I've come up with a simpler test case on an Ubuntu 20.10 system which follows:
1) Execute 'gdb --args cat' 2) in gdb type 'run' 3) press Ctrl-Z 4) in gdb type 'generate-core-file /tmp/cat.core' 5) download the dbgsym for coreutils 6) Extract them 'dbg-deb -x coreutils-dbgsym_8.32-3ubuntu1_amd64.ddeb /tmp/dbgsym' 7) Execute "gdb --ex 'file /bin/cat' --ex 'core-file /tmp/cat.core' --ex 'set debug-file-directory /tmp/dbgsym/usr/lib/debug'" In gdb you'll see the following error message: Reading symbols from /bin/cat... (No debugging symbols found in /bin/cat) Running "objdump -g /bin/cat" we can see the location for the separate debug info: Contents of the .gnu_debugaltlink section (loaded from /bin/cat): Separate debug info file: /usr/lib/debug/.dwz/x86_64-linux-gnu/coreutils.debug Build-ID (0x14 bytes): cb 5b e4 8a 6d b2 52 6e 9c 80 8d 64 ec 4b 1f b7 7f 0c ca 9e Contents of the .gnu_debuglink section (loaded from /bin/cat): Separate debug info file: a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug CRC value: 0x5e28a31d The separate debug info file exists in /tmp/dbgsym: [ 11:07AM 10857 ] [ bdmurray@impulse:/tmp/dbgsym ] $ find . -name a7cee\*.debug ./usr/lib/debug/.build-id/fb/a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug However despite setting debug-file-directory an strace reveals that /tmp/dbgsym is not searched: $ grep a7cee /tmp/gdb-bin-cat.trace access("/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/fb/a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/bin/a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/bin/.debug/a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/debug//bin/a7cee6aca864b8f79dfaa8a267855333b445c1.debug", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apport in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1818918 Title: gdb doesn't search in debug-file-directory for .gnu_debugaltlink Status in Apport: Fix Released Status in apport package in Ubuntu: New Status in gdb package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: As far as I can tell gdb version 8.2.90 isn't searching the debug- file-directory, which I set, for the '.gnu_debugaltlink' which is in the debug symbols. Here's the error I'm seeing: Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word". Reading symbols from /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox//usr/bin/gnome-calculator... Reading symbols from /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/95/59c4c5ee30eb66d47bb9bd64784a69c9a6de6b.debug... could not find '.gnu_debugaltlink' file for /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/95/59c4c5ee30eb66d47bb9bd64784a69c9a6de6b.debug (No debugging symbols found in /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/95/59c4c5ee30eb66d47bb9bd64784a69c9a6de6b.debug) Here's part of an strace of what's going on behind the scenes: lstat("/srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/95/59c4c5ee30eb66d47bb9bd64784a69c9a6de6b.debug", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=839744, ...}) = 0 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/debug/.dwz/x86_64-linux-gnu/gnome-calculator.debug", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) This is the only time "/usr/lib/debug" is searched, generally "/srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report- sandbox/usr/lib/debug/" is used. I'll attach the full strace though. For completeness here's the gdb command I'm using: Calling gdb command: '/srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64 /report-sandbox/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2' '/srv/vms /apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/bin/gdb' --ex 'set debug-file-directory /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/lib/debug' --ex 'set solib-absolute- prefix /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox' --ex 'add-auto-load-safe-path /srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox' --ex 'set solib-search-path /srv/vms /apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/lib/x86_64 -linux-gnu' --ex 'set data-directory /srv/vms/apport-sandbox- dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report-sandbox/usr/share/gdb' --ex 'file "/srv/vms/apport-sandbox-dir/Ubuntu 19.04/amd64/report- sandbox//usr/bin/gnome-calculator"' --ex 'core-file /tmp/apport_core_1b6dn6np' To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/apport/+bug/1818918/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp