golang/go · error

%s and %s symbols must be in the same section

Error message

%s and %s symbols must be in the same section

What it means

loadXCOFFTable slices a section's Data() between a start symbol's Value and an end symbol's Value, so both symbols must reside in the same XCOFF section. A mismatch would yield invalid offsets, so the loader refuses rather than return garbage or panic.

Source

Thrown at src/cmd/internal/objfile/xcoff.go:136

		if len(f.Sections) < s.SectionNumber {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("symbol %s: section number %d is larger than max %d", name, s.SectionNumber, len(f.Sections))
		}
		return s, nil
	}
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("no %s symbol found", name)
}

func loadXCOFFTable(f *xcoff.File, sname, ename string) ([]byte, error) {
	ssym, err := findXCOFFSymbol(f, sname)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	esym, err := findXCOFFSymbol(f, ename)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if ssym.SectionNumber != esym.SectionNumber {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s and %s symbols must be in the same section", sname, ename)
	}
	sect := f.Sections[ssym.SectionNumber-1]
	data, err := sect.Data()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	return data[ssym.Value:esym.Value], nil
}

func (f *xcoffFile) goarch() string {
	switch f.xcoff.TargetMachine {
	case xcoff.U802TOCMAGIC:
		return "ppc"
	case xcoff.U64_TOCMAGIC:
		return "ppc64"
	}
	return ""
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b6b368adc5)

Solutions

1. Rebuild the AIX binary cleanly.
2. Confirm the start/end symbol pair matches what the producer emitted.

// data, err := loadXCOFFTable(f, "runtime.pclntab", "runtime.epclntab")
// if err != nil {
//     if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "must be in the same section") {
//         // XCOFF is corrupt or hand-edited; rebuild
//     }
//     return nil, err
// }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling loadXCOFFTable where findXCOFFSymbol(sname).SectionNumber != findXCOFFSymbol(ename).SectionNumber.

Common situations: Corrupted or hand-edited XCOFF binary where the start/end markers of a table were relocated into different sections, or the wrong symbol pair for the binary's Go version.

Related errors

• invalid section number in symbol table
• text section not found
• symbol %s: section number %d is larger than max %d
• no %s symbol found
• %s and %s symbols must be in the same section

AI-assisted analysis of golang/go@b6b368adc5 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8cc3afa90f2fa210. Report an issue: GitHub.