Hi, As I understand, the DWARF tag DW_AT_external is meant to indicate whether a variable/function is accessible from outside an object file(compilation unit) containing a given DWARF DIE - Debugging Information Entry.
But it looks like DW_AT_external is also set for variables/functions defined in a different object file, but has a DIE because of linking. See: http://pastebin.com/vFiBWuhh It has a small C++ program - greeting.cpp, with it's output and some DWARF information. As can be seen, the external flag is set for the standard library functions such as - swscanf, ungetwd, or vfwprintf - which are not defined or used in greeting.cpp, but are part of the object file because of linking. This makes it *difficult* to locate the DIEs describing the functions that are defined and/or used in greeting.cpp. Thank you. -- Summary: DWARF DW_AT_external flag set for undefined variables Product: gcc Version: 4.4.4 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: c++ AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: pj dot pandit at yahoo dot co dot in http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=45153
