| 1 | README for gdb-4.18 release |
| 2 | Updated 4 Apr 1999 by Jim Blandy |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This is GDB, the GNU source-level debugger. |
| 5 | A summary of new features is in the file `NEWS'. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | See the GDB home page at http://www.cygnus.com/gdb/ for up to date |
| 8 | release information, mailing list links and archives, etc. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview |
| 12 | ========================== |
| 13 | |
| 14 | In this release, the GDB debugger sources, the generic GNU include |
| 15 | files, the BFD ("binary file description") library, the readline |
| 16 | library, and other libraries all have directories of their own |
| 17 | underneath the gdb-4.18 directory. The idea is that a variety of GNU |
| 18 | tools can share a common copy of these things. Be aware of variation |
| 19 | over time--for example don't try to build gdb with a copy of bfd from |
| 20 | a release other than the gdb release (such as a binutils or gas |
| 21 | release), especially if the releases are more than a few weeks apart. |
| 22 | Configuration scripts and makefiles exist to cruise up and down this |
| 23 | directory tree and automatically build all the pieces in the right |
| 24 | order. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | When you unpack the gdb-4.18.tar.gz file, you'll find a directory |
| 27 | called `gdb-4.18', which contains: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | COPYING config.sub* libiberty/ opcodes/ |
| 30 | COPYING.LIB configure* mmalloc/ readline/ |
| 31 | Makefile.in configure.in move-if-change* sim/ |
| 32 | README etc/ mpw-README texinfo/ |
| 33 | bfd/ gdb/ mpw-build.in utils/ |
| 34 | config/ include/ mpw-config.in |
| 35 | config.guess* install.sh* mpw-configure |
| 36 | |
| 37 | To build GDB, you can just do: |
| 38 | |
| 39 | cd gdb-4.18 |
| 40 | ./configure |
| 41 | make |
| 42 | cp gdb/gdb /usr/local/bin/gdb (or wherever you want) |
| 43 | |
| 44 | This will configure and build all the libraries as well as GDB. |
| 45 | If `configure' can't determine your system type, specify one as its |
| 46 | argument, e.g., sun4 or decstation. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | If you get compiler warnings during this stage, see the `Reporting Bugs' |
| 49 | section below; there are a few known problems. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | GDB requires an ANSI C compiler. If you do not have an ANSI C |
| 52 | compiler for your system, you may be able to download and install the |
| 53 | GNU CC compiler. It is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.gnu.org, |
| 54 | in /pub/gnu/gcc (as a URL, that's ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gcc). |
| 55 | |
| 56 | GDB can be used as a cross-debugger, running on a machine of one type |
| 57 | while debugging a program running on a machine of another type. See below. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | |
| 60 | More Documentation |
| 61 | ****************** |
| 62 | |
| 63 | All the documentation for GDB comes as part of the machine-readable |
| 64 | distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is |
| 65 | a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both |
| 66 | on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info |
| 67 | formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation |
| 68 | and TeX (or `texi2roff') to typeset the printed version. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | GDB includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version of |
| 71 | this manual in the `gdb/doc' subdirectory. The main Info file is |
| 72 | `gdb-4.18/gdb/doc/gdb.info', and it refers to subordinate files matching |
| 73 | `gdb.info*' in the same directory. If necessary, you can print out |
| 74 | these files, or read them with any editor; but they are easier to read |
| 75 | using the `info' subsystem in GNU Emacs or the standalone `info' program, |
| 76 | available as part of the GNU Texinfo distribution. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the |
| 79 | Info formatting programs, such as `texinfo-format-buffer' or |
| 80 | `makeinfo'. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | If you have `makeinfo' installed, and are in the top level GDB |
| 83 | source directory (`gdb-4.18', in the case of version 4.18), you can make |
| 84 | the Info file by typing: |
| 85 | |
| 86 | cd gdb/doc |
| 87 | make info |
| 88 | |
| 89 | If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need |
| 90 | TeX, a program to print its DVI output files, and `texinfo.tex', the |
| 91 | Texinfo definitions file. This file is included in the GDB |
| 92 | distribution, in the directory `gdb-4.18/texinfo'. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but |
| 95 | produces output files called DVI files. To print a typeset document, |
| 96 | you need a program to print DVI files. If your system has TeX |
| 97 | installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to |
| 98 | use depends on your system; `lpr -d' is common; another (for PostScript |
| 99 | devices) is `dvips'. The DVI print command may require a file name |
| 100 | without any extension or a `.dvi' extension. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | TeX also requires a macro definitions file called `texinfo.tex'. |
| 103 | This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo |
| 104 | format. On its own, TeX cannot read, much less typeset a Texinfo file. |
| 105 | `texinfo.tex' is distributed with GDB and is located in the |
| 106 | `gdb-4.18/texinfo' directory. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | If you have TeX and a DVI printer program installed, you can typeset |
| 109 | and print this manual. First switch to the the `gdb' subdirectory of |
| 110 | the main source directory (for example, to `gdb-4.18/gdb') and then type: |
| 111 | |
| 112 | make gdb.dvi |
| 113 | |
| 114 | |
| 115 | Installing GDB |
| 116 | ************** |
| 117 | |
| 118 | GDB comes with a `configure' script that automates the process of |
| 119 | preparing GDB for installation; you can then use `make' to build the |
| 120 | `gdb' program. |
| 121 | |
| 122 | The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for GDB in |
| 123 | a single directory, whose name is usually composed by appending the |
| 124 | version number to `gdb'. |
| 125 | |
| 126 | For example, the GDB version 4.18 distribution is in the `gdb-4.18' |
| 127 | directory. That directory contains: |
| 128 | |
| 129 | `gdb-4.18/{COPYING,COPYING.LIB}' |
| 130 | Standard GNU license files. Please read them. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | `gdb-4.18/bfd' |
| 133 | source for the Binary File Descriptor library |
| 134 | |
| 135 | `gdb-4.18/config*' |
| 136 | script for configuring GDB, along with other support files |
| 137 | |
| 138 | `gdb-4.18/gdb' |
| 139 | the source specific to GDB itself |
| 140 | |
| 141 | `gdb-4.18/include' |
| 142 | GNU include files |
| 143 | |
| 144 | `gdb-4.18/libiberty' |
| 145 | source for the `-liberty' free software library |
| 146 | |
| 147 | `gdb-4.18/mmalloc' |
| 148 | source for the GNU memory-mapped malloc package |
| 149 | |
| 150 | `gdb-4.18/opcodes' |
| 151 | source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers |
| 152 | |
| 153 | `gdb-4.18/readline' |
| 154 | source for the GNU command-line interface |
| 155 | |
| 156 | `gdb-4.18/sim' |
| 157 | source for some simulators (ARM, D10V, SPARC, M32R, MIPS, PPC, V850, etc) |
| 158 | |
| 159 | `gdb-4.18/intl' |
| 160 | source for the GNU gettext library, for internationalization. |
| 161 | This is slightly modified from the standalone gettext |
| 162 | distribution you can get from GNU. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | `gdb-4.18/texinfo' |
| 165 | The `texinfo.tex' file, which you need in order to make a printed |
| 166 | manual using TeX. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | `gdb-4.18/etc' |
| 169 | Coding standards, useful files for editing GDB, and other |
| 170 | miscellanea. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | `gdb-4.18/utils' |
| 173 | A grab bag of random utilities. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | |
| 176 | The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run `configure' |
| 177 | from the `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER' source directory, which in this example |
| 178 | is the `gdb-4.18' directory. |
| 179 | |
| 180 | First switch to the `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER' source directory if you are |
| 181 | not already in it; then run `configure'. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | For example: |
| 184 | |
| 185 | cd gdb-4.18 |
| 186 | ./configure |
| 187 | make |
| 188 | |
| 189 | Running `configure' followed by `make' builds the `bfd', |
| 190 | `readline', `mmalloc', and `libiberty' libraries, then `gdb' itself. |
| 191 | The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the |
| 192 | corresponding source directories. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | `configure' is a Bourne-shell (`/bin/sh') script; if your system |
| 195 | does not recognize this automatically when you run a different shell, |
| 196 | you may need to run `sh' on it explicitly: |
| 197 | |
| 198 | sh configure |
| 199 | |
| 200 | If you run `configure' from a directory that contains source |
| 201 | directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the `gdb-4.18' |
| 202 | source directory for version 4.18, `configure' creates configuration |
| 203 | files for every directory level underneath (unless you tell it not to, |
| 204 | with the `--norecursion' option). |
| 205 | |
| 206 | You can run the `configure' script from any of the subordinate |
| 207 | directories in the GDB distribution, if you only want to configure that |
| 208 | subdirectory; but be sure to specify a path to it. |
| 209 | |
| 210 | For example, with version 4.18, type the following to configure only |
| 211 | the `bfd' subdirectory: |
| 212 | |
| 213 | cd gdb-4.18/bfd |
| 214 | ../configure |
| 215 | |
| 216 | You can install `gdb' anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, |
| 217 | you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the `SHELL' |
| 218 | environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that GDB uses the |
| 219 | shell to start your program--some systems refuse to let GDB debug child |
| 220 | processes whose programs are not readable. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | |
| 223 | Compiling GDB in another directory |
| 224 | ================================== |
| 225 | |
| 226 | If you want to run GDB versions for several host or target machines, |
| 227 | you need a different `gdb' compiled for each combination of host and |
| 228 | target. `configure' is designed to make this easy by allowing you to |
| 229 | generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in |
| 230 | the source directory. If your `make' program handles the `VPATH' |
| 231 | feature correctly (GNU `make' and SunOS 'make' are two that should), |
| 232 | running `make' in each of these directories builds the `gdb' program |
| 233 | specified there. |
| 234 | |
| 235 | To build `gdb' in a separate directory, run `configure' with the |
| 236 | `--srcdir' option to specify where to find the source. (You also need |
| 237 | to specify a path to find `configure' itself from your working |
| 238 | directory. If the path to `configure' would be the same as the |
| 239 | argument to `--srcdir', you can leave out the `--srcdir' option; it |
| 240 | will be assumed.) |
| 241 | |
| 242 | For example, with version 4.18, you can build GDB in a separate |
| 243 | directory for a Sun 4 like this: |
| 244 | |
| 245 | cd gdb-4.18 |
| 246 | mkdir ../gdb-sun4 |
| 247 | cd ../gdb-sun4 |
| 248 | ../gdb-4.18/configure sun4 |
| 249 | make |
| 250 | |
| 251 | When `configure' builds a configuration using a remote source |
| 252 | directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure |
| 253 | (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In |
| 254 | the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library `libiberty.a' in the |
| 255 | directory `gdb-sun4/libiberty', and GDB itself in `gdb-sun4/gdb'. |
| 256 | |
| 257 | One popular reason to build several GDB configurations in separate |
| 258 | directories is to configure GDB for cross-compiling (where GDB runs on |
| 259 | one machine--the host--while debugging programs that run on another |
| 260 | machine--the target). You specify a cross-debugging target by giving |
| 261 | the `--target=TARGET' option to `configure'. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | When you run `make' to build a program or library, you must run it |
| 264 | in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you |
| 265 | called `configure' (or one of its subdirectories). |
| 266 | |
| 267 | The `Makefile' that `configure' generates in each source directory |
| 268 | also runs recursively. If you type `make' in a source directory such |
| 269 | as `gdb-4.18' (or in a separate configured directory configured with |
| 270 | `--srcdir=PATH/gdb-4.18'), you will build all the required libraries, |
| 271 | and then build GDB. |
| 272 | |
| 273 | When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate |
| 274 | directories, you can run `make' on them in parallel (for example, if |
| 275 | they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere |
| 276 | with each other. |
| 277 | |
| 278 | |
| 279 | Specifying names for hosts and targets |
| 280 | ====================================== |
| 281 | |
| 282 | The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure' |
| 283 | script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short |
| 284 | predefined aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes |
| 285 | three pieces of information in the following pattern: |
| 286 | |
| 287 | ARCHITECTURE-VENDOR-OS |
| 288 | |
| 289 | For example, you can use the alias `sun4' as a HOST argument or in a |
| 290 | `--target=TARGET' option. The equivalent full name is |
| 291 | `sparc-sun-sunos4'. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | The `configure' script accompanying GDB does not provide any query |
| 294 | facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. |
| 295 | `configure' calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub' to map |
| 296 | abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or |
| 297 | you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example: |
| 298 | |
| 299 | % sh config.sub sun4 |
| 300 | sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1 |
| 301 | % sh config.sub sun3 |
| 302 | m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1 |
| 303 | % sh config.sub decstation |
| 304 | mips-dec-ultrix4.2 |
| 305 | % sh config.sub hp300bsd |
| 306 | m68k-hp-bsd |
| 307 | % sh config.sub i386v |
| 308 | i386-pc-sysv |
| 309 | % sh config.sub i786v |
| 310 | Invalid configuration `i786v': machine `i786v' not recognized |
| 311 | |
| 312 | `config.sub' is also distributed in the GDB source directory |
| 313 | (`gdb-4.18', for version 4.18). |
| 314 | |
| 315 | |
| 316 | `configure' options |
| 317 | =================== |
| 318 | |
| 319 | Here is a summary of the `configure' options and arguments that are |
| 320 | most often useful for building GDB. `configure' also has several other |
| 321 | options not listed here. *note : (configure.info)What Configure Does, |
| 322 | for a full explanation of `configure'. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | configure [--help] |
| 325 | [--prefix=DIR] |
| 326 | [--srcdir=PATH] |
| 327 | [--norecursion] [--rm] |
| 328 | [--enable-build-warnings] |
| 329 | [--target=TARGET] |
| 330 | [--host=HOST] |
| 331 | [HOST] |
| 332 | |
| 333 | You may introduce options with a single `-' rather than `--' if you |
| 334 | prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use `--'. |
| 335 | |
| 336 | `--help' |
| 337 | Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure'. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | `-prefix=DIR' |
| 340 | Configure the source to install programs and files under directory |
| 341 | `DIR'. |
| 342 | |
| 343 | `--srcdir=PATH' |
| 344 | *Warning: using this option requires GNU `make', or another `make' |
| 345 | that compatibly implements the `VPATH' feature.* |
| 346 | Use this option to make configurations in directories separate |
| 347 | from the GDB source directories. Among other things, you can use |
| 348 | this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, |
| 349 | in separate directories. `configure' writes configuration |
| 350 | specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to |
| 351 | use the source in the directory PATH. `configure' will create |
| 352 | directories under the working directory in parallel to the source |
| 353 | directories below PATH. |
| 354 | |
| 355 | `--norecursion' |
| 356 | Configure only the directory level where `configure' is executed; |
| 357 | do not propagate configuration to subdirectories. |
| 358 | |
| 359 | `--rm' |
| 360 | Remove the configuration that the other arguments specify. |
| 361 | |
| 362 | `--enable-build-warnings' |
| 363 | When building the GDB sources, ask the compiler to warn about any |
| 364 | code which looks even vaguely suspicious. You should only using |
| 365 | this feature if you're compiling with GNU CC. It passes the |
| 366 | following flags: |
| 367 | -Wall |
| 368 | -Wpointer-arith |
| 369 | -Wstrict-prototypes |
| 370 | -Wmissing-prototypes |
| 371 | -Wmissing-declarations |
| 372 | |
| 373 | `--target=TARGET' |
| 374 | Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the specified |
| 375 | TARGET. Without this option, GDB is configured to debug programs |
| 376 | that run on the same machine (HOST) as GDB itself. |
| 377 | |
| 378 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 379 | targets. |
| 380 | |
| 381 | `--host=HOST' |
| 382 | Configure GDB to run on the specified HOST. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 385 | hosts. |
| 386 | |
| 387 | `HOST ...' |
| 388 | Same as `--host=HOST'. If you omit this, GDB will guess; it's |
| 389 | quite accurate. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | `configure' accepts other options, for compatibility with configuring |
| 392 | other GNU tools recursively; but these are the only options that affect |
| 393 | GDB or its supporting libraries. |
| 394 | |
| 395 | |
| 396 | Languages other than C |
| 397 | ======================= |
| 398 | |
| 399 | See the GDB manual (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo) for information on this. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | |
| 402 | Kernel debugging |
| 403 | ================= |
| 404 | |
| 405 | I have't done this myself so I can't really offer any advice. |
| 406 | Remote debugging over serial lines works fine, but the kernel debugging |
| 407 | code in here has not been tested in years. Van Jacobson has |
| 408 | better kernel debugging, but the UC lawyers won't let FSF have it. |
| 409 | |
| 410 | |
| 411 | Remote debugging |
| 412 | ================= |
| 413 | |
| 414 | The files m68k-stub.c, i386-stub.c, and sparc-stub.c are examples of |
| 415 | remote stubs to be used with remote.c. They are designed to run |
| 416 | standalone on an m68k, i386, or SPARC cpu and communicate properly with |
| 417 | the remote.c stub over a serial line. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | The directory gdb/gdbserver/ contains `gdbserver', a program that |
| 420 | allows remote debugging for Unix applications. gdbserver is only |
| 421 | supported for some native configurations, including Sun 3, Sun 4, |
| 422 | and Linux. |
| 423 | |
| 424 | There are a number of remote interfaces for talking to existing ROM |
| 425 | monitors and other hardware: |
| 426 | |
| 427 | remote-adapt.c AMD 29000 "Adapt" |
| 428 | remote-array.c Array Tech RAID controller |
| 429 | remote-bug.c Motorola BUG monitor |
| 430 | remote-d10v.c GDB protocol, talking to a d10v chip |
| 431 | remote-e7000.c Hitachi E7000 ICE |
| 432 | remote-eb.c AMD 29000 "EBMON" |
| 433 | remote-es.c Ericsson 1800 monitor |
| 434 | remote-est.c EST emulator |
| 435 | remote-hms.c Hitachi Micro Systems H8/300 monitor |
| 436 | remote-mips.c MIPS remote debugging protocol |
| 437 | remote-mm.c AMD 29000 "minimon" |
| 438 | remote-nindy.c Intel 960 "Nindy" |
| 439 | remote-nrom.c NetROM ROM emulator |
| 440 | remote-os9k.c PC running OS/9000 |
| 441 | remote-rdi.c ARM with Angel monitor |
| 442 | remote-rdp.c ARM with Demon monitor |
| 443 | remote-sds.c PowerPC SDS monitor |
| 444 | remote-sim.c Generalized simulator protocol |
| 445 | remote-st.c Tandem ST-2000 monitor |
| 446 | remote-udi.c AMD 29000 using the AMD "Universal Debug Interface" |
| 447 | remote-vx.c VxWorks realtime kernel |
| 448 | |
| 449 | Remote-vx.c and the vx-share subdirectory contain a remote interface for the |
| 450 | VxWorks realtime kernel, which communicates over TCP using the Sun |
| 451 | RPC library. This would be a useful starting point for other remote- |
| 452 | via-ethernet back ends. |
| 453 | |
| 454 | Remote-udi.c and the 29k-share subdirectory contain a remote interface |
| 455 | for AMD 29000 programs, which uses the AMD "Universal Debug Interface". |
| 456 | This allows GDB to talk to software simulators, emulators, and/or bare |
| 457 | hardware boards, via network or serial interfaces. Note that GDB only |
| 458 | provides an interface that speaks UDI, not a complete solution. You |
| 459 | will need something on the other end that also speaks UDI. |
| 460 | |
| 461 | |
| 462 | Reporting Bugs |
| 463 | =============== |
| 464 | |
| 465 | The correct address for reporting bugs found in gdb is |
| 466 | "bug-gdb@gnu.org". Please email all bugs, and all requests for |
| 467 | help with GDB, to that address. Please include the GDB version number |
| 468 | (e.g., gdb-4.18), and how you configured it (e.g., "sun4" or "mach386 |
| 469 | host, i586-intel-synopsys target"). Since GDB now supports so many |
| 470 | different configurations, it is important that you be precise about this. |
| 471 | If at all possible, you should include the actual banner that GDB prints |
| 472 | when it starts up, or failing that, the actual configure command that |
| 473 | you used when configuring GDB. |
| 474 | |
| 475 | For more information on how/whether to report bugs, see the GDB Bugs |
| 476 | section of the GDB manual (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo). |
| 477 | |
| 478 | Known bugs: |
| 479 | |
| 480 | * Under Ultrix 4.2 (DECstation-3100) or Alphas under OSF/1, we have |
| 481 | seen problems with backtraces after interrupting the inferior out |
| 482 | of a read(). The problem is caused by ptrace() returning an |
| 483 | incorrect value for the frame pointer register (register 15 or |
| 484 | 30). As far as we can tell, this is a kernel problem. Any help |
| 485 | with this would be greatly appreciated. |
| 486 | |
| 487 | * Under Ultrix 4.4 (DECstation-3100), setting the TERMCAP environment |
| 488 | variable to a string without a trailing ':' can cause GDB to dump |
| 489 | core upon startup. Although the core file makes it look as though |
| 490 | GDB code failed, the crash actually occurs within a call to the |
| 491 | termcap library function tgetent(). The problem can be solved by |
| 492 | using the GNU Termcap library. |
| 493 | |
| 494 | Alphas running OSF/1 (versions 1.0 through 2.1) have the same buggy |
| 495 | termcap code, but GDB behaves strangely rather than crashing. |
| 496 | |
| 497 | * On DECstations there are warnings about shift counts out of range in |
| 498 | various BFD modules. None of them is a cause for alarm, they are actually |
| 499 | a result of bugs in the DECstation compiler. |
| 500 | |
| 501 | * Notes for the DEC Alpha using OSF/1: |
| 502 | The debugging output of native cc has two known problems; we view these |
| 503 | as compiler bugs. |
| 504 | The linker miscompacts symbol tables, which causes gdb to confuse the |
| 505 | type of variables or results in `struct <illegal>' type outputs. |
| 506 | dbx has the same problems with those executables. A workaround is to |
| 507 | specify -Wl,-b when linking, but that will increase the executable size |
| 508 | considerably. |
| 509 | If a structure has incomplete type in one file (e.g., "struct foo *" |
| 510 | without a definition for "struct foo"), gdb will be unable to find the |
| 511 | structure definition from another file. |
| 512 | It has been reported that the Ultrix 4.3A compiler on decstations has the |
| 513 | same problems. |
| 514 | |
| 515 | * Notes for Solaris 2.x, using the SPARCworks cc compiler: |
| 516 | You have to compile your program with the -xs option of the SPARCworks |
| 517 | compiler to be able to debug your program with gdb. |
| 518 | Under Solaris 2.3 you also need patch 101409-03 (Jumbo linker patch). |
| 519 | Under Solaris 2.2, if you have patch 101052 installed, make sure |
| 520 | that it is at least at revision 101052-06. |
| 521 | |
| 522 | * Under Irix 5 for SGIs, you must have installed the `compiler_dev.hdr' |
| 523 | subsystem that is on the IDO CD, otherwise you will get complaints |
| 524 | that certain files such as `/usr/include/syms.h' cannot be found. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | * Notes for BSD/386: |
| 527 | To compile gdb-4.18 on BSD/386, you must run the configure script and |
| 528 | its subscripts with bash. Here is an easy way to do this: |
| 529 | |
| 530 | bash -c 'CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash ./configure' |
| 531 | |
| 532 | (configure will report i386-unknown-bsd). Then, compile with the |
| 533 | standard "make" command. |
| 534 | |
| 535 | GDB can produce warnings about symbols that it does not understand. By |
| 536 | default, these warnings are disabled. You can enable them by executing |
| 537 | `set complaint 10' (which you can put in your ~/.gdbinit if you like). |
| 538 | I recommend doing this if you are working on a compiler, assembler, |
| 539 | linker, or GDB, since it will point out problems that you may be able |
| 540 | to fix. Warnings produced during symbol reading indicate some mismatch |
| 541 | between the object file and GDB's symbol reading code. In many cases, |
| 542 | it's a mismatch between the specs for the object file format, and what |
| 543 | the compiler actually outputs or the debugger actually understands. |
| 544 | |
| 545 | |
| 546 | X Windows versus GDB |
| 547 | ===================== |
| 548 | |
| 549 | You should check out DDD, the Data Display Debugger. Here's the blurb |
| 550 | from the DDD web site, http://www.cs.tu-bs.de/softech/ddd: |
| 551 | |
| 552 | The Data Display Debugger (DDD) is a popular graphical user |
| 553 | interface for command-line debuggers such as GDB, DBX, JDB, WDB, |
| 554 | XDB, the Perl debugger, and the Python debugger. Besides ``usual'' |
| 555 | front-end features such as viewing source texts, DDD has become |
| 556 | famous through its interactive graphical data display, where data |
| 557 | structures are displayed as graphs. A simple mouse click |
| 558 | dereferences pointers or views structure contents, updated each |
| 559 | time the program stops. Using DDD, you can reason about your |
| 560 | application by watching its data, not just by viewing it execute |
| 561 | lines of source code. |
| 562 | |
| 563 | Emacs users will very likely enjoy the Grand Unified Debugger mode; |
| 564 | try typing `M-x gdb RET'. |
| 565 | |
| 566 | Those interested in experimenting with a new kind of gdb-mode |
| 567 | should load gdb/gdba.el into GNU Emacs 19.25 or later. Comments |
| 568 | on this mode are also welcome. |
| 569 | |
| 570 | |
| 571 | Writing Code for GDB |
| 572 | ===================== |
| 573 | |
| 574 | There is a lot of information about writing code for GDB in the |
| 575 | internals manual, distributed with GDB in gdb/doc/gdbint.texinfo. You |
| 576 | can read it by hand, print it by using TeX and texinfo, or process it |
| 577 | into an `info' file for use with Emacs' info mode or the standalone |
| 578 | `info' program. |
| 579 | |
| 580 | If you are pondering writing anything but a short patch, especially |
| 581 | take note of the information about copyrights in the node Submitting |
| 582 | Patches. It can take quite a while to get all the paperwork done, so |
| 583 | we encourage you to start that process as soon as you decide you are |
| 584 | planning to work on something, or at least well ahead of when you |
| 585 | think you will be ready to submit the patches. |
| 586 | |
| 587 | |
| 588 | GDB Testsuite |
| 589 | ============= |
| 590 | |
| 591 | There is a DejaGNU based testsuite available for testing your newly |
| 592 | built GDB, or for regression testing GDBs with local modifications. |
| 593 | |
| 594 | Running the testsuite requires the prior installation of DejaGNU, |
| 595 | which is generally available via ftp; you'll need a pretty recent |
| 596 | release. Once DejaGNU is installed, you can run the tests in one of |
| 597 | two ways: |
| 598 | |
| 599 | (1) cd gdb-4.18/gdb (assuming you also unpacked gdb) |
| 600 | make check |
| 601 | |
| 602 | or |
| 603 | |
| 604 | (2) cd gdb-4.18/gdb/testsuite |
| 605 | make site.exp (builds the site specific file) |
| 606 | runtest -tool gdb GDB=../gdb (or GDB=<somepath> as appropriate) |
| 607 | |
| 608 | The second method gives you slightly more control in case of problems with |
| 609 | building one or more test executables or if you are using the testsuite |
| 610 | 'standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree. |
| 611 | |
| 612 | See the DejaGNU documentation for further details. |
| 613 | |
| 614 | \f |
| 615 | (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs) |
| 616 | Local Variables: |
| 617 | mode: text |
| 618 | End: |