| 1 | README for GDB release |
| 2 | |
| 3 | This is GDB, the GNU source-level debugger. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | A summary of new features is in the file `gdb/NEWS'. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Check the GDB home page at http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/ for up to |
| 8 | date release information, mailing list links and archives, etc. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The file `gdb/PROBLEMS' contains information on problems identified |
| 11 | late in the release cycle. GDB's bug tracking data base at |
| 12 | http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/ contains a more complete list of |
| 13 | bugs. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview |
| 17 | ========================== |
| 18 | |
| 19 | The release is provided as a gzipped tar file called |
| 20 | 'gdb-VERSION.tar.gz', where VERSION is the version of GDB. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The GDB debugger sources, the generic GNU include |
| 23 | files, the BFD ("binary file description") library, the readline |
| 24 | library, and other libraries all have directories of their own |
| 25 | underneath the gdb-VERSION directory. The idea is that a variety of GNU |
| 26 | tools can share a common copy of these things. Be aware of variation |
| 27 | over time--for example don't try to build GDB with a copy of bfd from |
| 28 | a release other than the GDB release (such as a binutils release), |
| 29 | especially if the releases are more than a few weeks apart. |
| 30 | Configuration scripts and makefiles exist to cruise up and down this |
| 31 | directory tree and automatically build all the pieces in the right |
| 32 | order. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | When you unpack the gdb-VERSION.tar.gz file, it will create a |
| 35 | source directory called `gdb-VERSION'. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | You can build GDB right in the source directory: |
| 38 | |
| 39 | cd gdb-VERSION |
| 40 | ./configure |
| 41 | make |
| 42 | cp gdb/gdb /usr/local/bin/gdb (or wherever you want) |
| 43 | |
| 44 | However, we recommend that an empty directory be used instead. |
| 45 | This way you do not clutter your source tree with binary files |
| 46 | and will be able to create different builds with different |
| 47 | configuration options. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | You can build GDB in any empty build directory: |
| 50 | |
| 51 | mkdir build |
| 52 | cd build |
| 53 | <full path to your sources>/gdb-VERSION/configure |
| 54 | make |
| 55 | cp gdb/gdb /usr/local/bin/gdb (or wherever you want) |
| 56 | |
| 57 | (Building GDB with DJGPP tools for MS-DOS/MS-Windows is slightly |
| 58 | different; see the file gdb-VERSION/gdb/config/djgpp/README for details.) |
| 59 | |
| 60 | This will configure and build all the libraries as well as GDB. If |
| 61 | `configure' can't determine your system type, specify one as its |
| 62 | argument, e.g., `./configure sun4' or `./configure decstation'. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | Make sure that your 'configure' line ends in 'gdb-VERSION/configure': |
| 65 | |
| 66 | /berman/migchain/source/gdb-VERSION/configure # RIGHT |
| 67 | /berman/migchain/source/gdb-VERSION/gdb/configure # WRONG |
| 68 | |
| 69 | The GDB package contains several subdirectories, such as 'gdb', |
| 70 | 'bfd', and 'readline'. If your 'configure' line ends in |
| 71 | 'gdb-VERSION/gdb/configure', then you are configuring only the gdb |
| 72 | subdirectory, not the whole GDB package. This leads to build errors |
| 73 | such as: |
| 74 | |
| 75 | make: *** No rule to make target `../bfd/bfd.h', needed by `gdb.o'. Stop. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | If you get other compiler errors during this stage, see the `Reporting |
| 78 | Bugs' section below; there are a few known problems. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | GDB requires an ISO C (ANSI C) compiler. If you do not have an ISO |
| 81 | C compiler for your system, you may be able to download and install |
| 82 | the GNU CC compiler. It is available via anonymous FTP from the |
| 83 | directory `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gcc'. GDB also requires an ISO |
| 84 | C standard library. The GDB remote server, GDBserver, builds with some |
| 85 | non-ISO standard libraries - e.g. for Windows CE. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | GDB uses Expat, an XML parsing library, to implement some target-specific |
| 88 | features. Expat will be linked in if it is available at build time, or |
| 89 | those features will be disabled. The latest version of Expat should be |
| 90 | available from `http://expat.sourceforge.net'. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | GDB uses GNU MPFR, a library for multiple-precision floating-point |
| 93 | computation with correct rounding, to emulate target floating-point |
| 94 | arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target uses different |
| 95 | floating-point formats than the host. MPFR will be linked in if it is |
| 96 | available at build time. If GNU MPFR it is not available, GDB will fall |
| 97 | back to using host floating-point arithmetic. The latest version of |
| 98 | GNU MPFR should be available from `http://www.mpfr.org'. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | GDB can be used as a cross-debugger, running on a machine of one |
| 101 | type while debugging a program running on a machine of another type. |
| 102 | See below. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | |
| 105 | More Documentation |
| 106 | ****************** |
| 107 | |
| 108 | All the documentation for GDB comes as part of the machine-readable |
| 109 | distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which |
| 110 | is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce |
| 111 | both on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the |
| 112 | Info formatting commands to create the on-line version of the |
| 113 | documentation and TeX (or `texi2roff') to typeset the printed version. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | GDB includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version |
| 116 | of this manual in the `gdb/doc' subdirectory. The main Info file is |
| 117 | `gdb-VERSION/gdb/doc/gdb.info', and it refers to subordinate files |
| 118 | matching `gdb.info*' in the same directory. If necessary, you can |
| 119 | print out these files, or read them with any editor; but they are |
| 120 | easier to read using the `info' subsystem in GNU Emacs or the |
| 121 | standalone `info' program, available as part of the GNU Texinfo |
| 122 | distribution. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the |
| 125 | Info formatting programs, such as `texinfo-format-buffer' or |
| 126 | `makeinfo'. |
| 127 | |
| 128 | If you have `makeinfo' installed, and are in the top level GDB |
| 129 | source directory (`gdb-VERSION'), you can make the Info file by |
| 130 | typing: |
| 131 | |
| 132 | cd gdb/doc |
| 133 | make info |
| 134 | |
| 135 | If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need |
| 136 | TeX, a program to print its DVI output files, and `texinfo.tex', the |
| 137 | Texinfo definitions file. This file is included in the GDB |
| 138 | distribution, in the directory `gdb-VERSION/texinfo'. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but |
| 141 | produces output files called DVI files. To print a typeset document, |
| 142 | you need a program to print DVI files. If your system has TeX |
| 143 | installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to |
| 144 | use depends on your system; `lpr -d' is common; another (for PostScript |
| 145 | devices) is `dvips'. The DVI print command may require a file name |
| 146 | without any extension or a `.dvi' extension. |
| 147 | |
| 148 | TeX also requires a macro definitions file called `texinfo.tex'. |
| 149 | This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo |
| 150 | format. On its own, TeX cannot read, much less typeset a Texinfo file. |
| 151 | `texinfo.tex' is distributed with GDB and is located in the |
| 152 | `gdb-VERSION/texinfo' directory. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | If you have TeX and a DVI printer program installed, you can typeset |
| 155 | and print this manual. First switch to the `gdb' subdirectory of |
| 156 | the main source directory (for example, to `gdb-VERSION/gdb') and then type: |
| 157 | |
| 158 | make doc/gdb.dvi |
| 159 | |
| 160 | If you prefer to have the manual in PDF format, type this from the |
| 161 | `gdb/doc' subdirectory of the main source directory: |
| 162 | |
| 163 | make gdb.pdf |
| 164 | |
| 165 | For this to work, you will need the PDFTeX package to be installed. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | |
| 168 | Installing GDB |
| 169 | ************** |
| 170 | |
| 171 | GDB comes with a `configure' script that automates the process of |
| 172 | preparing GDB for installation; you can then use `make' to build the |
| 173 | `gdb' program. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for GDB in |
| 176 | a single directory. That directory contains: |
| 177 | |
| 178 | `gdb-VERSION/{COPYING,COPYING.LIB}' |
| 179 | Standard GNU license files. Please read them. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | `gdb-VERSION/bfd' |
| 182 | source for the Binary File Descriptor library |
| 183 | |
| 184 | `gdb-VERSION/config*' |
| 185 | script for configuring GDB, along with other support files |
| 186 | |
| 187 | `gdb-VERSION/gdb' |
| 188 | the source specific to GDB itself |
| 189 | |
| 190 | `gdb-VERSION/include' |
| 191 | GNU include files |
| 192 | |
| 193 | `gdb-VERSION/libiberty' |
| 194 | source for the `-liberty' free software library |
| 195 | |
| 196 | `gdb-VERSION/opcodes' |
| 197 | source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers |
| 198 | |
| 199 | `gdb-VERSION/readline' |
| 200 | source for the GNU command-line interface |
| 201 | NOTE: The readline library is compiled for use by GDB, but will |
| 202 | not be installed on your system when "make install" is issued. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | `gdb-VERSION/sim' |
| 205 | source for some simulators (ARM, D10V, SPARC, M32R, MIPS, PPC, V850, etc) |
| 206 | |
| 207 | `gdb-VERSION/texinfo' |
| 208 | The `texinfo.tex' file, which you need in order to make a printed |
| 209 | manual using TeX. |
| 210 | |
| 211 | `gdb-VERSION/etc' |
| 212 | Coding standards, useful files for editing GDB, and other |
| 213 | miscellanea. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | Note: the following instructions are for building GDB on Unix or |
| 216 | Unix-like systems. Instructions for building with DJGPP for |
| 217 | MS-DOS/MS-Windows are in the file gdb/config/djgpp/README. |
| 218 | |
| 219 | The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run `configure' |
| 220 | from the `gdb-VERSION' directory. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | First switch to the `gdb-VERSION' source directory if you are |
| 223 | not already in it; then run `configure'. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | For example: |
| 226 | |
| 227 | cd gdb-VERSION |
| 228 | ./configure |
| 229 | make |
| 230 | |
| 231 | Running `configure' followed by `make' builds the `bfd', |
| 232 | `readline', `mmalloc', and `libiberty' libraries, then `gdb' itself. |
| 233 | The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the |
| 234 | corresponding source directories. |
| 235 | |
| 236 | `configure' is a Bourne-shell (`/bin/sh') script; if your system |
| 237 | does not recognize this automatically when you run a different shell, |
| 238 | you may need to run `sh' on it explicitly: |
| 239 | |
| 240 | sh configure |
| 241 | |
| 242 | If you run `configure' from a directory that contains source |
| 243 | directories for multiple libraries or programs, `configure' creates |
| 244 | configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless |
| 245 | you tell it not to, with the `--norecursion' option). |
| 246 | |
| 247 | You can install `gdb' anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, |
| 248 | you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the `SHELL' |
| 249 | environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that GDB uses the |
| 250 | shell to start your program--some systems refuse to let GDB debug child |
| 251 | processes whose programs are not readable. |
| 252 | |
| 253 | |
| 254 | Compiling GDB in another directory |
| 255 | ================================== |
| 256 | |
| 257 | If you want to run GDB versions for several host or target machines, |
| 258 | you need a different `gdb' compiled for each combination of host and |
| 259 | target. `configure' is designed to make this easy by allowing you to |
| 260 | generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in |
| 261 | the source directory. If your `make' program handles the `VPATH' |
| 262 | feature correctly (GNU `make' and SunOS 'make' are two that should), |
| 263 | running `make' in each of these directories builds the `gdb' program |
| 264 | specified there. |
| 265 | |
| 266 | To build `gdb' in a separate directory, run `configure' with the |
| 267 | `--srcdir' option to specify where to find the source. (You also need |
| 268 | to specify a path to find `configure' itself from your working |
| 269 | directory. If the path to `configure' would be the same as the |
| 270 | argument to `--srcdir', you can leave out the `--srcdir' option; it |
| 271 | will be assumed.) |
| 272 | |
| 273 | For example, you can build GDB in a separate |
| 274 | directory for a Sun 4 like this: |
| 275 | |
| 276 | cd gdb-VERSION |
| 277 | mkdir ../gdb-sun4 |
| 278 | cd ../gdb-sun4 |
| 279 | ../gdb-VERSION/configure |
| 280 | make |
| 281 | |
| 282 | When `configure' builds a configuration using a remote source |
| 283 | directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure |
| 284 | (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In |
| 285 | the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library `libiberty.a' in the |
| 286 | directory `gdb-sun4/libiberty', and GDB itself in `gdb-sun4/gdb'. |
| 287 | |
| 288 | One popular reason to build several GDB configurations in separate |
| 289 | directories is to configure GDB for cross-compiling (where GDB runs on |
| 290 | one machine--the host--while debugging programs that run on another |
| 291 | machine--the target). You specify a cross-debugging target by giving |
| 292 | the `--target=TARGET' option to `configure'. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | When you run `make' to build a program or library, you must run it |
| 295 | in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you |
| 296 | called `configure' (or one of its subdirectories). |
| 297 | |
| 298 | The `Makefile' that `configure' generates in each source directory |
| 299 | also runs recursively. If you type `make' in a source directory such |
| 300 | as `gdb-VERSION' (or in a separate configured directory configured with |
| 301 | `--srcdir=PATH/gdb-VERSION'), you will build all the required libraries, |
| 302 | and then build GDB. |
| 303 | |
| 304 | When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate |
| 305 | directories, you can run `make' on them in parallel (for example, if |
| 306 | they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere |
| 307 | with each other. |
| 308 | |
| 309 | |
| 310 | Specifying names for hosts and targets |
| 311 | ====================================== |
| 312 | |
| 313 | The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure' |
| 314 | script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short |
| 315 | predefined aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes |
| 316 | three pieces of information in the following pattern: |
| 317 | |
| 318 | ARCHITECTURE-VENDOR-OS |
| 319 | |
| 320 | For example, you can use the alias `sun4' as a HOST argument or in a |
| 321 | `--target=TARGET' option. The equivalent full name is |
| 322 | `sparc-sun-sunos4'. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | The `configure' script accompanying GDB does not provide any query |
| 325 | facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. |
| 326 | `configure' calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub' to map |
| 327 | abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or |
| 328 | you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example: |
| 329 | |
| 330 | % sh config.sub sun4 |
| 331 | sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1 |
| 332 | % sh config.sub sun3 |
| 333 | m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1 |
| 334 | % sh config.sub decstation |
| 335 | mips-dec-ultrix4.2 |
| 336 | % sh config.sub hp300bsd |
| 337 | m68k-hp-bsd |
| 338 | % sh config.sub i386v |
| 339 | i386-pc-sysv |
| 340 | % sh config.sub i786v |
| 341 | Invalid configuration `i786v': machine `i786v' not recognized |
| 342 | |
| 343 | `config.sub' is also distributed in the GDB source directory. |
| 344 | |
| 345 | |
| 346 | `configure' options |
| 347 | =================== |
| 348 | |
| 349 | Here is a summary of the `configure' options and arguments that are |
| 350 | most often useful for building GDB. `configure' also has several other |
| 351 | options not listed here. *note : (configure.info)What Configure Does, |
| 352 | for a full explanation of `configure'. |
| 353 | |
| 354 | configure [--help] |
| 355 | [--prefix=DIR] |
| 356 | [--srcdir=PATH] |
| 357 | [--norecursion] [--rm] |
| 358 | [--enable-build-warnings] |
| 359 | [--target=TARGET] |
| 360 | [--host=HOST] |
| 361 | [HOST] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | You may introduce options with a single `-' rather than `--' if you |
| 364 | prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use `--'. |
| 365 | |
| 366 | `--help' |
| 367 | Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure'. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | `-prefix=DIR' |
| 370 | Configure the source to install programs and files under directory |
| 371 | `DIR'. |
| 372 | |
| 373 | `--srcdir=PATH' |
| 374 | *Warning: using this option requires GNU `make', or another `make' |
| 375 | that compatibly implements the `VPATH' feature.* |
| 376 | Use this option to make configurations in directories separate |
| 377 | from the GDB source directories. Among other things, you can use |
| 378 | this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, |
| 379 | in separate directories. `configure' writes configuration |
| 380 | specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to |
| 381 | use the source in the directory PATH. `configure' will create |
| 382 | directories under the working directory in parallel to the source |
| 383 | directories below PATH. |
| 384 | |
| 385 | `--host=HOST' |
| 386 | Configure GDB to run on the specified HOST. |
| 387 | |
| 388 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 389 | hosts. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | `HOST ...' |
| 392 | Same as `--host=HOST'. If you omit this, GDB will guess; it's |
| 393 | quite accurate. |
| 394 | |
| 395 | `--norecursion' |
| 396 | Configure only the directory level where `configure' is executed; |
| 397 | do not propagate configuration to subdirectories. |
| 398 | |
| 399 | `--rm' |
| 400 | Remove the configuration that the other arguments specify. |
| 401 | |
| 402 | `--enable-build-warnings' |
| 403 | When building the GDB sources, ask the compiler to warn about any |
| 404 | code which looks even vaguely suspicious. You should only using |
| 405 | this feature if you're compiling with GNU CC. It passes the |
| 406 | following flags: |
| 407 | -Wimplicit |
| 408 | -Wreturn-type |
| 409 | -Wcomment |
| 410 | -Wtrigraphs |
| 411 | -Wformat |
| 412 | -Wparentheses |
| 413 | -Wpointer-arith |
| 414 | |
| 415 | `--enable-werror' |
| 416 | Treat compiler warnings as werrors. Use this only with GCC. It |
| 417 | adds the -Werror flag to the compiler, which will fail the |
| 418 | compilation if the compiler outputs any warning messages. |
| 419 | |
| 420 | `--target=TARGET' |
| 421 | Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the specified |
| 422 | TARGET. Without this option, GDB is configured to debug programs |
| 423 | that run on the same machine (HOST) as GDB itself. |
| 424 | |
| 425 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 426 | targets. |
| 427 | |
| 428 | `--with-gdb-datadir=PATH' |
| 429 | Set the GDB-specific data directory. GDB will look here for |
| 430 | certain supporting files or scripts. This defaults to the `gdb' |
| 431 | subdirectory of `datadir' (which can be set using `--datadir'). |
| 432 | |
| 433 | `--with-relocated-sources=DIR' |
| 434 | Sets up the default source path substitution rule so that |
| 435 | directory names recorded in debug information will be |
| 436 | automatically adjusted for any directory under DIR. DIR should |
| 437 | be a subdirectory of GDB's configured prefix, the one mentioned |
| 438 | in the `--prefix' or `--exec-prefix' options to configure. This |
| 439 | option is useful if GDB is supposed to be moved to a different |
| 440 | place after it is built. |
| 441 | |
| 442 | `--enable-64-bit-bfd' |
| 443 | Enable 64-bit support in BFD on 32-bit hosts. |
| 444 | |
| 445 | `--disable-gdbmi' |
| 446 | Build GDB without the GDB/MI machine interface. |
| 447 | |
| 448 | `--enable-tui' |
| 449 | Build GDB with the text-mode full-screen user interface (TUI). |
| 450 | Requires a curses library (ncurses and cursesX are also |
| 451 | supported). |
| 452 | |
| 453 | `--enable-gdbtk' |
| 454 | Build GDB with the gdbtk GUI interface. Requires TCL/Tk to be |
| 455 | installed. |
| 456 | |
| 457 | `--with-libunwind-ia64' |
| 458 | Use the libunwind library for unwinding function call stack on ia64 |
| 459 | target platforms. |
| 460 | See http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind/index.html for details. |
| 461 | |
| 462 | `--with-curses' |
| 463 | Use the curses library instead of the termcap library, for |
| 464 | text-mode terminal operations. |
| 465 | |
| 466 | `--enable-profiling' Enable profiling of GDB itself. Necessary if you |
| 467 | want to use the "maint set profile" command for profiling GDB. |
| 468 | Requires the functions `monstartup' and `_mcleanup' to be present |
| 469 | in the standard C library used to build GDB, and also requires a |
| 470 | compiler that supports the `-pg' option. |
| 471 | |
| 472 | `--with-system-readline' |
| 473 | Use the readline library installed on the host, rather than the |
| 474 | library supplied as part of GDB tarball. |
| 475 | |
| 476 | `--with-expat' |
| 477 | Build GDB with the libexpat library. (Done by default if |
| 478 | libexpat is installed and found at configure time.) This library |
| 479 | is used to read XML files supplied with GDB. If it is |
| 480 | unavailable, some features, such as remote protocol memory maps, |
| 481 | target descriptions, and shared library lists, that are based on |
| 482 | XML files, will not be available in GDB. If your host does not |
| 483 | have libexpat installed, you can get the latest version from |
| 484 | http://expat.sourceforge.net. |
| 485 | |
| 486 | `--with-mpfr' |
| 487 | Build GDB with the GNU MPFR library. (Done by default if |
| 488 | GNU MPFR is installed and found at configure time.) This library |
| 489 | is used to emulate target floating-point arithmetic during expression |
| 490 | evaluation when the target uses different floating-point formats than |
| 491 | the host. If GNU MPFR is not available, GDB will fall back to using |
| 492 | host floating-point arithmetic. If your host does not have GNU MPFR |
| 493 | installed, you can get the latest version from http://www.mpfr.org. |
| 494 | |
| 495 | `--with-python[=PATH]' |
| 496 | Build GDB with Python scripting support. (Done by default if |
| 497 | libpython is present and found at configure time.) Python makes |
| 498 | GDB scripting much more powerful than the restricted CLI |
| 499 | scripting language. If your host does not have Python installed, |
| 500 | you can find it on http://www.python.org/download/. The oldest |
| 501 | version of Python supported by GDB is 2.4. The optional argument |
| 502 | PATH says where to find the Python headers and libraries; the |
| 503 | configure script will look in PATH/include for headers and in |
| 504 | PATH/lib for the libraries. |
| 505 | |
| 506 | `--without-included-regex' |
| 507 | Don't use the regex library included with GDB (as part of the |
| 508 | libiberty library). This is the default on hosts with version 2 |
| 509 | of the GNU C library. |
| 510 | |
| 511 | `--with-sysroot=DIR' |
| 512 | Use DIR as the default system root directory for libraries whose |
| 513 | file names begin with `/lib' or `/usr/lib'. (The value of DIR |
| 514 | can be modified at run time by using the "set sysroot" command.) |
| 515 | If DIR is under the GDB configured prefix (set with `--prefix' or |
| 516 | `--exec-prefix' options), the default system root will be |
| 517 | automatically adjusted if and when GDB is moved to a different |
| 518 | location. |
| 519 | |
| 520 | `--with-system-gdbinit=FILE' |
| 521 | Configure GDB to automatically load a system-wide init file. |
| 522 | FILE should be an absolute file name. If FILE is in a directory |
| 523 | under the configured prefix, and GDB is moved to another location |
| 524 | after being built, the location of the system-wide init file will |
| 525 | be adjusted accordingly. |
| 526 | |
| 527 | `configure' accepts other options, for compatibility with configuring |
| 528 | other GNU tools recursively; but these are the only options that affect |
| 529 | GDB or its supporting libraries. |
| 530 | |
| 531 | |
| 532 | Remote debugging |
| 533 | ================= |
| 534 | |
| 535 | The files m68k-stub.c, i386-stub.c, and sparc-stub.c are examples |
| 536 | of remote stubs to be used with remote.c. They are designed to run |
| 537 | standalone on an m68k, i386, or SPARC cpu and communicate properly |
| 538 | with the remote.c stub over a serial line. |
| 539 | |
| 540 | The directory gdb/gdbserver/ contains `gdbserver', a program that |
| 541 | allows remote debugging for Unix applications. GDBserver is only |
| 542 | supported for some native configurations, including Sun 3, Sun 4, and |
| 543 | Linux. |
| 544 | The file gdb/gdbserver/README includes further notes on GDBserver; in |
| 545 | particular, it explains how to build GDBserver for cross-debugging |
| 546 | (where GDBserver runs on the target machine, which is of a different |
| 547 | architecture than the host machine running GDB). |
| 548 | |
| 549 | There are a number of remote interfaces for talking to existing ROM |
| 550 | monitors and other hardware: |
| 551 | |
| 552 | remote-mips.c MIPS remote debugging protocol |
| 553 | remote-sds.c PowerPC SDS monitor |
| 554 | remote-sim.c Generalized simulator protocol |
| 555 | |
| 556 | |
| 557 | Reporting Bugs in GDB |
| 558 | ===================== |
| 559 | |
| 560 | There are several ways of reporting bugs in GDB. The prefered |
| 561 | method is to use the World Wide Web: |
| 562 | |
| 563 | http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/ |
| 564 | |
| 565 | As an alternative, the bug report can be submitted, via e-mail, to the |
| 566 | address "bug-gdb@gnu.org". |
| 567 | |
| 568 | When submitting a bug, please include the GDB version number, and |
| 569 | how you configured it (e.g., "sun4" or "mach386 host, |
| 570 | i586-intel-synopsys target"). Since GDB now supports so many |
| 571 | different configurations, it is important that you be precise about |
| 572 | this. If at all possible, you should include the actual banner |
| 573 | that GDB prints when it starts up, or failing that, the actual |
| 574 | configure command that you used when configuring GDB. |
| 575 | |
| 576 | For more information on how/whether to report bugs, see the |
| 577 | Reporting Bugs chapter of the GDB manual (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo). |
| 578 | |
| 579 | |
| 580 | Graphical interface to GDB -- X Windows, MS Windows |
| 581 | ========================== |
| 582 | |
| 583 | Several graphical interfaces to GDB are available. You should |
| 584 | check: |
| 585 | |
| 586 | http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/links/ |
| 587 | |
| 588 | for an up-to-date list. |
| 589 | |
| 590 | Emacs users will very likely enjoy the Grand Unified Debugger mode; |
| 591 | try typing `M-x gdb RET'. |
| 592 | |
| 593 | |
| 594 | Writing Code for GDB |
| 595 | ===================== |
| 596 | |
| 597 | There is information about writing code for GDB in the file |
| 598 | `CONTRIBUTE' and at the website: |
| 599 | |
| 600 | http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/ |
| 601 | |
| 602 | in particular in the wiki. |
| 603 | |
| 604 | If you are pondering writing anything but a short patch, especially |
| 605 | take note of the information about copyrights and copyright assignment. |
| 606 | It can take quite a while to get all the paperwork done, so |
| 607 | we encourage you to start that process as soon as you decide you are |
| 608 | planning to work on something, or at least well ahead of when you |
| 609 | think you will be ready to submit the patches. |
| 610 | |
| 611 | |
| 612 | GDB Testsuite |
| 613 | ============= |
| 614 | |
| 615 | Included with the GDB distribution is a DejaGNU based testsuite |
| 616 | that can either be used to test your newly built GDB, or for |
| 617 | regression testing a GDB with local modifications. |
| 618 | |
| 619 | Running the testsuite requires the prior installation of DejaGNU, |
| 620 | which is generally available via ftp. The directory |
| 621 | ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/dejagnu/ will contain a recent snapshot. |
| 622 | Once DejaGNU is installed, you can run the tests in one of the |
| 623 | following ways: |
| 624 | |
| 625 | (1) cd gdb-VERSION |
| 626 | make check-gdb |
| 627 | |
| 628 | or |
| 629 | |
| 630 | (2) cd gdb-VERSION/gdb |
| 631 | make check |
| 632 | |
| 633 | or |
| 634 | |
| 635 | (3) cd gdb-VERSION/gdb/testsuite |
| 636 | make site.exp (builds the site specific file) |
| 637 | runtest -tool gdb GDB=../gdb (or GDB=<somepath> as appropriate) |
| 638 | |
| 639 | When using a `make'-based method, you can use the Makefile variable |
| 640 | `RUNTESTFLAGS' to pass flags to `runtest', e.g.: |
| 641 | |
| 642 | make RUNTESTFLAGS=--directory=gdb.cp check |
| 643 | |
| 644 | If you use GNU make, you can use its `-j' option to run the testsuite |
| 645 | in parallel. This can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for |
| 646 | the testsuite to run. In this case, if you set `RUNTESTFLAGS' then, |
| 647 | by default, the tests will be run serially even under `-j'. You can |
| 648 | override this and force a parallel run by setting the `make' variable |
| 649 | `FORCE_PARALLEL' to any non-empty value. Note that the parallel `make |
| 650 | check' assumes that you want to run the entire testsuite, so it is not |
| 651 | compatible with some dejagnu options, like `--directory'. |
| 652 | |
| 653 | The last method gives you slightly more control in case of problems |
| 654 | with building one or more test executables or if you are using the |
| 655 | testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree. |
| 656 | |
| 657 | See the DejaGNU documentation for further details. |
| 658 | |
| 659 | |
| 660 | Copyright and License Notices |
| 661 | ============================= |
| 662 | |
| 663 | Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice |
| 664 | as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file. |
| 665 | |
| 666 | To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the |
| 667 | copyright notice can be combined into a single range. For instance, |
| 668 | the following list of copyright years... |
| 669 | |
| 670 | 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 |
| 671 | |
| 672 | ... is abbreviated into: |
| 673 | |
| 674 | 1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011 |
| 675 | |
| 676 | Every year of each range, inclusive, is a copyrightable year that |
| 677 | could be listed individually. |
| 678 | |
| 679 | \f |
| 680 | (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs) |
| 681 | Local Variables: |
| 682 | mode: text |
| 683 | End: |