go-delve/delve · error

LocationCovers does not support DWARFv5

Error message

LocationCovers does not support DWARFv5

What it means

LocationCovers only implements DWARF v2-v4 location list parsing (via loclist2). When the owning compile unit is DWARF version 5 and the image has a loclist5 section, Delve refuses to run the legacy parser and returns this error instead of producing wrong ranges. It is an explicit capability limitation, not corruption.

Source

Thrown at pkg/proc/bininfo.go:1379

func (bi *BinaryInfo) LocationCovers(entry *dwarf.Entry, attr dwarf.Attr) ([][2]uint64, error) {
	a := entry.Val(attr)
	if a == nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("attribute %s not found", attr)
	}
	if _, isblock := a.([]byte); isblock {
		return [][2]uint64{{0, ^uint64(0)}}, nil
	}

	off, ok := a.(int64)
	if !ok {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("attribute %s of unsupported type %T", attr, a)
	}
	cu := bi.Images[0].findCompileUnitForOffset(entry.Offset)
	if cu == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("could not find compile unit")
	}
	if cu.Version >= 5 && cu.image.loclist5 != nil {
		return nil, errors.New("LocationCovers does not support DWARFv5")
	}

	image := cu.image
	base := cu.lowPC
	if image == nil || image.loclist2.Empty() {
		return nil, errors.New("malformed executable")
	}

	r := [][2]uint64{}
	var e loclist.Entry
	image.loclist2.Seek(int(off))
	for image.loclist2.Next(&e) {
		if e.BaseAddressSelection() {
			base = e.HighPC
			continue
		}
		r = append(r, [2]uint64{e.LowPC + base, e.HighPC + base})
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to a23773e6c3)

Solutions

1. Rebuild the target with an older DWARF version (e.g. gcc -gdwarf-4, or older Go toolchain)
2. Use Delve APIs that support DWARFv5 (regular variable evaluation) instead of LocationCovers
3. Upgrade Delve to a version with DWARFv5 loclist support if available
4. Downgrade the compiler's debug flags: -gdwarf-4 / GO's -gcflags=dwarf=false alternatives

Example fix

// before
gcc -gdwarf-5 -c app.c   // LocationCovers fails
// after
gcc -gdwarf-4 -c app.c   // legacy loclists, LocationCovers works

// detect DWARF version of the relevant CU before calling LocationCovers
if cu.Version >= 5 {
    // skip LocationCovers, use DWARFv5-aware range computation
}

ranges, err := LocationCovers(...)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "DWARFv5") {
    // fallback: rebuild target with -gdwarf-4 or use another API
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling LocationCovers for a symbol whose compile unit was emitted as DWARF v5 (Go 1.11+ defaults / GNU -gdwarf-5) with .debug_loclists present.

Common situations: Debugging binaries built with recent GCC/Clang -gdwarf-5 or newer Go toolchains; tooling built on pkg/proc that calls LocationCovers on modern binaries.

Related errors

• malformed executable
• ErrStackUnderflow
• ErrStackIndexOutOfBounds
• ErrMemoryReadUnavailable
• empty OP stack

AI-assisted analysis of go-delve/delve@a23773e6c3 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e6ac9e5bff45fca2. Report an issue: GitHub.