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When analyzing data it is usually handy to have different ways to represent it in order to get new perspectives to allow the analyst to understand how different parts of the program interact.
Representing basic block edges, function calls, string references as graphs show a very clear view of this information.
Radare2 supports various types of graph available through commands starting with `ag`:
[0x00005000]> ag?
|Usage: ag<graphtype><format> [addr]
| Graph commands:
| aga[format] Data references graph
| agA[format] Global data references graph
| agc[format] Function callgraph
| agC[format] Global callgraph
| agd[format] [fcn addr] Diff graph
| agf[format] Basic blocks function graph
| agi[format] Imports graph
| agr[format] References graph
| agR[format] Global references graph
| agx[format] Cross references graph
| agg[format] Custom graph
| ag- Clear the custom graph
| agn[?] title body Add a node to the custom graph
| age[?] title1 title2 Add an edge to the custom graph
Output formats:
| <blank> Ascii art
| * r2 commands
| d Graphviz dot
| g Graph Modelling Language (gml)
| j json ('J' for formatted disassembly)
| k SDB key-value
| t Tiny ascii art
| v Interactive ascii art
| w [path] Write to path or display graph image (see graph.gv.format and graph.web)
The structure of the commands is as follows: `ag <graph type> <output format>`.
For example, `agid` displays the imports graph in dot format, while `aggj` outputs the custom graph in JSON format.
Here's a short description for every output format available:
Displays the graph directly to stdout using ASCII art to represent blocks and edges.
_Warning: displaying large graphs directly to stdout might prove to be computationally expensive and will make r2 not responsive for some time. In case of a doubt, prefer using the interactive view (explained below)._
Displays the ASCII graph in an interactive view similar to `VV` which allows to move the screen, zoom in / zoom out, ...
Displays the ASCII graph directly to stdout in tiny mode (which is the same as reaching the maximum zoom out level in the interactive view).
Prints the dot source code representing the graph, which can be interpreted by programs such as graphviz[1] or online viewers like this[2]
Prints a JSON string representing the graph.
- In case of the `f` format (basic blocks of function), it will have detailed information about the function and will also contain the disassembly of the function (use `J` format for the formatted disassembly.
- In all other cases, it will only have basic information about the nodes of the graph (id, title, body, and edges).
Prints the GML source code representing the graph, which can be interpreted by programs such as yEd[1]
Prints key-value strings representing the graph that was stored by sdb (radare2's string database).
Prints r2 commands that would recreate the desired graph. The commands to construct the graph are `agn [title] [body]` to add a node and `age [title1] [title2]` to add an edge.
The `[body]` field can be expressed in base64 to include special formatting (such as newlines).
To easily execute the printed commands, it is possible to prepend a dot to the command (`.agf*`).
Radare2 will convert the graph to dot format, use the `dot` program to convert it to a `.gif` image and then try to find an already installed viewer on your system (`xdg-open`, `open`, ...) and display the graph there.
The extension of the output image can be set with the `graph.extension` config variable. Available extensions are `png, jpg, gif, pdf, ps`.
_Note: for particularly large graphs, the most recommended extension is `svg` as it will produce images of much smaller size_
If `graph.web` config variable is enabled, radare2 will try to display the graph using the browser (_this feature is experimental and unfinished, and disabled by default._)