Re: objdump: circular debug information error message //<undefined> types in output

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi Roul,

> I wrote a small test program intended to reproduce a complex debug
> info data. The code is part of a bigger program and almost copied. I
> simply wanted to have less debug info output which is clearly to
> read.
>
> I compiled and linked it (trying to do it) the same way the bigger
> program is compiled and linked on the same machine.
>
> Now running the static version of objdump on the test executable I
> get the "circular debug info" message and '<undefined>' type
> definitions again. Using the same static version of objdump on the
> bigger executable I do not get these problems.
>
> What do you think about this ?

Hmm, it is hard to say for sure.  It would suggest that the "circular
debug info" problem is related to an uninitialized variable.  ie in
the big executable there are so many different types of debug info
that it just so happens that this variable is initialised before it is
used, whereas in the smaller program, with its simpler selection of
debug info, the variable is used uninitialised.  This is just a guess
though.


> On a different question I am in contact with the gdb mailing list
> (Joel Brobecker) - investigating the Ada specific symbols GNAT adds
> to the debug information when compiling the executable.  Could this
> be a bug in GNAT or gcc that under some circumstances has problems
> to generate correct debug information for certain data types or
> combinations of types?

Yes. :-)


Cheers
        Nick