gdb/gdbserver/README

   1                         README for GDBserver
   2                           by Stu Grossman
   3
   4 Introduction:
   5
   6 This is GDBserver, a remote server for Un*x-like systems.  It can be used to
   7 control the execution of a program on a target host from a GDB on a different
   8 host.  GDB and GDBserver communicate using the standard remote serial protocol
   9 implemented in remote.c, and various *-stub.c files.  They can communicate via
  10 either a serial line or a TCP connection.
  11
  12 Usage (server (target) side):
  13
  14 First, you will need to have a copy of the program to be debugged put onto
  15 the target system.  It can be stripped if you need to save space.  This is ok
  16 because GDBserver doesn't care about symbols, all of that stuff is taken care
  17 of by the GDB running on the host system.
  18
  19 To use the server, you will need to log on to the target system, and run the
  20 server program.  You will need to tell it how to communicate with GDB, the
  21 name of the program to be debugged, and it's arguments.  For example, using a
  22 serial port, you might say:
  23
  24         target> gdbserver /dev/com1 emacs foo.txt
  25
  26 This tells gdbserver to debug emacs with an argument of foo.txt.  The server
  27 will communicate with GDB via /dev/com1.  GDBserver will now wait patiently
  28 for GDB to communicate with it.
  29
  30 To use a TCP connection, you could say:
  31
  32         target> gdbserver host:2345 emacs foo.txt
  33
  34 This says pretty much the same thing as the last example, except that we are
  35 now going to communicate with GDB via TCP.  The `host:2345' argument means that
  36 we are expecting to see a TCP connection from `host' to local TCP port 2345.
  37 Currently, the host part is ignored.  You can choose any number you want for
  38 the port number as long as it does not conflict with any existing ports on your
  39 system.  This same port number will also be used in the GDB `target remote'
  40 command, which we will discuss later.  Note that it's safe to chose a number
  41 that conflicts, gdbserver will just print an error message and exit.
  42
  43 Usage (host side):
  44
  45 You should have a copy of the target program on your host system, since GDB
  46 will need it to examine symbol tables and such.  You should start up GDB just
  47 as you normally would, with the target program as the first argument.  Ie:
  48 `gdb target-prog'.  After that, you will only need to know about one new
  49 command.  This is `target remote'.  It's argument is either a device name
  50 (preferably of a serial device, like /dev/ttyb), or a host:port descriptor.
  51 For example:
  52
  53         (gdb) target remote /dev/ttyb
  54
  55 will communicate with the server via the hardware serial line /dev/ttyb, and:
  56
  57         (gdb) target remote the-target:2345
  58
  59 will communicate via a TCP connection to port 2345 on host `the-target', where
  60 you have already started up gdbserver with the same port number.  Note that you
  61 must start up gdbserver prior to using the target command, otherwise you will
  62 get an error that looks something like `Connection refused'.
  63
  64 Building:
  65
  66 Currently, the only target system supported by the server is Lynx.  To build
  67 the server for Lynx, make a new copy of the distribution onto a disk that is
  68 NFS shared with the Lynx system.  Lets say that's in a directory called xyzzy.
  69 Then, follow these steps under the host system:
  70
  71         1) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
  72         2) ../../configure --target i386-none-lynx
  73
  74 When that completes, do the following on the Lynx system:
  75
  76         3) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
  77         4) make CC=gcc
  78
  79 It should build with only a minor complaint about NULL being redefined.  That's
  80 a LynxOS problem, and can be ignored.
  81
  82 It's also possible that you may have a cross-compiler to Lynx.  In that case,
  83 you can skip the stuff about NFS.  You would replace steps 3 & 4 with:
  84
  85         make CC=lynx-target-compiler...