-bash: ./a.out: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Question

I found a few open issues on this error, but none was relevant.

I wrote the simplest C++ code on my VM ( Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS , sudo virt-what output is vmware ):

z.cpp:

#include <iostream>
int main(){
        std::cout << "hello world" << std::endl;
        return 0;
}

and compiled with g++ z.cpp . When trying to call ./a.out I get the error in the Q description, ie:

-bash: ./a.out: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

When compiling a not-so-different C-code:

qc:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
        puts("hello world");
        return 0;
}

with gcc qc I get no problems and the output of ./a.out is, as expected "hello world"

---

This is my dpkg --list | grep compiler dpkg --list | grep compiler :

ii  g++                                          4:4.8.2-1ubuntu6                                    i386         GNU C++ compiler
ii  g++-4.8                                      4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04                                i386         GNU C++ compiler
ii  gcc                                          4:4.8.2-1ubuntu6                                    i386         GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-4.8                                      4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04                                i386         GNU C compiler
ii  hardening-includes                           2.5ubuntu2.1                                        all          Makefile for enabling compiler flags for security hardening
ii  libllvm3.5:i386                              1:3.5-4ubuntu2~trusty2                              i386         Modular compiler and toolchain technologies, runtime library
ii  libxkbcommon0:i386                           0.4.1-0ubuntu1                                      i386         library interface to the XKB compiler - shared library

---

The problem is clearly in the g++ compiler, since the C-code ( qc ) which runs fine when compiled by gcc , fails to run when compiled by g++ . However, I have no idea what in the compiler exactly could be wrong

---

file a.out = a.out: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, PowerPC or cisco 4500, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.10, not stripped

---

Already answered it, but for the sake of the question's completeness, here is the last puzzle piece that made the difference (although I didn't think of checking this when I first posted the Q):

alias g++='/opt/Cross_Tools/powerpc-linux-gnu/bin/powerpc-linux-gnu-g++'

Answer 1

Found the problem...

The g++ command was indeed making a 32-bit application (as can be seen by the output of file a.out ). The reason is that I had an alias I wasn't aware of:

alias g++='/opt/Cross_Tools/powerpc-linux-gnu/bin/powerpc-linux-gnu-g++'

which made my g++ z.cpp command not use the actual /usr/bin/g++ but the cross-compiler. When compiling with make z the a.out was fine.