What does it mean by "malformed object" produced by a command called install_name_tool in Mac OS X?

Question

I am trying to use install_name_tool in Mac OS X, and have weird error messages like:

install_name_tool: object: libXyz.dylib malformed object (section contents at offset 0 with a size of 2176206, overlaps Mach-O headers at offset 0 with a size of 2288)

Could anyone explain what "malformed object" means, and how I could get rid of the message?

Answer 1

If you type man install_name_tool, it will tell you that it is a tool for changing the baked-in pathnames in dylibs. The error message indicates that you are trying to run it on an invalid dylib. To get rid of the message, stop trying to run it on an invalid .dylib, perhaps by repairing whatever process built the dylib.