-inside-the-llm-api-call
1•heyy-meraki•21m ago•1 comments

When Software Outlives Its Reasons (Philosophical Essay)

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6761138
1•camilochs•22m ago•0 comments