ld: internal error _bfd_merged_section_offset

[bijwaard]

Binary package hint: binutils

I got this error while linking a library, the next attempt to link the same library worked:

/usr/bin/ld: BFD (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.18.93.20081009 internal error, aborting at ../../bfd/merge.c line 873 in _bfd_merged_section_offset

/usr/bin/ld: Please report this bug.
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

$ apt-cache policy binutils
binutils:
  Installed: 2.18.93.20081009-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.18.93.20081009-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.18.93.20081009-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Dependencies:
 libgcc1 1:4.3.2-1ubuntu12
 zlib1g 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-12ubuntu1
 gcc-4.3-base 4.3.2-1ubuntu12
 findutils 4.4.0-2ubuntu3
 libc6 2.8~20080505-0ubuntu9
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: binutils 2.18.93.20081009-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/opt/real/RealPlayer
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: binutils
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-14-generic i686

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

to reproduce the report, all files which are involved in the link, are needed. If possible, please check as well, if you can reproduce the report on the current Ubuntu development release (karmic).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for binutils (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Dan Kegel (dank)]

I just got this error myself on Ubuntu 12.04.02 with binutils 2.22-6ubuntu1
in an lxc container in a vmware vm on an 8 core xeon X5450.
It happened on two successive runs on different 12.04 VM's (but possibly on the same physical hardware):

$ make all examples_noinst -j4
...
/usr/bin/c++ -fPIC -I /home/buildbot/slave-state/ubu1204/g-speak-ubu12-bgarden-01-ubu1204/sandbox-ubu1204-master3_15/build/gtest/include -g -O2 -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wtype-limits -Wno-unused-but-set-variable -Wno-unused-command-line-argument -Wvla -Wempty-body -fdiagnostics-show-option -Wall -Wpointer-arith -Wshadow -Wwrite-strings -Wno-overloaded-virtual -Wno-strict-overflow -Wno-error=unused-variable -Werror -g -O3 -std=gnu++0x -DENCAPSULATION_IS_GOOD -pthread -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro -shared -Wl,-soname,libGreenhouse.so -o libGreenhouse.so CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/AfferentHelpers.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/ChaseQuat.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/ChaseVect.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/DataSet.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Drome.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Node.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Sugarific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Shaderific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Animistic.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Colorific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Metabolific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Wranglerific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Eventerific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Remoterific.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/NeedlePoint.cpp.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Image.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Thing.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Video.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Sound.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Text.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Origin.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Remote.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/RoundedVidQuad.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/gh_QWrangler.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/gh_SWrangler.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/gh_TWrangler.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/gh_WranglerCollection.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/GreenhouseFunctions.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/GreenhouseLogging.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/GreenhousePlasma.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/GreenhouseQuery.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/QuadraticArcVect.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/SineQuat.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Map.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/MosaiQuad.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/TileCache.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/GLTexCache.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/DataTable.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/Sketch.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/UnduLine.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/UnduLineThing.C.o CMakeFiles/Greenhouse.dir/OSSpecificFunctions.C.o -L/opt/oblong/deps-64-9/lib /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libAfferent.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libBasement.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libGestation.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libImpetus.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libMedia.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libNoodoo.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libPlasmaZeroconf.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libTwillig.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libPlasma++.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libPlasma.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libLoam++.so /opt/oblong/g-speak3.15/lib/libLoam.so -lGLU -lGL -lSM -lICE -l...

[Dan Kegel (dank)]

It happened a few more times overnight, but doesn't happen 100% of the time.

This started happening when I started running
  make all examples_noinst -j4
instead of
  make all -j4
The Makefile is generated by cmake.
Coincidentally, I started seeing cmake's progress percentage going above 100%.
Discussing this on http://www.cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2014-June/057897.html
somebody mentioned that cmake-generated makefiles behave badly
when invoked with multiple targets and -j. Sure enough, I see the target in
question being invoked twice.

So in my case this is probably a cmake bug, and in other cases, it may be a
poorly written Makefile problem, a disk error, or who knows what.

Let's let this bug stay closed. I'll probably file a cmake bug report when I know more.