Why does GDB says “Architecture of file not recognized”?

Question

I m using gdb on a aix shared lib running on aix 5.3? When i try to run gdb for this file i get a error message saying ""Architecture of file not recognized" Don't know how to get this fixed.

Does anybody know why i get this message ""Architecture of file not recognized"?.

gdb runs fine on other executables compiled by xlc.

Is there some option that i might have used while compiling , which is not compatible with GDB.some processor specific option.

I compiled the shared lib w xlc v9.0 for aix.

Thanks.

Answer 1

void
set_gdbarch_from_file (bfd *abfd)
{
  struct gdbarch_info info;
  struct gdbarch *gdbarch;

  gdbarch_info_init (&info);
  info.abfd = abfd;
  info.target_desc = target_current_description ();
  gdbarch = gdbarch_find_by_info (info);

  if (gdbarch == NULL)
    error (_("Architecture of file not recognized."));
  deprecated_current_gdbarch_select_hack (gdbarch);
}

This is the actual GDB code in question (gdb/arch-utils.c:530-544).

The information passed to the gdbarch pointer seems to be invalid. This is caused by gdb_find_by_info returning a NULL pointer and that is caused by find_arch_by_info (gdb/gdbarch.c:3656) returning a NULL pointer.

It basically means what it says: GDB could not identify the architecture of the file. This seems to be a common problem for xlc, even on recent gdb versions.

XLC and gdb are, as far i remember and understand, not very good when it comes down to compatability terms (AIX support is minimal), you might try using the Gnu C Compiler .You might look at the GDB sources for VERY specific information (that i can't really give you).

Here is a link to gcc-AIX specifics.

Answer 2

You don't run GDB on a shared library, you run it on an executable.

If the executable loads your shared library, GDB will know about it.