golang/go · error

symbol : section number is larger than max

Error message

symbol %s: section number %d is larger than max %d

What it means

findXCOFFSymbol's second validation: after confirming SectionNumber > 0, it checks that SectionNumber <= len(f.Sections). If the symbol claims a section beyond what the file actually contains, the file is internally inconsistent and the lookup fails rather than index out of range.

Solutions

1. Rebuild the AIX binary.
2. Verify file integrity with AIX tooling.
3. Ensure the Go toolchain's debug/xcoff version matches the binary producer.

// s, err := findXCOFFSymbol(f, name)
// if err != nil {
//     if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "larger than max") {
//         // XCOFF is internally inconsistent; rebuild
//     }
//     return nil, err
// }

When it happens

Trigger: An XCOFF symbol whose SectionNumber is positive but greater than the number of sections in f.Sections.

Common situations: Corrupted or truncated XCOFF file whose section header table is incomplete relative to its symbol table, or an incompatible parser.

Related errors

• invalid section number in symbol table
• and symbols must be in the same section
• text section not found
• no symbol found
• symbol : invalid section number

AI-assisted analysis of golang/go@b6b368adc5 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f3298c658a4730bb. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/cmd/internal/objfile/xcoff.go:119

	sect := f.xcoff.Section(".text")
	if sect == nil {
		return 0, nil, fmt.Errorf("text section not found")
	}
	textStart = sect.VirtualAddress
	text, err = sect.Data()
	return
}

func findXCOFFSymbol(f *xcoff.File, name string) (*xcoff.Symbol, error) {
	for _, s := range f.Symbols {
		if s.Name != name {
			continue
		}
		if s.SectionNumber <= 0 {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("symbol %s: invalid section number %d", name, s.SectionNumber)
		}
		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)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to b6b368adc5)