go-delve/delve · warning

entry does not have a type attribute

Error message

entry does not have a type attribute

What it means

Returned by Reader.SeekToType when the given DWARF entry lacks a DW_AT_type attribute, so there is no offset to seek to. Entries such as void-returning functions or untyped entries have no type reference.

Source

Thrown at pkg/dwarf/reader/reader.go:61

	if !ok {
		return 0, errors.New("type assertion failed")
	}
	addr, _, err := op.ExecuteStackProgram(op.DwarfRegisters{StaticBase: staticBase}, instructions, ptrSize, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return 0, err
	}
	return uint64(addr), nil
}

var ErrTypeNotFound = errors.New("no type entry found, use 'types' for a list of valid types")

// SeekToType moves the reader to the type specified by the entry,
// optionally resolving typedefs and pointer types. If the reader is set
// to a struct type the NextMemberVariable call can be used to walk all member data.
func (reader *Reader) SeekToType(entry *dwarf.Entry, resolveTypedefs bool, resolvePointerTypes bool) (*dwarf.Entry, error) {
	offset, ok := entry.Val(dwarf.AttrType).(dwarf.Offset)
	if !ok {
		return nil, errors.New("entry does not have a type attribute")
	}

	// Seek to the first type offset
	reader.Seek(offset)

	// Walk the types to the base
	for typeEntry, err := reader.Next(); typeEntry != nil; typeEntry, err = reader.Next() {
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

		if typeEntry.Tag == dwarf.TagTypedef && !resolveTypedefs {
			return typeEntry, nil
		}

		if typeEntry.Tag == dwarf.TagPointerType && !resolvePointerTypes {
			return typeEntry, nil
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to a23773e6c3)

Solutions

1. Check entry.Val(dwarf.AttrType) is a dwarf.Offset before calling SeekToType
2. Treat missing AttrType as 'void/unknown' at the call site and skip type resolution
3. Regenerate debug info if the entry should legitimately have a type

Example fix

// before
entry, err := reader.SeekToType(fnEntry, true, true)
// after
if fnEntry.Val(dwarf.AttrType) == nil {
    return nil // no return type (void)
}
entry, err := reader.SeekToType(fnEntry, true, true)

func hasTypeAttr(e *dwarf.Entry) bool {
    _, ok := e.Val(dwarf.AttrType).(dwarf.Offset)
    return ok
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling SeekToType (or higher-level helpers that use it) on an entry without AttrType — e.g., a function entry whose return type is void, or a malformed entry.

Common situations: Inspecting subroutine entries with no return type, walking members of types compiled with incomplete debug info, or version-specific entries missing AttrType.

Related errors

• member data has no data member location attribute
• could not evaluate function or type %s: %v
• ErrStackUnderflow
• ErrStackIndexOutOfBounds
• ErrMemoryReadUnavailable

AI-assisted analysis of go-delve/delve@a23773e6c3 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2eb29386a2f504c4. Report an issue: GitHub.