*This bug was originally reported by Mike Hommey (mh+reportbug@glandium.org) in Debian bug [#945572](https://bugs.debian.org/945572):* ``` Steps to reproduce: $ cat > foo.c <<EOF int foo() { return N; } EOF $ cat > foo.syms <<EOF libfoo.so { global: *; }; EOF $ mkdir old $ gcc -o old/libfoo.so -shared foo.c -fPIC -DN=42 -Wl,--version-script,foo.syms $ gcc -o libfoo.so -shared foo.c -fPIC -DN=2 -Wl,--version-script,foo.syms $ diffoscope old/libfoo.so libfoo.so --- old/libfoo.so +++ libfoo.so ├── readelf --wide --symbols {} │ @@ -2,16 +2,16 @@ │ Symbol table '.dynsym' contains 7 entries: │ Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name │ 0: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT UND │ 1: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __cxa_finalize │ 2: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_registerTMCloneTable │ 3: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_deregisterTMCloneTable │ 4: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __gmon_start__ │ - 5: 0000000000000000 0 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT ABS libfoo.so │ - 6: 00000000000010f5 11 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 11 foo@@libfoo.so │ + 5: 0000000000000000 0 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT ABS <elf> │ + 6: 00000000000010f5 11 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 11 foo@@<elf> │ │ Symbol table '.symtab' contains 48 entries: │ Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name │ 0: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT UND │ 1: 0000000000000238 0 SECTION LOCAL DEFAULT 1 │ 2: 0000000000000260 0 SECTION LOCAL DEFAULT 2 │ 3: 0000000000000288 0 SECTION LOCAL DEFAULT 3 │ @@ -53,9 +53,9 @@ │ 39: 0000000000002000 0 NOTYPE LOCAL DEFAULT 13 __GNU_EH_FRAME_HDR │ 40: 0000000000001100 0 FUNC LOCAL DEFAULT 12 _fini │ 41: 0000000000004000 0 OBJECT LOCAL DEFAULT 19 _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ │ 42: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __cxa_finalize │ 43: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_registerTMCloneTable │ 44: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND _ITM_deregisterTMCloneTable │ 45: 00000000000010f5 11 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 11 foo │ - 46: 0000000000000000 0 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT ABS libfoo.so │ + 46: 0000000000000000 0 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT ABS <elf> │ 47: 0000000000000000 0 NOTYPE WEAK DEFAULT UND __gmon_start__ ├── readelf --wide --notes {} │ @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ │ │ Displaying notes found in: .note.gnu.build-id │ Owner Data size Description │ - GNU 0x00000014 NT_GNU_BUILD_ID (unique build ID bitstring) Build ID: 53f0f7a35b61ebb857235ac3e519faf82f1dc6e1 │ + GNU 0x00000014 NT_GNU_BUILD_ID (unique build ID bitstring) Build ID: ffcb9d36c33ccdc0b1c5819bbfb239e28559c8ee ├── readelf --wide --version-info {} │ @@ -1,10 +1,10 @@ │ │ Version symbols section '.gnu.version' contains 7 entries: │ Addr: 0x0000000000000394 Offset: 0x000394 Link: 3 (.dynsym) │ 000: 0 (*local*) 0 (*local*) 0 (*local*) 0 (*local*) │ - 004: 0 (*local*) 2 (libfoo.so) 2 (libfoo.so) │ + 004: 0 (*local*) 2 (<elf>) 2 (<elf>) │ │ Version definition section '.gnu.version_d' contains 2 entries: │ Addr: 0x00000000000003a8 Offset: 0x0003a8 Link: 4 (.dynstr) │ - 000000: Rev: 1 Flags: BASE Index: 1 Cnt: 1 Name: libfoo.so │ - 0x001c: Rev: 1 Flags: none Index: 2 Cnt: 1 Name: libfoo.so │ + 000000: Rev: 1 Flags: BASE Index: 1 Cnt: 1 Name: <elf> │ + 0x001c: Rev: 1 Flags: none Index: 2 Cnt: 1 Name: <elf> ├── objdump --line-numbers --disassemble --demangle --reloc --section=.text {} │ @@ -59,10 +59,10 @@ │ frame_dummy(): │ 10f0: e9 7b ff ff ff jmpq 1070 <register_tm_clones> │ │ 00000000000010f5 <foo>: │ foo(): │ 10f5: 55 push %rbp │ 10f6: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp │ - 10f9: b8 2a 00 00 00 mov $0x2a,%eax │ + 10f9: b8 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%eax │ 10fe: 5d pop %rbp │ 10ff: c3 retq None of these libfoo.so vs. <elf> differences are relevant. They are entirely due to diffoscope doing the substitution of the filename with <elf>. Passing full file paths to the command works around the problem: $ diffoscope old/libfoo.so $PWD/libfoo.so --- old/libfoo.so +++ /tmp/libfoo.so ├── readelf --wide --notes {} │ @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ │ │ Displaying notes found in: .note.gnu.build-id │ Owner Data size Description │ - GNU 0x00000014 NT_GNU_BUILD_ID (unique build ID bitstring) Build ID: 53f0f7a35b61ebb857235ac3e519faf82f1dc6e1 │ + GNU 0x00000014 NT_GNU_BUILD_ID (unique build ID bitstring) Build ID: ffcb9d36c33ccdc0b1c5819bbfb239e28559c8ee ├── objdump --line-numbers --disassemble --demangle --reloc --section=.text {} │ @@ -59,10 +59,10 @@ │ frame_dummy(): │ 10f0: e9 7b ff ff ff jmpq 1070 <register_tm_clones> │ │ 00000000000010f5 <foo>: │ foo(): │ 10f5: 55 push %rbp │ 10f6: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp │ - 10f9: b8 2a 00 00 00 mov $0x2a,%eax │ + 10f9: b8 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%eax │ 10fe: 5d pop %rbp │ 10ff: c3 retq ```