KnowledgeBase Archive

An Archive of Early Microsoft KnowledgeBase Articles

View on GitHub

Q112335: BUG: CK1020 or CK4009 Encountered When Type Info Exceeds 64K

Article: Q112335
Product(s): Microsoft Programming Utilities
Version(s): 4.0,4.10,4.25,4.26,4.27
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 23-OCT-1999

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft CVPACK for MS-DOS, versions 4.0, 4.10, 4.26 
- Microsoft CVPACK Utility for Windows NT, versions 4.25, 4.27 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SYMPTOMS
========

Building a debug version of an application containing more than 64K of type
index information may cause one or more of the following error messages,
depending on what version of CVPACK is being used:

  CVPACK: fatal error CK1020: packed type index exceeds 65535 in module
  <filename.obj>

  CVPACK: warning CK4009: exceeded 64K types ... discarding subsequent types.

  cvpack.exe INTERNAL ERROR, exception code - 0xc0000005.

CAUSE
=====

These errors are due in part to the fact that CodeView's symbolic type
information index is a 16 bit value, which causes an overflow if the number of
packed symbol types exceeds 64K.

Note that CK4009 is a Visual C++ version 1.0 (32-bit) and version 1.5 (16- bit)
replacement for the older CK1020 error message. With CK1020, the packer failed
and the program could not be debugged. With CK4009, the packer does not fail,
but discards all subsequent nonprimitive types. This will at least allow the
program to be debugged for those symbols whose types have not been discarded.

RESOLUTION
==========

Here are a few things that can be done to reduce the number of symbols in an
application so that it can be successfully debugged:

1. Compile only the source files that you need to debug with /Zi and use /Zd for
  the rest. This will reduce the number of symbols in your application. (If you
  are using Programmer's WorkBench (PWB) or the Visual Workbench, it will also
  require you to use an external makefile, because compilation is not module
  selective within these tools.) If you choose to compile with /Zd, you will
  get line number support only for the modules. With a linker mapfile you can
  determine the location of your public symbols so you can at least view your
  global data in CodeView if needed. For additional information, please see the
  following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q48241 Relationship between Map File Addresses and Location in Memory

2. If you are using MFC with Visual C++, try rebuilding the MFC libraries with
  the /Zi switch instead of /Z7. This will build a .PDB (Program Database) file
  for the entire library that will contain all of the symbolic type
  information. While compiling the source files, each time the compiler
  generates type information for a new symbol, it checks the PDB file to see if
  this type is already present. If so, the type is not added. Using this
  process, the total amount of type information is reduced by eliminating
  redundant types that would otherwise be present in the .OBJ files created for
  the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) libraries using /Z7. Using /Zi causes
  redundancies to be reduced before the packer code executes, which helps the
  packer operate more efficiently.

3. For Visual C++ projects, compile using /Fd to specify a single .PDB file for
  your application. Again, the idea here is to reduce the number of types by
  eliminating redundancies that are present in multi module applications before
  the packer executes. Note that this is automatic if you are building from the
  Visual Workbench. The default file will be named MSVC.PDB: using /Fd allows
  you to specify an alternative name. Since the default is to use PDB files
  (which eliminates redundant information), the problem is much less likely to
  occur. To enable use of the PDB, use /Zi not /Z7 when compiling, and don't
  turn off "Program Database" in the IDE (or use /PDB:NONE on the command
  line).

4. If possible, consider eliminating some of the more complex types such as
  classes, structures, enums, and unions. This will reduce the likelihood of
  the types being redundantly included in your application.

5. Compile some of the modules without any debugging information at all. If
  using the Microsoft Foundation Classes, care must be taken not to mix modules
  compiled with _DEBUG and modules compiled without _DEBUG. Try building the
  MFC library with CODEVIEW=0 or CODEVIEW=2 to reduce the amount of symbolic
  information (the default for DEBUG is "=1", which defines _DEBUG). When the
  class library is built with CODEVIEW = 0, you will not have any library
  debugging information available. The MFC debugging functions TRACE and ASSERT
  will still be available, however. With CODEVIEW=2, some components of the
  library will be built with debugging information. The README.TXT in
  ..\MFC\SRC explains further what each of the options do in terms of limiting
  the debugging information available for the MFC library. Additional
  information can also be found in the Appendix of the "Class Libraries User's
  Guide" as follows:

  Appendix B for Visual C++ version 1.0 (16-bit)
  Appendix A for Visual C++ version 1.5 (16-bit)
  Appendix B for Visual C++ version 1.1 (32-bit)

6. One other unconfirmed possible solution is related to precompiled headers.
  You might try enabling or disabling the use of precompiled headers, whichever
  is not currently being used, and then rebuild everything. This may have
  varying effects depending on your application's use of header files.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in CVPACK utility for MS-DOS,
versions 4.0, 4.1, and 4.26, and CVPACK Utility for Windows NT, version 4.25. We
are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base as it becomes available.


MORE INFORMATION
================

The Symbol and Type OMF Specification requires that symbolic debugging
information be contained in two tables emitted by the compiler (in Visual C++
these are included in the object modules and the .PDB file). The first table is
called $$SYMBOLS and describes the symbols in the object file; while the second
is called $$TYPES and contains information about the symbol types. For example,
the statement "int i;" defines the symbol "i" of type "int". There are fields in
the records of both tables that are used to index into the records of the other
table. Furthermore, there is a third table of symbolic information that is
generated by the linker and written into the executable file. This table is
called PUBLICS and contains the symbol records for each public symbol
encountered while processing the object files.

CVPACK's purpose is to remove duplicate symbol and type information and rewrite
the remaining information in a format optimized for CodeView processing. The
type indices for this remaining information must not exceed 64K, because the
index itself is a 16-bit value. Because this index is part of the specification,
it cannot be changed without breaking the tools that depend on it, many of which
are supplied by third-party vendors.

Additional query words: 4.00 4.01 4.10 4.25 4.26 4.27

======================================================================
Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbAudDeveloper kbCVPACKSearch kbCVPACK400DOS kbCVPACK410DOS kbCVPACK426DOS kbCVPACK425NT kbCVPACK427NT
Version           : :4.0,4.10,4.25,4.26,4.27

=============================================================================

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1986-2002.