gdb error: not in executable format: file not recognized

Question

I am trying to debug my project, which consists of 5 files. I built the project using a Makefiles-system. My Makefile looks as the following:

CC=gcc

CFLAGS= -g -c

all: main.o io_ops.o rw_ops.o help_functions.o
    $(CC) -o db main.o io_ops.o rw_ops.o help_functions.o
io_ops.o:io_ops.c  db_ops.h
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS)  io_ops.c db_ops.h
rw_ops.o: rw_ops_c db_ops.h
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) rw_ops.c db_ops.h 
help_functions.o: help_functions.c
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) help_functions.c
clean:
    rm *.o db

My executable file is named db. So I run on my terminal the following command:

gdb db

Then I type the following command on gdb:

list main.c

I get the following error: main.c not defined I try to type the following command:

list main.c

I get the following error: main.c: not in executable format:file not recognized

To ensure that my gdb is 64-bit-program, I typed the following command:

(gdb) show configuration
 This GDB was configured as follows:
configure --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
         --with-auto-load-dir=$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load
         --with-auto-load-safe-path=$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load
         --with-expat
         --with-gdb-datadir=/usr/share/gdb (relocatable)
         --with-jit-reader-dir=/usr/lib/gdb (relocatable)
         --without-libunwind-ia64
         --with-lzma
         --with-python=/usr (relocatable)
         --with-separate-debug-dir=/usr/lib/debug (relocatable)
         --with-system-gdbinit=/etc/gdb/gdbinit
         --with-zlib
         --without-babeltrace

And this is some informations about my executable:

db: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.24, BuildID[sha1]=25731950b7f76cf428eeca5fcc534555d677f3dc, not stripped

I do not know, what is the problem. Any idea?

In particular, because you compile explicitly header files. And you should use -Wall -g as your compilation flags. — Basile Starynkevitch
– Basile Starynkevitch, Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 15:06
@amitakCs -Wall activates "all" warnings (well, not all, but many of them, the most important, the one that almost 100% sure shows a programming mistake). You want -Wall . Always. Do use it. -Wall is your friend. -Wall will save you a considerable time in debugging. — jbm
– jbm, Commented Oct 11, 2015 at 17:07

jbm · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-11 14:57:24Z

2

What you want to do is list main.c:1

list is not made to list a file the way you use it. From gdb help:

(gdb) help list

List specified function or line.

With no argument, lists ten more lines after or around previous listing.

"list -" lists the ten lines before a previous ten-line listing.

One argument specifies a line, and ten lines are listed around that line. Two arguments with comma between specify starting and ending lines to list. Lines can be specified in these ways:

LINENUM, to list around that line in current file,

FILE:LINENUM, to list around that line in that file,

FUNCTION, to list around beginning of that function,

FILE:FUNCTION, to distinguish among like-named static functions.

*ADDRESS, to list around the line containing that address.

With two args if one is empty it stands for ten lines away from the other arg.

edited Oct 11, 2015 at 14:57

answered Oct 11, 2015 at 14:32

jbm

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Employed Russian · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-11 14:33:57Z

1

I do not know, what is the problem.

You likely want list main instead.

Explanation: there are four forms of list command, none take filename as an argument.

answered Oct 11, 2015 at 14:33

Employed Russian

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1 Comment

jbm Over a year ago

Well, on my gdb 7.10, there are 2: FILE:LINENUM, to list around that line in that file and FILE:FUNCTION, to distinguish among like-named static functions. The doc does not seem up to date.

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