The current gdb 7.0 branch and gdb cvs builds a usable gdb on the x86_64-apple-darwin10 target which works normally when run as root with one exception. The resulting gdb is unable to load i386 executables (unlike the linux version). Loading a 32-bit executable in the x86_64 gdb on darwin10 produces the error message... This GDB was configured as "x86_64-apple-darwin10". For bug reporting instructions, please see: <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>... "/Users/howarth/junk2/a.out": not in executable format: File format not recognized
I can't reproduce this on Darwin 15.3.0 (El Capitan) with gdb 7.9.1
Is it possible that the executable had both i386 and x86_64? I can reproduce that. This would be the same as bug 13157.
I'll mark this as a duplicate for now as it is likely the same issue and I can reproduce it. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 13157 ***