bash: ./helloworld_s: no such file or directory. The file is clearly there

Question

I'm not unfamiliar with bash, but this is the first time I have ever seen this happen.

[OP@localhost linking]$ ls
helloworld-lib.o  helloworld-lib.s  helloworld_s
[OP@localhost linking]$ ./helloworld_s
bash: ./helloworld_s: No such file or directory

This error occurred while I was testing the linker, ld. The contents of helloworld-lib.s are:

[OP@localhost linking]$ cat helloworld-lib.s 
    .section .data
helloworld:
    .ascii "Hello, world!\n\0"

    .section .text
    .globl _start

_start:
    mov $helloworld, %rdi
    call printf

    mov $0, %rdi
    call exit

This file helloworld_s was produced as follows.

[OP@localhost linking]$ as helloworld-lib.s -o helloworld-lib.o
[OP@localhost linking]$ ld -lc helloworld-lib.o -o helloworld_s

IDK if any of this information is relevant. As an FYI, if I attempt to run the other files, I just get a permission denied (as expected). Any ideas?

EDIT: as suggested, here is the output of ls -l:

[OP@localhost linking]$ ls -l
total 88
-rw-rw-r--. 1 OP OP   968 Mar 23 18:40 helloworld-lib.o
-rw-rw-r--. 1 OP OP   159 Mar 23 18:40 helloworld-lib.s
-rwxrwxr-x. 1 OP OP 14384 Mar 23 18:41 helloworld_s

here is the output of id:

[OP@localhost linking]$ id
uid=1000(OP) gid=1000(OP) groups=1000(OP),10(wheel) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

EDIT: for answer, see comments. See here

The file's name may include whitespace or non-printing characters, such as a trailing space or carriage return. — Kenster, Mar 23 '19 at 22:46
@Kenster I do not believe it does. For instance, I can `cat` the file with no problems. Using `basename`, I do not find anything unusual about the file name. — extremeaxe5, Mar 23 '19 at 22:54
Have any of you guys tried this? If so, do you guys experience the same problem on your machines? — extremeaxe5, Mar 23 '19 at 23:12
Likely, `ldd` will tell you that it's looking for something like `/lib/ld64.so.1` which does not exist. — David Schwartz, Mar 23 '19 at 23:13
@DavidSchwartz ooh, yes, indeed. `readelf -l helloworld_s` tells me that the program requests the interpreter `/lib/ld64.so.1`, which as you say, does not exist. So clearly, something's up here. When I explicitly specify the interpreter as `/usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2`, everything works. First, could you post this as an answer? But also, if this is the case, why do I get this as my error? And furthermore, why does the GNU linker, by default, request a program interpreter that does not exist? — extremeaxe5, Mar 23 '19 at 23:15
Never link directly with `ld`, always use `gcc` as a driver. Platforms are *weird*. — o11c, Apr 09 '19 at 02:06
So if I can get it from the comments, you are trying to run a 64 bit program on a 32 bit operating system?! This is not going to make it :) — Krassi Em, Jun 23 '19 at 03:43
Can we get this in an answer and mark this as answered or close? — Ryan Smith, Jun 26 '19 at 00:53
I've had mysterious issues like this while compiling executables on removable media. — ddoxey, Aug 02 '19 at 05:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '19 at 15:54

As explained in redhat bug #868662 , the recommanded way to link is to let gcc call ld like below;

> gcc -nostartfiles helloworld-lib.o -o helloworld_s -lc

Which results in correct linking;

> ldd helloworld_s
        linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007ffd283bf000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007fd011b62000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fd011f2f000)

And execution goes fine;

> ./helloworld_s
Hello, world!

Why does ld link to /lib/ld64.so.1 which does not exist ?
Because this is the default setup for a generic system, not only Linux.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '19 at 16:04

Existent executables may be confusingly reported as missing under circumstances where the actual issue is that they cannot be executed.

Actual causes vary, but include things such as

the file is defective, perhaps as a result of invalid linking as mentioned in another answer
the file is for a different architecture or ABI unsupported by the platform
the file lacks an execute permission bit for the user attempting to do so
the file is on a volume mounted with flags which prohibit execution

In many of these cases, it's clear that a more specific and relevant error message would have been preferable, however, sometimes what is actually implemented (or triggered by less than obvious paths of failure) can indeed be confusing in the sense of labelling something that is "unusable" as being "missing" How precise errors are can vary somewhat between environments.

bash: ./helloworld_s: no such file or directory. The file is clearly there

2 Answers2

Linked