diff --git a/llvm/test/tools/llvm-ifs/exclude.test b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-ifs/exclude.test
--- a/llvm/test/tools/llvm-ifs/exclude.test
+++ b/llvm/test/tools/llvm-ifs/exclude.test
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 # RUN: llvm-ifs --input-format=IFS --output-ifs=- --exclude='exclude*' %s | FileCheck %s
 
+# Check that exclude excludes from elf files too.
+# RUN: llvm-ifs %s --output-elf - --exclude='exclude*' | llvm-ifs - --output-ifs - | FileCheck %s
+
 # RUN: llvm-ifs --input-format=IFS --output-ifs=- --exclude='exclude*' \
 # RUN: --strip-undefined %s | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=BOTH
 
@@ -13,6 +16,7 @@
 --- !ifs-v1
 SoName: somelib.so
 IfsVersion: 3.0
+Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 Symbols:
   - { Name: dont_exclude, Type: Func, Undefined: true }
   - { Name: exclude_1, Type: Func }
diff --git a/llvm/tools/llvm-ifs/llvm-ifs.cpp b/llvm/tools/llvm-ifs/llvm-ifs.cpp
--- a/llvm/tools/llvm-ifs/llvm-ifs.cpp
+++ b/llvm/tools/llvm-ifs/llvm-ifs.cpp
@@ -429,6 +429,9 @@
   if (StripNeededLibs)
     Stub.NeededLibs.clear();
 
+  if (Error E = filterIFSSyms(Stub, StripUndefined, ExcludeSyms))
+    fatalError(std::move(E));
+
   if (OutputELFFilePath.getNumOccurrences() == 0 &&
       OutputIFSFilePath.getNumOccurrences() == 0 &&
       OutputTBDFilePath.getNumOccurrences() == 0) {
@@ -485,8 +488,6 @@
         stripIFSTarget(Stub, StripIFSTarget, StripIFSArch,
                        StripIFSEndiannessWidth, StripIFSBitWidth);
       }
-      if (Error E = filterIFSSyms(Stub, StripUndefined, ExcludeSyms))
-        fatalError(std::move(E));
       Error IFSWriteError = writeIFS(OutputFilePath.getValue(), Stub);
       if (IFSWriteError)
         fatalError(std::move(IFSWriteError));
@@ -537,8 +538,6 @@
         stripIFSTarget(Stub, StripIFSTarget, StripIFSArch,
                        StripIFSEndiannessWidth, StripIFSBitWidth);
       }
-      if (Error E = filterIFSSyms(Stub, StripUndefined, ExcludeSyms))
-        fatalError(std::move(E));
       Error IFSWriteError = writeIFS(OutputIFSFilePath.getValue(), Stub);
       if (IFSWriteError)
         fatalError(std::move(IFSWriteError));