go-delve/delve · error

could not create symbol table from %s

Error message

could not create symbol table from  %s 

What it means

Delve parses the Go pclntab (`.gopclntab` section) of an ELF binary to build a gosym symbol table for Go runtime-based line/function lookup. gosym.NewTable returned an error, meaning the section data is not a valid pclntab for the expected Go version format.

Source

Thrown at pkg/proc/pclntab.go:34

	section := exe.Section(sectionLabel)
	if section == nil {
		// binary may be built with -pie
		sectionLabel = ".data.rel.ro.gopclntab"
		section = exe.Section(sectionLabel)
		if section == nil {
			return nil, 0, errors.New("could not read section .gopclntab")
		}
	}
	tableData, err := section.Data()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, 0, errors.New("found section but could not read .gopclntab")
	}

	addr := exe.Section(".text").Addr
	lineTable := gosym.NewLineTable(tableData, addr)
	symTable, err := gosym.NewTable([]byte{}, lineTable)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, 0, fmt.Errorf("could not create symbol table from  %s ", path)
	}
	return symTable, section.Addr, nil
}

func readPcLnTableMacho(exe *macho.File, path string) (*gosym.Table, uint64, error) {
	// Default section label is __gopclntab
	sectionLabel := "__gopclntab"

	section := exe.Section(sectionLabel)
	if section == nil {
		return nil, 0, errors.New("could not read section __gopclntab")
	}
	tableData, err := section.Data()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, 0, errors.New("found section but could not read __gopclntab")
	}

	addr := exe.Section("__text").Addr

View on GitHub (pinned to a23773e6c3)

Solutions

1. Rebuild the target binary with a recent Go toolchain (go build without stripping flags)
2. Do not strip the binary: remove -ldflags "-s -w" or any section-stripping step
3. Update Delve to the latest version so gosym supports the target's pclntab format
4. Verify the binary isn't corrupted (re-download, check checksum)

Example fix

// before
go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o app .
// after
go build -o app .

data := elfSection(exe, ".gopclntab"); if data == nil || len(data) < 8 { return errors.New("missing or empty .gopclntab") }; magic := binary.LittleEndian.Uint32(data); if !validPclntabMagic(magic) { return errors.New("unsupported pclntab format") }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling loadBinaryInfoGoRuntimeElf on an ELF binary whose .gopclntab is missing, truncated, or built with a Go version whose pclntab magic/format gosym cannot parse (e.g. stripped or corrupted binary).

Common situations: Debugging a binary from a Go version newer than the Go version Delve was compiled with; a binary that has been aggressively stripped or modified; a non-Go binary that happens to have a .gopclntab-like section; corrupted download/copy of the executable.

Related errors

• unsupported machine type
• could not read section .gopclntab
• found section but could not read .gopclntab
• could not read debug info (%v) and could not read go symbol
• error loading binary info from Go runtime: %v

AI-assisted analysis of go-delve/delve@a23773e6c3 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cea756bf75ce20fd. Report an issue: GitHub.