Cross-compiling Delve for amd64 and arm64 on ppc64le fails

[tshah14]

Hi Delve team,

I'm attempting to cross-compile Delve for the amd64 architecture from a ppc64le host using sbuild. The goal is to produce .deb packages for amd64/arm64, built on a ppc64le system via a Debian packaging workflow.

Following are the environment details:

• Host architecture: ppc64le
• Target architecture: amd64/arm64
• Build tool: sbuild
• Delve version: 1.24.0-4
• OS: Debian Trixie (testing)

Steps performed:

1. sudo sbuild-createchroot --arch=amd64 --include=eatmydata,ccache trixie /srv/chroot/trixie-amd64-new-sbuild http://deb.debian.org/debian
2. sbuild --arch=amd64 --dist=trixie --chroot=trixie-amd64-new-sbuild delve_1.24.0-4.dsc

Error observed:
github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native.Launch.func2() /build/reproducible-path/delve-1.24.0/obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/src/github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native/proc_linux.go:122 +0x465 github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native.(*ptraceThread).handlePtraceFuncs(0xc00012c588) /build/reproducible-path/delve-1.24.0/obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/src/github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native/proc.go:405 +0x44 created by github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native.newPtraceThread in goroutine 67 /build/reproducible-path/delve-1.24.0/obj-x86_64-linux-gnu/src/github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native/proc.go:492 +0xc6 FAIL github.com/go-delve/delve/service/test 662.658s FAIL dh_auto_test: error: cd obj-x86_64-linux-gnu && go test -vet=off -v -p 8 -tags exp.linuxppc64le,exp.linuxriscv64 github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv/cmds github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv/cmds/helphelpers github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/astutil github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/config github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/dwarfbuilder github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/frame github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/godwarf github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/leb128 github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/line github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/loclist github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/op github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/reader github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/dwarf/regnum github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/elfwriter github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/gobuild github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/goversion github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/internal/gosym github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/locspec github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/logflags github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/amd64util github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/core github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/core/minidump github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/debuginfod github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/evalop github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/fbsdutil github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/gdbserial github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/internal/ebpf github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/internal/ebpf/testhelper github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/linutil github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/macutil github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/native/cpuid github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/test github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/proc/winutil github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/terminal github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/terminal/colorize github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/terminal/starbind github.com/go-delve/delve/pkg/version github.com/go-delve/delve/service github.com/go-delve/delve/service/api github.com/go-delve/delve/service/dap github.com/go-delve/delve/service/dap/daptest github.com/go-delve/delve/service/debugger github.com/go-delve/delve/service/internal/sameuser github.com/go-delve/delve/service/rpc2 github.com/go-delve/delve/service/rpccommon github.com/go-delve/delve/service/test returned exit code 1 make[1]: *** [debian/rules:23: override_dh_auto_test] Error 25 make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/reproducible-path/delve-1.24.0'

I wanted to know if,

• Is there any known limitation or incompatibility with building Delve via cross-architecture sbuild?
• Are there specific flags or build tags that can disable architecture-specific features or runtime checks?

[aarzilli]

I don't know what sbuild is but it looks like you are trying to delve's tests, there's no way those are going to work (I'm not sure exactly what is failing since the log you posted is truncated but it doesn't really matter).

[tshah14]

Thank you for the quick response

Just to clarify — I'm using sbuild the Debian tool for building .deb packages in chroot environments. I'm trying to cross-compile Delve for arm64 on a ppc64el host.

I suspect the issue might be related to architecture mismatches, possibly due to test binaries being built for arm64/amd64 but executed on a ppc64el host. Could you confirm if that’s indeed the root cause — or if there’s something else at play?

Also, is there any other way to test if the build works on those platforms. Just to give you more context, I am actually working on https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=delve&suite=sid and I have made some temporary fixes to resolve the build failure of delve on ppc64el and wanted to test if its not breaking any other archs.

[aarzilli]

I don't know the exact cause but if cross compilation works either the tests or delve itself will be cross compiled binaries and won't be able to run unless an emulator is used and if an emulator is used debugging won't work because of the emulator.

[tshah14]

ohkay, Thank you for the info.