Ubuntu
nautilus package

double-clicking on an executable created with gcc6 opens an error message

Bug #1635376 reported by Hadrien on 2016-10-20

This bug affects 3 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	Nautilus	Unknown	Medium	gnome-bugs #737849
	nautilus (Ubuntu)	Triaged	Low	Unassigned

Bug Description

Ubuntu 16.10 x64 with Nautilus 3.20.3

* Open a terminal
* Install gcc: sudo apt install build-essential
* Build an executable: printf "int main() { return 1; }" | gcc -x c -
* Open a Nautilus window on the current directory: nautilus .
* Double-click on the generated executable: a.out

Expected result: Nautilus starts the executable. No error is displayed.
Actual result: Nautilus displays an error message:

   Could not display "a.out".
   There is no application installed for shared library files.
   Do you want to search for an application to open this file?

Also, all executable files compiled with gcc6 have a generic icon instead of the purple lozenge.

See original description

Hadrien (psydk) on 2016-10-20

description:

updated

Revision history for this message

Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-20:

Error message (in french) Edit (11.4 KiB, image/png)

description:

updated

Revision history for this message

Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam) wrote on 2016-10-21:

Does a.out have execution permission? What is the expected result? Open terminal and show output of a.out?

Hadrien (psydk) on 2016-10-21

description:	updated
description:	updated

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Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-21:

@Khurshid Alam:
- a.out has execution permission
- the expected result is: no error message (I updated the bug description)

Obviously the a.out does nothing. I gave the most minimal way to reproduce the problem. I could put an example of a program that opens a window I you think it would make the bug easier to understand.

I have several projects I built recently since I installed Ubuntu 16.10 and they all gave me executables I cannot launch from Nautilus. There is no problem when I launch them from a terminal.

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Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-21:

I did a test. I built the same program with gcc5 and gcc6, then I compared the output of "readelf -a". It happens that Nautilus is right. gcc on Ubuntu 16.10 creates a shared library by default instead of an executable (the Type field in the ELF header is different).

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Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-21:

I opened that bug for gcc: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gcc-defaults/+bug/1635706

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Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-26:

Executables are now linked with the -pie option, which lead to a file type that is nearly indistinguishable from a shared library. I learned that this is an expected consequence.

The only difference is the presence of an 'interpreter' for executable files, but nothing forbids a .so to have an 'interpreter' too (for example the libc.so on my system has one):

$ file plop.so:
plop.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked

$ file plop.ex:
plop.ex: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32

In conclusion we should look into Nautilus to solve the issue (I closed the bug for gcc).

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Hadrien (psydk) wrote on 2016-10-26:

Upstream bug: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=737849

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) on 2016-11-02

Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Triaged
importance:	Undecided → Low

Revision history for this message

Trent Gamblin (goobliata) wrote on 2016-11-04:

Have the same issue FWIW. Even many apps that ship with Ubuntu can't be clicked anymore. If nothing else perhaps keying of 'interpreter' would be more reasonable as none of the shared libraries I've checked have one.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater) on 2017-01-14