I am compiling a C file using the gcc flag -ffunction-sections, to move every function into it's own section. The assembler is throwing the error:
job_queue.s:2395: Error: operation combines symbols in different segments
The compiler's assembly output at line 2395 is given here:
.section .debug_ranges,info
.Ldebug_ranges0:
.4byte .LBB7-.Ltext0
The symbol LBB7 is in the function (and thus the section) named ".text.add_event_handler" The symbol Ltext0 is in the (otherwise empty) section named: ".text"
GCC --version gives:
pic30-elf-gcc.exe (GCC) 4.0.3 (dsPIC30, Microchip v3_30) (B) Build date: Jun 29 2011
If I use the compiler flag -g0 (to turn off debug info) everything compiles and runs perfectly.
My question: Is this GCC output clearly wrong? It seems to me that GCC should have calculated the symbol LBB7's offset from the beginning of the .add_even_handler section instead of the .text section.
I suspect I am misunderstanding something because I cannot find anyone having the same difficulty on the Google.
The GCC output is definitely wrong. Perhaps it's fixed in newer GCC versions. If you can't upgrade you compiler, try compiling with -gdwarf-2 or, failing that, with -gdwarf-2 -gstrict-dwarf (for -gstrict-dwarf you'll have to upgrade the compiler too).
What this option does is to instruct GCC to generate (strict) DWARF2, which does not include non-contiguous address ranges support, introduced in DWARF3.
Of course, this may degrade the debugging information quality somewhat, YMMV.