| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <title>Symbol Errors - Debugging with GDB</title> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> |
| <meta name="description" content="Debugging with GDB"> |
| <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> |
| <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> |
| <link rel="up" href="GDB-Files.html#GDB-Files" title="GDB Files"> |
| <link rel="prev" href="Index-Files.html#Index-Files" title="Index Files"> |
| <link rel="next" href="Data-Files.html#Data-Files" title="Data Files"> |
| <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> |
| <!-- |
| Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, |
| 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 |
| Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| |
| Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
| under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or |
| any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the |
| Invariant Sections being ``Free Software'' and ``Free Software Needs |
| Free Documentation'', with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,'' |
| and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. |
| |
| (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You are free to copy and modify |
| this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in |
| developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''--> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> |
| <style type="text/css"><!-- |
| pre.display { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.format { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } |
| span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } |
| span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| --></style> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> |
| </head> |
| <body> |
| <div class="node"> |
| <a name="Symbol-Errors"></a> |
| <p> |
| Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Data-Files.html#Data-Files">Data Files</a>, |
| Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Index-Files.html#Index-Files">Index Files</a>, |
| Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="GDB-Files.html#GDB-Files">GDB Files</a> |
| <hr> |
| </div> |
| |
| <h3 class="section">18.4 Errors Reading Symbol Files</h3> |
| |
| <p>While reading a symbol file, <span class="sc">gdb</span> occasionally encounters problems, |
| such as symbol types it does not recognize, or known bugs in compiler |
| output. By default, <span class="sc">gdb</span> does not notify you of such problems, since |
| they are relatively common and primarily of interest to people |
| debugging compilers. If you are interested in seeing information |
| about ill-constructed symbol tables, you can either ask <span class="sc">gdb</span> to print |
| only one message about each such type of problem, no matter how many |
| times the problem occurs; or you can ask <span class="sc">gdb</span> to print more messages, |
| to see how many times the problems occur, with the <code>set |
| complaints</code> command (see <a href="Messages_002fWarnings.html#Messages_002fWarnings">Optional Warnings and Messages</a>). |
| |
| <p>The messages currently printed, and their meanings, include: |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><code>inner block not inside outer block in </code><var>symbol</var><dd> |
| The symbol information shows where symbol scopes begin and end |
| (such as at the start of a function or a block of statements). This |
| error indicates that an inner scope block is not fully contained |
| in its outer scope blocks. |
| |
| <p><span class="sc">gdb</span> circumvents the problem by treating the inner block as if it had |
| the same scope as the outer block. In the error message, <var>symbol</var> |
| may be shown as “<code>(don't know)</code>” if the outer block is not a |
| function. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>block at </code><var>address</var><code> out of order</code><dd> |
| The symbol information for symbol scope blocks should occur in |
| order of increasing addresses. This error indicates that it does not |
| do so. |
| |
| <p><span class="sc">gdb</span> does not circumvent this problem, and has trouble |
| locating symbols in the source file whose symbols it is reading. (You |
| can often determine what source file is affected by specifying |
| <code>set verbose on</code>. See <a href="Messages_002fWarnings.html#Messages_002fWarnings">Optional Warnings and Messages</a>.) |
| |
| <br><dt><code>bad block start address patched</code><dd> |
| The symbol information for a symbol scope block has a start address |
| smaller than the address of the preceding source line. This is known |
| to occur in the SunOS 4.1.1 (and earlier) C compiler. |
| |
| <p><span class="sc">gdb</span> circumvents the problem by treating the symbol scope block as |
| starting on the previous source line. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>bad string table offset in symbol </code><var>n</var><dd> |
| <a name="index-foo-1024"></a>Symbol number <var>n</var> contains a pointer into the string table which is |
| larger than the size of the string table. |
| |
| <p><span class="sc">gdb</span> circumvents the problem by considering the symbol to have the |
| name <code>foo</code>, which may cause other problems if many symbols end up |
| with this name. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>unknown symbol type 0x</code><var>nn</var><dd> |
| The symbol information contains new data types that <span class="sc">gdb</span> does |
| not yet know how to read. <code>0x</code><var>nn</var> is the symbol type of the |
| uncomprehended information, in hexadecimal. |
| |
| <p><span class="sc">gdb</span> circumvents the error by ignoring this symbol information. |
| This usually allows you to debug your program, though certain symbols |
| are not accessible. If you encounter such a problem and feel like |
| debugging it, you can debug <code>gdb</code> with itself, breakpoint |
| on <code>complain</code>, then go up to the function <code>read_dbx_symtab</code> |
| and examine <code>*bufp</code> to see the symbol. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>stub type has NULL name</code><dd> |
| <span class="sc">gdb</span> could not find the full definition for a struct or class. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>const/volatile indicator missing (ok if using g++ v1.x), got...</code><dd>The symbol information for a C<tt>++</tt> member function is missing some |
| information that recent versions of the compiler should have output for |
| it. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>info mismatch between compiler and debugger</code><dd> |
| <span class="sc">gdb</span> could not parse a type specification output by the compiler. |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| </body></html> |
| |
