Re: Problem with line n.o's

[Michael Elizabeth Chastain]

Hello,

> Version of GDB : GNU gdb 5.3
> Type of Machine: Red-hat Linux 6.0 on i686
> What Compiler was used to compiler GDB: egcs-2.91.66
> What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the program you are 
> debugging: egcs-2.91.66

This looks like a well-known problem with the stabs+ debugging
format.

On i686-pc-linux-gnu, gcc and gdb support two debugging formats: dwarf-2
and stabs+.  I don't know about egcs 2.91.66 in particular, but I do
know that gcc version 2.95.3 defaulted to stabs+.

The problem is that stabs+ has a 16-bit field in the debugging info
to hold the line number.  So the line number information has already
been truncated by the time that gdb gets it.

Solution: use the dwarf-2 debug format rather than stabs+.
You can do this by building your program with "-gdwarf-2".
You have to do this when compiling each source file and also
when linking the executable program.

dwarf-2 is the default debug format with gcc 3.2 or later.

Also, Red Hat Linux 6 and egcs 2.91.66 are very old!
You might want to upgrade.

Hope this helps,

Michael C
GDB QA Guy