GDB says "no symbol table," but nm shows file has debug symbols

Question

I'm trying to debug a simple C project using GDB, but GDB can't seem to find the debug symbols for the program no matter how I compile it.

When I load the program into GDB, it claims to have read the symbols successfully because it prints

Reading symbols from /home/edward/<executable>...done.

However, when I run the program, break on a segmentation fault, and type info locals, it says

No symbol table info available.

Also, bt shows that execution stopped inside a function I wrote (not a system or library call), but there is no line number information, just raw memory addresses.

Why can't GDB find or use the symbols it successfully read earlier? I've run nm and objdump on the binary file I'm running, and they both show sections like .debug_info, .debug_line, so the file does in fact contain debugging symbols.

I usually compile with a Makefile that sets the following flags:

CFLAGS = -mno-red-zone -fno-omit-frame-pointer -ggdb -O0 -I. -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wall

which I can see are being used when make invokes gcc. However, I've tried changing to just -g, and compiling manually by invoking gcc -g -O0 on a simple test file, and the result is still the same: the binary file contains debug symbols, and GDB reads them, but invoking any GDB command results in a message that debug information is not available.

Updates

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04, my GDB version is 7.4, and my GCC version is 4.8.1.

If I set complaints 10000 in GDB and then load the file, it prints the following complaints:

Reading symbols from /home/edward/<snip>/minithread...
DW_AT_low_pc 0x400690 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x33 for DIE at 0x205 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x4006c3 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0xa9 for DIE at 0x235 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x40076c is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0xad for DIE at 0x287 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400819 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0xe7 for DIE at 0x2d3 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400900 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x4f for DIE at 0x345 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x40094f is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x55 for DIE at 0x39d [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x4009a4 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x38 for DIE at 0x3e7 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x4009dc is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x43 for DIE at 0x433 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400a20 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x2e for DIE at 0x56c [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400a4e is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x2e for DIE at 0x5aa [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400a7c is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x29 for DIE at 0x5d4 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400aa5 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x49 for DIE at 0x620 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400aee is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0xca for DIE at 0x66c [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]
...DW_AT_low_pc 0x400bb8 is not < DW_AT_high_pc 0x7bb for DIE at 0x6f0 [in module /home/edward/<snip>/minithread]...done.

Are these errors the cause of the problem? Do they mean my GDB is the "wrong" version?

Solution 1

gcc 4.8.1 generates dwarf4 debug info which gdb 7.4 can't understand. You need to install gdb 7.6

Solution 2

In addition to Chris Dodd's answer, you can also compile your code with gcc -gdwarf-3, which compiles with dwarf3 debug info. Which is compatible with your GDB version.

Solution 3

gdb read .debug_info section before .symtab .dynsym.

nm just read .symtab .dynsym.

It's because that the .debug_info section in your ELF file was striped.

You can use:

readelf -S youelf | grep -i debug

to check wether debug_info is present.

Comments

[Gangadhar]

gcc -g gives You symbol info.There is no doubt at all.Can you please post your test file or some part of test file which we can able to compile. have you tried by printing any symbols with the help of p option

[Tom Tromey]

One place to start is to run plain "gdb", then "set complaints 10000", and then "file .../myexecutable". This will make the DWARF reader complain if it finds weird things in the DWARF. Also you don't mention what version of GCC or gdb you are using. Sometimes newer gcc requires a newer gdb.

[Chris Dodd]

possible duplicate of C++ app on Ubuntu. After installing gcc 4.8.1 the gdb does not work

[ks1322]

possible duplicate of GCC doesn't produce line number information even with -g option

[phil294]

I got gdb 7.11 and struggle with the same problem.

[Sergei]

have the same problem with gcc 4.8.5 and gdb 7.6.1

[firo]

Have the same issue with gcc 4.9.1 and gdb 7.2-90.el6

[Flamefire]

This is even better as cannot always upgrade the gdb version

[Ravi Menon]

Thank you very much. Switching from -ggdb to -gdwarf-3 did the trick for my environment : gbd 7.4-2012.04 and gcc 4.9.4