| 1 | README for gdb-4.13 release |
| 2 | Updated 8-Aug-94 by Fred Fish |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This is GDB, the GNU source-level debugger, presently running under un*x. |
| 5 | A summary of new features is in the file `NEWS'. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview |
| 9 | ========================== |
| 10 | |
| 11 | In this release, the GDB debugger sources, the generic GNU include |
| 12 | files, the BFD ("binary file description") library, the readline |
| 13 | library, and other libraries all have directories of their own |
| 14 | underneath the gdb-4.13 directory. The idea is that a variety of GNU |
| 15 | tools can share a common copy of these things. Be aware of variation |
| 16 | over time--for example don't try to build gdb with a copy of bfd from |
| 17 | a release other than the gdb release (such as a binutils or gas |
| 18 | release), especially if the releases are more than a few weeks apart. |
| 19 | Configuration scripts and makefiles exist to cruise up and down this |
| 20 | directory tree and automatically build all the pieces in the right |
| 21 | order. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | When you unpack the gdb-4.13.tar.gz file, you'll find a directory |
| 24 | called `gdb-4.13', which contains: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Makefile.in config.sub* glob/ opcodes/ |
| 27 | README configure* include/ readline/ |
| 28 | bfd/ configure.in libiberty/ texinfo/ |
| 29 | config/ etc/ mmalloc/ |
| 30 | config.guess* gdb/ move-if-change* |
| 31 | |
| 32 | To build GDB, you can just do: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | cd gdb-4.13 |
| 35 | ./configure |
| 36 | make |
| 37 | cp gdb/gdb /usr/local/bin/gdb (or wherever you want) |
| 38 | |
| 39 | This will configure and build all the libraries as well as GDB. |
| 40 | If `configure' can't determine your system type, specify one as its |
| 41 | argument, e.g. sun4 or decstation. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | If you get compiler warnings during this stage, see the `Reporting Bugs' |
| 44 | section below; there are a few known problems. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | GDB can be used as a cross-debugger, running on a machine of one type |
| 47 | while debugging a program running on a machine of another type. See below. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | |
| 50 | More Documentation |
| 51 | ****************** |
| 52 | |
| 53 | The GDB 4 release includes an already-formatted reference card, |
| 54 | ready for printing with PostScript or Ghostscript, in the `gdb' |
| 55 | subdirectory of the main source directory. (In `gdb-4.13/gdb/refcard.ps'.) |
| 56 | If you can use PostScript or Ghostscript with your printer, you can |
| 57 | print the reference card immediately with `refcard.ps'. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | The release also includes the source for the reference card. You |
| 60 | can format it, using TeX, by typing: |
| 61 | |
| 62 | make refcard.dvi |
| 63 | |
| 64 | The GDB reference card is designed to print in landscape mode on US |
| 65 | "letter" size paper; that is, on a sheet 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches |
| 66 | high. You will need to specify this form of printing as an option to |
| 67 | your DVI output program. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | All the documentation for GDB comes as part of the machine-readable |
| 70 | distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is |
| 71 | a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both |
| 72 | on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info |
| 73 | formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation |
| 74 | and TeX (or `texi2roff') to typeset the printed version. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | GDB includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version of |
| 77 | this manual in the `gdb' subdirectory. The main Info file is |
| 78 | `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER/gdb/gdb.info', and it refers to subordinate files |
| 79 | matching `gdb.info*' in the same directory. If necessary, you can |
| 80 | print out these files, or read them with any editor; but they are |
| 81 | easier to read using the `info' subsystem in GNU Emacs or the |
| 82 | standalone `info' program, available as part of the GNU Texinfo |
| 83 | distribution. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the |
| 86 | Info formatting programs, such as `texinfo-format-buffer' or `makeinfo'. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | If you have `makeinfo' installed, and are in the top level GDB |
| 89 | source directory (`gdb-4.13', in the case of version 4.13), you can make |
| 90 | the Info file by typing: |
| 91 | |
| 92 | cd gdb |
| 93 | make gdb.info |
| 94 | |
| 95 | If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need TeX, |
| 96 | a program to print its DVI output files, and `texinfo.tex', the Texinfo |
| 97 | definitions file. |
| 98 | |
| 99 | TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but |
| 100 | produces output files called DVI files. To print a typeset document, |
| 101 | you need a program to print DVI files. If your system has TeX |
| 102 | installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to |
| 103 | use depends on your system; `lpr -d' is common; another (for PostScript |
| 104 | devices) is `dvips'. The DVI print command may require a file name |
| 105 | without any extension or a `.dvi' extension. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | TeX also requires a macro definitions file called `texinfo.tex'. |
| 108 | This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo |
| 109 | format. On its own, TeX cannot read, much less typeset a Texinfo file. |
| 110 | `texinfo.tex' is distributed with GDB and is located in the |
| 111 | `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER/texinfo' directory. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | If you have TeX and a DVI printer program installed, you can typeset |
| 114 | and print this manual. First switch to the the `gdb' subdirectory of |
| 115 | the main source directory (for example, to `gdb-4.13/gdb') and then type: |
| 116 | |
| 117 | make gdb.dvi |
| 118 | |
| 119 | |
| 120 | Installing GDB |
| 121 | ************** |
| 122 | |
| 123 | GDB comes with a `configure' script that automates the process of |
| 124 | preparing GDB for installation; you can then use `make' to build the |
| 125 | `gdb' program. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for GDB in |
| 128 | a single directory, whose name is usually composed by appending the |
| 129 | version number to `gdb'. |
| 130 | |
| 131 | For example, the GDB version 4.13 distribution is in the `gdb-4.13' |
| 132 | directory. That directory contains: |
| 133 | |
| 134 | `gdb-4.13/configure (and supporting files)' |
| 135 | script for configuring GDB and all its supporting libraries. |
| 136 | |
| 137 | `gdb-4.13/gdb' |
| 138 | the source specific to GDB itself |
| 139 | |
| 140 | `gdb-4.13/bfd' |
| 141 | source for the Binary File Descriptor library |
| 142 | |
| 143 | `gdb-4.13/include' |
| 144 | GNU include files |
| 145 | |
| 146 | `gdb-4.13/libiberty' |
| 147 | source for the `-liberty' free software library |
| 148 | |
| 149 | `gdb-4.13/opcodes' |
| 150 | source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers |
| 151 | |
| 152 | `gdb-4.13/readline' |
| 153 | source for the GNU command-line interface |
| 154 | |
| 155 | `gdb-4.13/glob' |
| 156 | source for the GNU filename pattern-matching subroutine |
| 157 | |
| 158 | `gdb-4.13/mmalloc' |
| 159 | source for the GNU memory-mapped malloc package |
| 160 | |
| 161 | 'gdb-4.13/sim' |
| 162 | source for some simulators (z8000, H8/300, H8/500, etc) |
| 163 | |
| 164 | The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run `configure' |
| 165 | from the `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER' source directory, which in this example |
| 166 | is the `gdb-4.13' directory. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | First switch to the `gdb-VERSION-NUMBER' source directory if you are |
| 169 | not already in it; then run `configure'. Pass the identifier for the |
| 170 | platform on which GDB will run as an argument. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | For example: |
| 173 | |
| 174 | cd gdb-4.13 |
| 175 | ./configure HOST |
| 176 | make |
| 177 | |
| 178 | where HOST is an identifier such as `sun4' or `decstation', that |
| 179 | identifies the platform where GDB will run. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | Running `configure HOST' followed by `make' builds the `bfd', |
| 182 | `readline', `mmalloc', and `libiberty' libraries, then `gdb' itself. |
| 183 | The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the |
| 184 | corresponding source directories. |
| 185 | |
| 186 | `configure' is a Bourne-shell (`/bin/sh') script; if your system |
| 187 | does not recognize this automatically when you run a different shell, |
| 188 | you may need to run `sh' on it explicitly: |
| 189 | |
| 190 | sh configure HOST |
| 191 | |
| 192 | If you run `configure' from a directory that contains source |
| 193 | directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the `gdb-4.13' |
| 194 | source directory for version 4.13, `configure' creates configuration |
| 195 | files for every directory level underneath (unless you tell it not to, |
| 196 | with the `--norecursion' option). |
| 197 | |
| 198 | You can run the `configure' script from any of the subordinate |
| 199 | directories in the GDB distribution, if you only want to configure that |
| 200 | subdirectory; but be sure to specify a path to it. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | For example, with version 4.13, type the following to configure only |
| 203 | the `bfd' subdirectory: |
| 204 | |
| 205 | cd gdb-4.13/bfd |
| 206 | ../configure HOST |
| 207 | |
| 208 | You can install `gdb' anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, |
| 209 | you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the `SHELL' |
| 210 | environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that GDB uses the |
| 211 | shell to start your program--some systems refuse to let GDB debug child |
| 212 | processes whose programs are not readable. |
| 213 | |
| 214 | |
| 215 | Compiling GDB in another directory |
| 216 | ================================== |
| 217 | |
| 218 | If you want to run GDB versions for several host or target machines, |
| 219 | you need a different `gdb' compiled for each combination of host and |
| 220 | target. `configure' is designed to make this easy by allowing you to |
| 221 | generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in |
| 222 | the source directory. If your `make' program handles the `VPATH' |
| 223 | feature correctly (GNU `make' and SunOS 'make' are two that should), |
| 224 | running `make' in each of these directories builds the `gdb' program |
| 225 | specified there. |
| 226 | |
| 227 | To build `gdb' in a separate directory, run `configure' with the |
| 228 | `--srcdir' option to specify where to find the source. (You also need |
| 229 | to specify a path to find `configure' itself from your working |
| 230 | directory. If the path to `configure' would be the same as the |
| 231 | argument to `--srcdir', you can leave out the `--srcdir' option; it |
| 232 | will be assumed.) |
| 233 | |
| 234 | For example, with version 4.13, you can build GDB in a separate |
| 235 | directory for a Sun 4 like this: |
| 236 | |
| 237 | cd gdb-4.13 |
| 238 | mkdir ../gdb-sun4 |
| 239 | cd ../gdb-sun4 |
| 240 | ../gdb-4.13/configure sun4 |
| 241 | make |
| 242 | |
| 243 | When `configure' builds a configuration using a remote source |
| 244 | directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure |
| 245 | (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In |
| 246 | the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library `libiberty.a' in the |
| 247 | directory `gdb-sun4/libiberty', and GDB itself in `gdb-sun4/gdb'. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | One popular reason to build several GDB configurations in separate |
| 250 | directories is to configure GDB for cross-compiling (where GDB runs on |
| 251 | one machine--the host--while debugging programs that run on another |
| 252 | machine--the target). You specify a cross-debugging target by giving |
| 253 | the `--target=TARGET' option to `configure'. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | When you run `make' to build a program or library, you must run it |
| 256 | in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you |
| 257 | called `configure' (or one of its subdirectories). |
| 258 | |
| 259 | The `Makefile' that `configure' generates in each source directory |
| 260 | also runs recursively. If you type `make' in a source directory such |
| 261 | as `gdb-4.13' (or in a separate configured directory configured with |
| 262 | `--srcdir=PATH/gdb-4.13'), you will build all the required libraries, |
| 263 | and then build GDB. |
| 264 | |
| 265 | When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate |
| 266 | directories, you can run `make' on them in parallel (for example, if |
| 267 | they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere |
| 268 | with each other. |
| 269 | |
| 270 | |
| 271 | Specifying names for hosts and targets |
| 272 | ====================================== |
| 273 | |
| 274 | The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure' |
| 275 | script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short |
| 276 | predefined aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes |
| 277 | three pieces of information in the following pattern: |
| 278 | |
| 279 | ARCHITECTURE-VENDOR-OS |
| 280 | |
| 281 | For example, you can use the alias `sun4' as a HOST argument or in a |
| 282 | `--target=TARGET' option. The equivalent full name is |
| 283 | `sparc-sun-sunos4'. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | The `configure' script accompanying GDB does not provide any query |
| 286 | facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. |
| 287 | `configure' calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub' to map |
| 288 | abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or |
| 289 | you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example: |
| 290 | |
| 291 | % sh config.sub sun4 |
| 292 | sparc-sun-sunos411 |
| 293 | % sh config.sub sun3 |
| 294 | m68k-sun-sunos411 |
| 295 | % sh config.sub decstation |
| 296 | mips-dec-ultrix42 |
| 297 | % sh config.sub hp300bsd |
| 298 | m68k-hp-bsd |
| 299 | % sh config.sub i386v |
| 300 | i386-unknown-sysv |
| 301 | % sh config.sub i786v |
| 302 | Invalid configuration `i786v': machine `i786v' not recognized |
| 303 | |
| 304 | `config.sub' is also distributed in the GDB source directory |
| 305 | (`gdb-4.13', for version 4.13). |
| 306 | |
| 307 | |
| 308 | `configure' options |
| 309 | =================== |
| 310 | |
| 311 | Here is a summary of the `configure' options and arguments that are |
| 312 | most often useful for building GDB. `configure' also has several other |
| 313 | options not listed here. *note : (configure.info)What Configure Does, |
| 314 | for a full explanation of `configure'. |
| 315 | |
| 316 | configure [--help] |
| 317 | [--prefix=DIR] |
| 318 | [--srcdir=PATH] |
| 319 | [--norecursion] [--rm] |
| 320 | [--target=TARGET] HOST |
| 321 | |
| 322 | You may introduce options with a single `-' rather than `--' if you |
| 323 | prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use `--'. |
| 324 | |
| 325 | `--help' |
| 326 | Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure'. |
| 327 | |
| 328 | `-prefix=DIR' |
| 329 | Configure the source to install programs and files under directory |
| 330 | `DIR'. |
| 331 | |
| 332 | `--srcdir=PATH' |
| 333 | *Warning: using this option requires GNU `make', or another `make' |
| 334 | that compatibly implements the `VPATH' feature.* |
| 335 | Use this option to make configurations in directories separate |
| 336 | from the GDB source directories. Among other things, you can use |
| 337 | this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, |
| 338 | in separate directories. `configure' writes configuration |
| 339 | specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to |
| 340 | use the source in the directory PATH. `configure' will create |
| 341 | directories under the working directory in parallel to the source |
| 342 | directories below PATH. |
| 343 | |
| 344 | `--norecursion' |
| 345 | Configure only the directory level where `configure' is executed; |
| 346 | do not propagate configuration to subdirectories. |
| 347 | |
| 348 | `--rm' |
| 349 | Remove the configuration that the other arguments specify. |
| 350 | |
| 351 | `--target=TARGET' |
| 352 | Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the specified |
| 353 | TARGET. Without this option, GDB is configured to debug programs |
| 354 | that run on the same machine (HOST) as GDB itself. |
| 355 | |
| 356 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 357 | targets. |
| 358 | |
| 359 | `HOST ...' |
| 360 | Configure GDB to run on the specified HOST. |
| 361 | |
| 362 | There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available |
| 363 | hosts. |
| 364 | |
| 365 | `configure' accepts other options, for compatibility with configuring |
| 366 | other GNU tools recursively; but these are the only options that affect |
| 367 | GDB or its supporting libraries. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | |
| 370 | Languages other than C |
| 371 | ======================= |
| 372 | |
| 373 | See the GDB manual (doc/gdb.texinfo) for information on this. |
| 374 | |
| 375 | Kernel debugging |
| 376 | ================= |
| 377 | |
| 378 | I have't done this myself so I can't really offer any advice. |
| 379 | Remote debugging over serial lines works fine, but the kernel debugging |
| 380 | code in here has not been tested in years. Van Jacobson has |
| 381 | better kernel debugging, but the UC lawyers won't let FSF have it. |
| 382 | |
| 383 | |
| 384 | Remote debugging |
| 385 | ================= |
| 386 | |
| 387 | The files m68k-stub.c, i386-stub.c, and sparc-stub.c are examples of |
| 388 | remote stubs to be used with remote.c. They are designed to run |
| 389 | standalone on an m68k, i386, or SPARC cpu and communicate properly with |
| 390 | the remote.c stub over a serial line. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | The file rem-multi.shar contains a general stub that can probably |
| 393 | run on various different flavors of unix to allow debugging over a |
| 394 | serial line from one machine to another. |
| 395 | |
| 396 | Some working remote interfaces for talking to existing ROM monitors |
| 397 | are: |
| 398 | remote-adapt.c AMD 29000 "Adapt" |
| 399 | remote-eb.c AMD 29000 "EBMON" |
| 400 | remote-es1800.c Ericsson 1800 monitor |
| 401 | remote-hms.c Hitachi Micro Systems H8/300 monitor |
| 402 | remote-mips.c MIPS remote debugging protocol |
| 403 | remote-mm.c AMD 29000 "minimon" |
| 404 | remote-nindy.c Intel 960 "Nindy" |
| 405 | remote-sim.c Generalized simulator protocol |
| 406 | remote-st2000.c Tandem ST-2000 monitor |
| 407 | remote-udi.c AMD 29000 using the AMD "Universal Debug Interface" |
| 408 | remote-vx.c VxWorks realtime kernel |
| 409 | remote-z8k.c Zilog Z8000 simulator |
| 410 | |
| 411 | Remote-vx.c and the vx-share subdirectory contain a remote interface for the |
| 412 | VxWorks realtime kernel, which communicates over TCP using the Sun |
| 413 | RPC library. This would be a useful starting point for other remote- |
| 414 | via-ethernet back ends. |
| 415 | |
| 416 | Remote-udi.c and the 29k-share subdirectory contain a remote interface |
| 417 | for AMD 29000 programs, which uses the AMD "Universal Debug Interface". |
| 418 | This allows GDB to talk to software simulators, emulators, and/or bare |
| 419 | hardware boards, via network or serial interfaces. Note that GDB only |
| 420 | provides an interface that speaks UDI, not a complete solution. You |
| 421 | will need something on the other end that also speaks UDI. |
| 422 | |
| 423 | |
| 424 | Reporting Bugs |
| 425 | =============== |
| 426 | |
| 427 | The correct address for reporting bugs found in gdb is |
| 428 | "bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu". Please email all bugs, and all requests for |
| 429 | help with GDB, to that address. Please include the GDB version number |
| 430 | (e.g. gdb-4.13), and how you configured it (e.g. "sun4" or "mach386 |
| 431 | host, i586-intel-synopsys target"). If you include the banner that GDB |
| 432 | prints when it starts up, that will give us enough information. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | For more information on how/whether to report bugs, see the GDB Bugs |
| 435 | section of the GDB manual (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo). |
| 436 | |
| 437 | Known bugs: |
| 438 | |
| 439 | * Under Ultrix 4.2 (DECstation-3100) or Alphas under OSF/1, we have |
| 440 | seen problems with backtraces after interrupting the inferior out |
| 441 | of a read(). The problem is caused by ptrace() returning an |
| 442 | incorrect value for the frame pointer register (register 15 or |
| 443 | 30). As far as we can tell, this is a kernel problem. Any help |
| 444 | with this would be greatly appreciated. |
| 445 | |
| 446 | * On DECstations there are warnings about shift counts out of range in |
| 447 | various BFD modules. None of them is a cause for alarm, they are actually |
| 448 | a result of bugs in the DECstation compiler. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | * Notes for the DEC Alpha using OSF/1: |
| 451 | The debugging output of native cc has two known problems; we view these |
| 452 | as compiler bugs. |
| 453 | The linker miscompacts symbol tables, which causes gdb to confuse the |
| 454 | type of variables or results in `struct <illegal>' type outputs. |
| 455 | dbx has the same problems with those executables. A workaround is to |
| 456 | specify -Wl,-b when linking, but that will increase the executable size |
| 457 | considerably. |
| 458 | If a structure has incomplete type in one file (e.g. "struct foo *" |
| 459 | without a definition for "struct foo"), gdb will be unable to find the |
| 460 | structure definition from another file. |
| 461 | It has been reported that the Ultrix 4.3A compiler on decstations has the |
| 462 | same problems. |
| 463 | |
| 464 | Under some circumstances OSF/1 shared libraries do get relocated to a |
| 465 | different address, but gdb cannot handle these relocations yet. If you |
| 466 | encounter problems while debugging executables which use shared libraries, |
| 467 | try to relink your executable with the -non_shared option when using cc |
| 468 | or with the -static option when using gcc. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | * Notes for Solaris 2.x, using the SPARCworks cc compiler: |
| 471 | You have to compile your program with the -xs option of the SPARCworks |
| 472 | compiler to be able to debug your program with gdb. |
| 473 | Under Solaris 2.3 you also need patch 101409-03 (Jumbo linker patch). |
| 474 | Under Solaris 2.2, if you have patch 101052 installed, make sure |
| 475 | that it is at least at revision 101052-06. |
| 476 | |
| 477 | * Notes for BSD/386: |
| 478 | To compile gdb-4.13 on BSD/386, you must run the configure script and |
| 479 | its subscripts with bash. Here is an easy way to do this: |
| 480 | |
| 481 | bash -c 'CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash ./configure' |
| 482 | |
| 483 | (configure will report i386-unknown-bsd). Then, compile with the |
| 484 | standard "make" command. |
| 485 | |
| 486 | GDB can produce warnings about symbols that it does not understand. By |
| 487 | default, these warnings are disabled. You can enable them by executing |
| 488 | `set complaint 10' (which you can put in your ~/.gdbinit if you like). |
| 489 | I recommend doing this if you are working on a compiler, assembler, |
| 490 | linker, or gdb, since it will point out problems that you may be able |
| 491 | to fix. Warnings produced during symbol reading indicate some mismatch |
| 492 | between the object file and GDB's symbol reading code. In many cases, |
| 493 | it's a mismatch between the specs for the object file format, and what |
| 494 | the compiler actually outputs or the debugger actually understands. |
| 495 | |
| 496 | |
| 497 | X Windows versus GDB |
| 498 | ===================== |
| 499 | |
| 500 | There is an "xxgdb", which seems to work for simple operations, |
| 501 | which was posted to comp.sources.x. |
| 502 | |
| 503 | For those interested in auto display of source and the availability of |
| 504 | an editor while debugging I suggest trying gdb-mode in gnu-emacs |
| 505 | (Try typing M-x gdb RETURN). Comments on this mode are welcome. |
| 506 | |
| 507 | |
| 508 | Writing Code for GDB |
| 509 | ===================== |
| 510 | |
| 511 | There is a lot of information about writing code for GDB in the |
| 512 | internals manual, distributed with GDB in gdb/doc/gdbint.texinfo. You |
| 513 | can read it by hand, print it by using TeX and texinfo, or process it |
| 514 | into an `info' file for use with Emacs' info mode or the standalone |
| 515 | `info' program. In particular, see the nodes Getting Started, |
| 516 | Debugging GDB, New Architectures, Coding Style, Clean Design, and |
| 517 | Submitting Patches. |
| 518 | |
| 519 | If you are pondering writing anything but a short patch, especially |
| 520 | take note of the information about copyrights in the node Submitting |
| 521 | Patches. It can take quite a while to get all the paperwork done, so |
| 522 | we encourage you to start that process as soon as you decide you are |
| 523 | planning to work on something, or at least well ahead of when you |
| 524 | think you will be ready to submit the patches. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | |
| 527 | GDB Testsuite |
| 528 | ============= |
| 529 | |
| 530 | There is a dejagnu based testsuite available for testing your newly |
| 531 | built GDB, or for regression testing GDBs with local modifications. |
| 532 | The testsuite is distributed separately from the base GDB distribution |
| 533 | for the convenience of people that wish to get either GDB or the testsuite |
| 534 | separately. |
| 535 | |
| 536 | The name of the testsuite is gdb-4.13-testsuite.tar.gz. You unpack it in the |
| 537 | same directory in which you unpacked the base GDB distribution, and it |
| 538 | will create and populate the directory gdb-4.13/gdb/testsuite. |
| 539 | |
| 540 | Running the testsuite requires the prior installation of dejagnu, which |
| 541 | should be available via ftp. Once dejagnu is installed, you can run |
| 542 | the tests in one of two ways: |
| 543 | |
| 544 | (1) cd gdb-4.13/gdb (assuming you also unpacked gdb) |
| 545 | make check |
| 546 | |
| 547 | or |
| 548 | |
| 549 | (2) cd gdb-4.13/gdb/testsuite |
| 550 | make (builds the test executables) |
| 551 | make site.exp (builds the site specific file) |
| 552 | runtest -tool gdb GDB=../gdb (or GDB=<somepath> as appropriate) |
| 553 | |
| 554 | The second method gives you slightly more control in case of problems with |
| 555 | building one or more test executables, in case you wish to remove some |
| 556 | test executables before running the tests, or if you are using the testsuite |
| 557 | 'standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree. |
| 558 | |
| 559 | See the dejagnu documentation for further details. |
| 560 | |
| 561 | \f |
| 562 | (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs) |
| 563 | Local Variables: |
| 564 | mode: text |
| 565 | End: |