-T switch loader selection

The -T switch allows the user to specify the loader to be used by IDA.

Command line syntax

ida -T<prefix> <filename>

<prefix> is a unique prefix of the loader description as shown in the Load file dialog. For example, when loading a .NET executable, IDA proposes the following options:

For each of them, the corresponding T option could be:

• -TMicrosoft

• -TPortable

• -TMS

• -TBinary

If the prefix contains spaces, quotes should be used:

ida -T"Apple DYLD cache for arm64e (complete image)" dyld_shared_cache_arm64e

In case of an archive format like ZIP, you can specify the archive member to load after a colon (and additional loader names nested as needed).

For instance, to load ObjDir.exe contained in AllTools.zip:

ida -TZIP:ObjDir.exe C:\Temp\AllTools.zip

To load the main dex file from an .apk (which is also a zip file):

ida -TZIP:classes.dex:Android file.apk

However, it is usually better to pick the APK loader at the top level (especially in the case of multi-dex files):

ida -TAPK file.apk

When -T is specified, the initial load dialog is skipped and IDA proceeds directly to loading the file using the specified loader (but any additional prompts may still be shown).