https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=78109
Bug ID: 78109
Summary: ld with -pie creates a shared library instead of an
executable
Product: gcc
Version: 6.2.0
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: P3
Component: other
Assignee: unassigned at gcc dot gnu.org
Reporter: hadrien-gcc at psydk dot org
Target Milestone: ---
I'm using Ubuntu 16.10 which ships with gcc version 6.2.0 20161005 (Ubuntu
6.2.0-5ubuntu12)
I found that most executables in /bin and /usr/bin are actually not real
executable (per their ELF header), but shared libraries.
This can be seen by browsing a directory containing programs with Nautilus, the
default file explorer: the file icon will be different according to the type of
program (a purple lozenge for a real executable, a generic white page icon for
a shared library).
None of those not-really-executables can be started from the file explorer by
double-clicking but they can be started from a terminal.
It is also possible to run "readelf -h filename" to quickly look at the type
reported by the ELF header: EXEC for executable, DYN for shared library.
When I build myself any program that uses "ld" (a C++ program, but also a Rust
program, which uses GNU ld for linking), the result will be a shared library
instead of an executable.
I built a minimal program in verbose mode and found that the "-pie" option is
used by default when linking on my system. If I remove the "-pie" option, the
generated file is, as expected, a real executable.
gcc -v:
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/6/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 6.2.0-5ubuntu12'
--with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-6/README.Bugs
--enable-languages=c,ada,c++,java,go,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr
--program-suffix=-6 --program-prefix=x86_64-linux-gnu- --enable-shared
--enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext
--enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/
--enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes
--with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object
--disable-vtable-verify --enable-libmpx --enable-plugin --enable-default-pie
--with-system-zlib --disable-browser-plugin --enable-java-awt=gtk
--enable-gtk-cairo --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-6-amd64/jre
--enable-java-home --with-jvm-root-dir=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-6-amd64
--with-jvm-jar-dir=/usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.5.0-gcj-6-amd64
--with-arch-directory=amd64 --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar
--enable-objc-gc --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686
--with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib
--with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu
--host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 6.2.0 20161005 (Ubuntu 6.2.0-5ubuntu12)
