How do you copy a whole function dissasembly?

IDA General
1

Can I just right click on a function and copy the dissasembly? I cant’ find it lol

2

Hi!
A short tip from our colleague:
You can try Alt + L to start the selection, click at the end of the function, then Ctrl + C to copy the disassembly.

You can also use the selection in the File → Produce file submenu.

PS: Have you seen our dedicated blog posts about selections?

Hope it helps!

3

Seriously? Are you kidding? I can’t right click on function → copy ?
Isn’t it less effort to write this functionality than to write another blog post explaining stuff that shouldn’t ever happen?

4

Hi @bukowa

A dedicated “copy function disassembly” action is a reasonable request. It’s a bit more involved than it might first appear because IDA would need to choose sensible defaults.

  1. What counts as “the function”? A function isn’t always one solid block of instructions. The compiler sometimes generates function chunks that are scattered far away in the file.
  2. What is “the disassembly”? Could be what IDA literally displays in the disassembly window (addresses, raw bytes, comments), or clean assembler source you could feed back into a compiler, or just the bare instructions.

Recommended approaches

  1. Select the lines you’re interested in and copy them, like @teresa_hexrays suggested.
  2. From the menu “Help → Extract function…”. Then, “File → Produce file → Create ASM file…”. This is the best way if your intention is to share the function with other users, as it keeps all the necessary context.
  3. Use a script. I’ll give you an example below (tested with IDA 9.4).
import ida_funcs, ida_bytes, ida_kernwin, idc
def func_disasm_lines(ea=None):
    func_ea = ida_funcs.get_func_start(idc.here() if ea is None else ea)
    if func_ea == idc.BADADDR:
        return
    fii = ida_funcs.function_item_iterator_t(func_ea)
    prev_end = None
    ok = fii.first()
    while ok:
        head = fii.current()
        if prev_end is not None and head != prev_end:
            ida_kernwin.msg(f"; ---- chunk break -> {head:#x} ----\n")
        ida_kernwin.msg(f"{head:08X}  {idc.GetDisasm(head)}\n")
        prev_end = head + ida_bytes.get_item_size(head)
        ok = fii.next_code()

A built-in “right-click → copy” command would have to make those choices automatically, which is why there isn’t a single obvious default today.

I’ll pass the usability suggestion along to the UI team.