Question

On running make command, I get the following output,

g++ -DUNIX -Wall -g -I../include -I. main.o hfpage.o hfp_driver.o                      test_driver.o db.o new_error.o page.o system_defs.o buf.o -o hfpage 

/usr/bin/ld: Warning: size of symbol `error_string_table::error_string_table(Status, char const**)' changed   from 18 in db.o to 34 in buf.o
/usr/bin/ld: i386:x86-64 architecture of input file `buf.o' is  incompatible with i386 output
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [hfpage] Error 1

This file generates hfpage.o which when I try to run using ./hfpage.o I get and error message bash: ./hfpage.o: cannot execute binary file.

Is there something wrong with my system?

Answer 1

Okay, first, the error messages says buf.o was compiled for another architecture, probably 32 bit on a 64 bit machine.

The reason you can’t run ./hprof.o is that hprof.o is a binary object, not an executable. If this compile had completed, since you have no -o flag, the executable would be named a.out which for historical reasons is the default name of a UNIX executable.

Your problem probably comes in an earlier step in the make file. Basically, you should have several lines like

main.o: 
   g++ -DUNIX -Wall -g -I../include -I. -c main.C

and then a final line like

main:
   g++ -DUNIX -Wall -g -o main main.o hfpage.o hfp_driver.o

The architecture message suggests you compiled buf.o with a different compiler or compiler flags.