gdb/gdbserver/README

   1 This is a test line for tags testing.
   2
   3                         README for GDBserver
   4                           by Stu Grossman
   5
   6 Introduction:
   7
   8 This is GDBserver, a remote server for Un*x-like systems.  It can be used to
   9 control the execution of a program on a target system from a GDB on a different
  10 host.  GDB and GDBserver communicate using the standard remote serial protocol
  11 implemented in remote.c, and various *-stub.c files.  They communicate via
  12 either a serial line or a TCP connection.
  13
  14 Usage (server (target) side):
  15
  16 First, you need to have a copy of the program you want to debug put onto
  17 the target system.  The program can be stripped to save space if needed, as
  18 GDBserver doesn't care about symbols.  All symbol handling is taken care of by
  19 the GDB running on the host system.
  20
  21 To use the server, you log on to the target system, and run the `gdbserver'
  22 program.  You must tell it (a) how to communicate with GDB, (b) the name of
  23 your program, and (c) its arguments.  The general syntax is:
  24
  25         target> gdbserver COMM PROGRAM [ARGS ...]
  26
  27 For example, using a serial port, you might say:
  28
  29         target> gdbserver /dev/com1 emacs foo.txt
  30
  31 This tells gdbserver to debug emacs with an argument of foo.txt, and to
  32 communicate with GDB via /dev/com1.  Gdbserver now waits patiently for the
  33 host GDB to communicate with it.
  34
  35 To use a TCP connection, you could say:
  36
  37         target> gdbserver host:2345 emacs foo.txt
  38
  39 This says pretty much the same thing as the last example, except that we are
  40 going to communicate with the host GDB via TCP.  The `host:2345' argument means
  41 that we are expecting to see a TCP connection from `host' to local TCP port
  42 2345.  (Currently, the `host' part is ignored.)  You can choose any number you
  43 want for the port number as long as it does not conflict with any existing TCP
  44 ports on the target system.  This same port number must be used in the host
  45 GDBs `target remote' command, which will be described shortly.  Note that if
  46 you chose a port number that conflicts with another service, gdbserver will
  47 print an error message and exit.
  48
  49 Usage (host side):
  50
  51 You need an unstripped copy of the target program on your host system, since
  52 GDB needs to examine it's symbol tables and such.  Start up GDB as you normally
  53 would, with the target program as the first argument.  (You may need to use the
  54 --baud option if the serial line is running at anything except 9600 baud.)
  55 Ie: `gdb TARGET-PROG', or `gdb --baud BAUD TARGET-PROG'.  After that, the only
  56 new command you need to know about is `target remote'.  It's argument is either
  57 a device name (usually a serial device, like `/dev/ttyb'), or a HOST:PORT
  58 descriptor.  For example:
  59
  60         (gdb) target remote /dev/ttyb
  61
  62 communicates with the server via serial line /dev/ttyb, and:
  63
  64         (gdb) target remote the-target:2345
  65
  66 communicates via a TCP connection to port 2345 on host `the-target', where
  67 you previously started up gdbserver with the same port number.  Note that for
  68 TCP connections, you must start up gdbserver prior to using the `target remote'
  69 command, otherwise you may get an error that looks something like
  70 `Connection refused'.
  71
  72 Building:
  73
  74 Currently, the only target system supported by the server is Lynx.  To build
  75 the server for Lynx, make a new copy of the distribution onto a disk that is
  76 NFS shared with the Lynx system.  Lets say that's in a directory called xyzzy.
  77 Then, follow these steps under the host system:
  78
  79         1) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
  80         2) ../../configure --target i386-none-lynx
  81
  82 When that completes, do the following on the Lynx system:
  83
  84         3) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
  85         4) make CC=gcc
  86
  87 It should build with only a minor complaint about NULL being redefined.  That's
  88 a LynxOS problem, and can be ignored.
  89
  90 It's also possible that you may have a cross-compiler to Lynx.  In that case,
  91 you can skip the stuff about NFS.  You would replace steps 3 & 4 with:
  92
  93         make CC=lynx-target-compiler...