nacl-gdb fails to read .pexe?

Question

Is nacl-gdb only for *.nexe and not *.pexe files? im following the guide at https://developers.google.com/native-client/devguide/devcycle/debugging#gdb

./$NACL_SDK_ROOT/toolchain/mac_x86_newlib/bin/x86_64-nacl-gdb
...
This GDB was configured as "--host=i386-apple-darwin10.8.0 --target=x86_64-nacl".
...
(gdb) nacl-manifest code.nmf
(gdb) nacl-irt pnacl/Release/code.pexe
`pnacl/Release/code.pexe': can't read symbols: File format not recognized.

Answer 1

The .pexe is not the final executable, and nacl-gdb does not understand its format. It's a target-independent "intermediate format" file that has to be translated by the browser to a native module before it can be executed and/or debugged.

You can debug .nexes produced by the PNaCl toolchain, by compiling all the way to a .nexe with debug information and then debugging that. In other words, just as you debug a .nexe produced by the gcc toolchains.