GDB Error Installation error: gdb.execute_unwinders function is missing

Question

I have suddenly started seeing this message on nearly every GDB output line whilst debugging:

Python Exception Installation error: gdb.execute_unwinders function is missing

What is this? How do I rectify it?

Answer 1

I have the same, with gdb 8.0.1 compiled on Ubunutu 14.04 LST. Turns out the installation misses the necessary Python files. One indication was that "make install" stopped complaining about makeinfo being missing - although I did not change any of the .texi sources.

My fix was to go into into the build area, into gdb/data-directory, and do "make install" once more, which installed the missing python scripts.

Must be some weird tool-bug somewhere.

Answer 2

This starting occurring for me after a yum update updated some Python 3.6 RPMs I had installed via a prior manual yum install. I can't quite figure out how the yum update is involved, because I can't connect the updated Python RPMs to the following files/directories. So, I suppose the yum update may be a red herring.

What I found, though, was the permissions need to be opened up on GDB-specific Python files in /usr/local/share:

[root@nacelle gdb]# cd /usr/local/share/
[root@nacelle share]# ls -ltrd gdb
drwxr-x---   5 root root 4096 Jul  3 09:56 gdb
[root@nacelle share]# chmod -R o+rx gdb/
[root@nacelle share]# ls -ltrd gdb
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root 4096 Jul

After opening up these permissions, the gdb/Python errors regarding missing functions went away.