errors in GDB reading symbols

[kceiwH <kceiwh at gmail dot com>]

Hi,

I try to write a program to convert a line number of the source code  
to the corresponding memory address. The program will link to libgdb,  
libbfd, libiberty, libopcodes, which are generated when you compile  
GDB. My problem is that the number of symbols (more than ten thousand)  
of a given executable file that my program reads is quite different  
from that (less than one hundred) GDB reads.

All I did is mainly calling the interfaces to read an executable file  
and its symbols. That is, I call exec_file_attach and  
symbol_file_add_main. They should read the file's symbols.
My last try is copying the codes from functions main (in gdb/gdb.c),  
gdb_main (in gdb/main.c), and captured_main (in gdb/main.c), without  
the statement captured_command_loop, and putting them in a single  
function in my program. I also changed the names of some local  
variables, so I don't need to pass them as parameters. And the paths  
such as BINDIR, DEBUGDIR, gdb_sysroot are set to the current directory  
".". Even though, the program still reads more than ten thousand  
symbols of a given executable file.

I compile my program with linking to libgdb, libbfd, libopcodes,  
libiberty. And I also compiled GDB and run it to test whether my  
program behaved correctly. They are based on the same codes. The only  
differences are the path names. So my program should behave like GDB.  
But my program reads much more symbols than the GDB does. Is there  
anybody knows why that happen. I appreciate if you can give a clue.

Regards,

Mao