Why am I getting a segmentation fault?

Question

I am trying to compile a simple hello world function in c++. After I compile it, I run it and get "Segmentation fault". Can someone shed some light on this?

I am compiling this from a Linux command line using the following command:

g++ hello.cpp

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

The program itself looks OK. I would guess there's some quirk in your compilation environment that is causing the segfault.

Your best bet is to run this in the debugger (gdb) -- that will tell you where it's crashing, which will help you figure out what the problem is.

To do this, compile like this:

g++ -g -o hello hello.cpp

then run gdb:

gdb hello

and at the gdb prompt type

run

to run the program. When it crashes, type

bt

which will give you a stacktrace that will -- hopefully -- help you figure out what's going on.

Answer 2

There's nothing wrong with that code, so you will have to investigate first your compiler, then your hardware.

Answer 3

Compile it like this

g++ -Bstatic -static hello.cpp

and then run ./a.out

If this doesn't seg fault, LD_LIBRARY_PATH is your culprit.