gdb/README

   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 GDB's bug tracking data base can be found at
  11 http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/
  12
  13 Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview
  14 ==========================
  15
  16    The release is provided as a gzipped tar file called
  17 'gdb-VERSION.tar.gz', where VERSION is the version of GDB.
  18
  19    The GDB debugger sources, the generic GNU include
  20 files, the BFD ("binary file description") library, the readline
  21 library, and other libraries all have directories of their own
  22 underneath the gdb-VERSION directory.  The idea is that a variety of GNU
  23 tools can share a common copy of these things.  Be aware of variation
  24 over time--for example don't try to build GDB with a copy of bfd from
  25 a release other than the GDB release (such as a binutils release),
  26 especially if the releases are more than a few weeks apart.
  27 Configuration scripts and makefiles exist to cruise up and down this
  28 directory tree and automatically build all the pieces in the right
  29 order.
  30
  31    When you unpack the gdb-VERSION.tar.gz file, it will create a
  32 source directory called `gdb-VERSION'.
  33
  34 You can build GDB right in the source directory:
  35
  36       cd gdb-VERSION
  37       ./configure --prefix=/usr/local   (or wherever you want)
  38       make all install
  39
  40 However, we recommend that an empty directory be used instead.
  41 This way you do not clutter your source tree with binary files
  42 and will be able to create different builds with different
  43 configuration options.
  44
  45 You can build GDB in any empty build directory:
  46
  47       mkdir build
  48       cd build
  49       <full path to your sources>/gdb-VERSION/configure [etc...]
  50       make all install
  51
  52 (Building GDB with DJGPP tools for MS-DOS/MS-Windows is slightly
  53 different; see the file gdb-VERSION/gdb/config/djgpp/README for details.)
  54
  55    This will configure and build all the libraries as well as GDB.  If
  56 `configure' can't determine your system type, specify one as its
  57 argument, e.g., `./configure sun4' or `./configure decstation'.
  58
  59    Make sure that your 'configure' line ends in 'gdb-VERSION/configure':
  60
  61       /berman/migchain/source/gdb-VERSION/configure      # RIGHT
  62       /berman/migchain/source/gdb-VERSION/gdb/configure  # WRONG
  63
  64    The GDB package contains several subdirectories, such as 'gdb',
  65 'bfd', and 'readline'.  If your 'configure' line ends in
  66 'gdb-VERSION/gdb/configure', then you are configuring only the gdb
  67 subdirectory, not the whole GDB package.  This leads to build errors
  68 such as:
  69
  70       make: *** No rule to make target `../bfd/bfd.h', needed by `gdb.o'.  Stop.
  71
  72    If you get other compiler errors during this stage, see the `Reporting
  73 Bugs' section below; there are a few known problems.
  74
  75    GDB's `configure' script has many options to enable or disable
  76 different features or dependencies.  These options are not generally
  77 known to the top-level `configure', so if you want to see a complete
  78 list of options, invoke the subdirectory `configure', like:
  79
  80       /berman/migchain/source/gdb-VERSION/gdb/configure --help
  81
  82    (Take note of how this differs from the invocation used to actually
  83 configure the build tree.)
  84
  85    GDB requires a C++11 compiler.  If you do not have a
  86 C++11 compiler for your system, you may be able to download and install
  87 the GNU CC compiler.  It is available via anonymous FTP from the
  88 directory `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gcc'.  GDB also requires an ISO
  89 C standard library.  The GDB remote server, GDBserver, builds with some
  90 non-ISO standard libraries - e.g. for Windows CE.
  91
  92    GDB can optionally be built against various external libraries.
  93 These dependencies are described below in the "`configure options"
  94 section of this README.
  95
  96    GDB can be used as a cross-debugger, running on a machine of one
  97 type while debugging a program running on a machine of another type.
  98 See below.
  99
 100
 101 More Documentation
 102 ******************
 103
 104    All the documentation for GDB comes as part of the machine-readable
 105 distribution.  The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which
 106 is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce
 107 both on-line information and a printed manual.  You can use one of the
 108 Info formatting commands to create the on-line version of the
 109 documentation and TeX (or `texi2roff') to typeset the printed version.
 110
 111    GDB includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version
 112 of this manual in the `gdb/doc' subdirectory.  The main Info file is
 113 `gdb-VERSION/gdb/doc/gdb.info', and it refers to subordinate files
 114 matching `gdb.info*' in the same directory.  If necessary, you can
 115 print out these files, or read them with any editor; but they are
 116 easier to read using the `info' subsystem in GNU Emacs or the
 117 standalone `info' program, available as part of the GNU Texinfo
 118 distribution.
 119
 120    If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the
 121 Info formatting programs, such as `texinfo-format-buffer' or
 122 `makeinfo'.
 123
 124    If you have `makeinfo' installed, and are in the top level GDB
 125 source directory (`gdb-VERSION'), you can make the Info file by
 126 typing:
 127
 128       cd gdb/doc
 129       make info
 130
 131    If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need
 132 TeX, a program to print its DVI output files, and `texinfo.tex', the
 133 Texinfo definitions file.  This file is included in the GDB
 134 distribution, in the directory `gdb-VERSION/texinfo'.
 135
 136    TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but
 137 produces output files called DVI files.  To print a typeset document,
 138 you need a program to print DVI files.  If your system has TeX
 139 installed, chances are it has such a program.  The precise command to
 140 use depends on your system; `lpr -d' is common; another (for PostScript
 141 devices) is `dvips'.  The DVI print command may require a file name
 142 without any extension or a `.dvi' extension.
 143
 144    TeX also requires a macro definitions file called `texinfo.tex'.
 145 This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo
 146 format.  On its own, TeX cannot read, much less typeset a Texinfo file.
 147  `texinfo.tex' is distributed with GDB and is located in the
 148 `gdb-VERSION/texinfo' directory.
 149
 150    If you have TeX and a DVI printer program installed, you can typeset
 151 and print this manual.  First switch to the `gdb' subdirectory of
 152 the main source directory (for example, to `gdb-VERSION/gdb') and then type:
 153
 154       make doc/gdb.dvi
 155
 156    If you prefer to have the manual in PDF format, type this from the
 157 `gdb/doc' subdirectory of the main source directory:
 158
 159       make gdb.pdf
 160
 161 For this to work, you will need the PDFTeX package to be installed.
 162
 163
 164 Installing GDB
 165 **************
 166
 167    GDB comes with a `configure' script that automates the process of
 168 preparing GDB for installation; you can then use `make' to build the
 169 `gdb' program.
 170
 171    The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for GDB in
 172 a single directory.  That directory contains:
 173
 174 `gdb-VERSION/{COPYING,COPYING.LIB}'
 175      Standard GNU license files.  Please read them.
 176
 177 `gdb-VERSION/bfd'
 178      source for the Binary File Descriptor library
 179
 180 `gdb-VERSION/config*'
 181      script for configuring GDB, along with other support files
 182
 183 `gdb-VERSION/gdb'
 184      the source specific to GDB itself
 185
 186 `gdb-VERSION/include'
 187      GNU include files
 188
 189 `gdb-VERSION/libiberty'
 190      source for the `-liberty' free software library
 191
 192 `gdb-VERSION/opcodes'
 193      source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers
 194
 195 `gdb-VERSION/readline'
 196      source for the GNU command-line interface
 197      NOTE:  The readline library is compiled for use by GDB, but will
 198      not be installed on your system when "make install" is issued.
 199
 200 `gdb-VERSION/sim'
 201      source for some simulators (ARM, D10V, SPARC, M32R, MIPS, PPC, V850, etc)
 202
 203 `gdb-VERSION/texinfo'
 204      The `texinfo.tex' file, which you need in order to make a printed
 205      manual using TeX.
 206
 207 `gdb-VERSION/etc'
 208      Coding standards, useful files for editing GDB, and other
 209      miscellanea.
 210
 211    Note: the following instructions are for building GDB on Unix or
 212 Unix-like systems.  Instructions for building with DJGPP for
 213 MS-DOS/MS-Windows are in the file gdb/config/djgpp/README.
 214
 215    The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run `configure'
 216 from the `gdb-VERSION' directory.
 217
 218    First switch to the `gdb-VERSION' source directory if you are
 219 not already in it; then run `configure'.
 220
 221    For example:
 222
 223       cd gdb-VERSION
 224       ./configure
 225       make
 226
 227    Running `configure' followed by `make' builds the `bfd',
 228 `readline', `mmalloc', and `libiberty' libraries, then `gdb' itself.
 229 The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the
 230 corresponding source directories.
 231
 232    `configure' is a Bourne-shell (`/bin/sh') script; if your system
 233 does not recognize this automatically when you run a different shell,
 234 you may need to run `sh' on it explicitly:
 235
 236       sh configure
 237
 238    If you run `configure' from a directory that contains source
 239 directories for multiple libraries or programs, `configure' creates
 240 configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless
 241 you tell it not to, with the `--norecursion' option).
 242
 243    You can install `gdb' anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However,
 244 you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the `SHELL'
 245 environment variable) is publicly readable.  Remember that GDB uses the
 246 shell to start your program--some systems refuse to let GDB debug child
 247 processes whose programs are not readable.
 248
 249
 250 Compiling GDB in another directory
 251 ==================================
 252
 253    If you want to run GDB versions for several host or target machines,
 254 you need a different `gdb' compiled for each combination of host and
 255 target.  `configure' is designed to make this easy by allowing you to
 256 generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in
 257 the source directory.  If your `make' program handles the `VPATH'
 258 feature correctly (GNU `make' and SunOS 'make' are two that should),
 259 running `make' in each of these directories builds the `gdb' program
 260 specified there.
 261
 262    To build `gdb' in a separate directory, run `configure' with the
 263 `--srcdir' option to specify where to find the source. (You also need
 264 to specify a path to find `configure' itself from your working
 265 directory.  If the path to `configure' would be the same as the
 266 argument to `--srcdir', you can leave out the `--srcdir' option; it
 267 will be assumed.)
 268
 269    For example, you can build GDB in a separate
 270 directory for a Sun 4 like this:
 271
 272      cd gdb-VERSION
 273      mkdir ../gdb-sun4
 274      cd ../gdb-sun4
 275      ../gdb-VERSION/configure
 276      make
 277
 278    When `configure' builds a configuration using a remote source
 279 directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure
 280 (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory.  In
 281 the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library `libiberty.a' in the
 282 directory `gdb-sun4/libiberty', and GDB itself in `gdb-sun4/gdb'.
 283
 284    One popular reason to build several GDB configurations in separate
 285 directories is to configure GDB for cross-compiling (where GDB runs on
 286 one machine--the host--while debugging programs that run on another
 287 machine--the target).  You specify a cross-debugging target by giving
 288 the `--target=TARGET' option to `configure'.
 289
 290    When you run `make' to build a program or library, you must run it
 291 in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you
 292 called `configure' (or one of its subdirectories).
 293
 294    The `Makefile' that `configure' generates in each source directory
 295 also runs recursively.  If you type `make' in a source directory such
 296 as `gdb-VERSION' (or in a separate configured directory configured with
 297 `--srcdir=PATH/gdb-VERSION'), you will build all the required libraries,
 298 and then build GDB.
 299
 300    When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate
 301 directories, you can run `make' on them in parallel (for example, if
 302 they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere
 303 with each other.
 304
 305
 306 Specifying names for hosts and targets
 307 ======================================
 308
 309    The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure'
 310 script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short
 311 predefined aliases are also supported.  The full naming scheme encodes
 312 three pieces of information in the following pattern:
 313
 314      ARCHITECTURE-VENDOR-OS
 315
 316    For example, you can use the alias `sun4' as a HOST argument or in a
 317 `--target=TARGET' option.  The equivalent full name is
 318 `sparc-sun-sunos4'.
 319
 320    The `configure' script accompanying GDB does not provide any query
 321 facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases.
 322 `configure' calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub' to map
 323 abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or
 324 you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example:
 325
 326      % sh config.sub sun4
 327      sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1
 328      % sh config.sub sun3
 329      m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1
 330      % sh config.sub decstation
 331      mips-dec-ultrix4.2
 332      % sh config.sub hp300bsd
 333      m68k-hp-bsd
 334      % sh config.sub i386v
 335      i386-pc-sysv
 336      % sh config.sub i786v
 337      Invalid configuration `i786v': machine `i786v' not recognized
 338
 339 `config.sub' is also distributed in the GDB source directory.
 340
 341
 342 `configure' options
 343 ===================
 344
 345    Here is a summary of the `configure' options and arguments that are
 346 most often useful for building GDB.  `configure' also has several other
 347 options not listed here.  There are many options to gdb's `configure'
 348 script, some of which are only useful in special situation.
 349 *note : (autoconf.info)Running configure scripts, for a full
 350 explanation of `configure'.
 351
 352      configure [--help]
 353                [--prefix=DIR]
 354                [--srcdir=PATH]
 355                [--target=TARGET]
 356                [--host=HOST]
 357                [HOST]
 358
 359 You may introduce options with a single `-' rather than `--' if you
 360 prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use `--'.  Some
 361 more obscure GDB `configure' options are not listed here.
 362
 363 `--help'
 364      Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure'.
 365
 366 `-prefix=DIR'
 367      Configure the source to install programs and files under directory
 368      `DIR'.
 369
 370 `--srcdir=PATH'
 371      *Warning: using this option requires GNU `make', or another `make'
 372      that compatibly implements the `VPATH' feature.*
 373      Use this option to make configurations in directories separate
 374      from the GDB source directories.  Among other things, you can use
 375      this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously,
 376      in separate directories.  `configure' writes configuration
 377      specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to
 378      use the source in the directory PATH.  `configure' will create
 379      directories under the working directory in parallel to the source
 380      directories below PATH.
 381
 382 `--host=HOST'
 383      Configure GDB to run on the specified HOST.
 384
 385      There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available
 386      hosts.
 387
 388 `HOST ...'
 389      Same as `--host=HOST'.  If you omit this, GDB will guess; it's
 390      quite accurate.
 391
 392 `--target=TARGET'
 393      Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the specified
 394      TARGET.  Without this option, GDB is configured to debug programs
 395      that run on the same machine (HOST) as GDB itself.
 396
 397      There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available
 398      targets.
 399
 400 `--enable-targets=TARGET,TARGET,...'
 401 `--enable-targets=all`
 402      Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the
 403      specified list of targets.  The special value `all' configures
 404      GDB for debugging programs running on any target it supports.
 405
 406 `--with-gdb-datadir=PATH'
 407      Set the GDB-specific data directory.  GDB will look here for
 408      certain supporting files or scripts.  This defaults to the `gdb'
 409      subdirectory of `datadir' (which can be set using `--datadir').
 410
 411 `--with-relocated-sources=DIR'
 412      Sets up the default source path substitution rule so that
 413      directory names recorded in debug information will be
 414      automatically adjusted for any directory under DIR.  DIR should
 415      be a subdirectory of GDB's configured prefix, the one mentioned
 416      in the `--prefix' or `--exec-prefix' options to configure.  This
 417      option is useful if GDB is supposed to be moved to a different
 418      place after it is built.
 419
 420 `--enable-64-bit-bfd'
 421      Enable 64-bit support in BFD on 32-bit hosts.
 422
 423 `--disable-gdbmi'
 424      Build GDB without the GDB/MI machine interface.
 425
 426 `--enable-tui'
 427      Build GDB with the text-mode full-screen user interface (TUI).
 428      Requires a curses library (ncurses and cursesX are also
 429      supported).
 430
 431 `--with-curses'
 432      Use the curses library instead of the termcap library, for
 433      text-mode terminal operations.
 434
 435 `--with-libunwind-ia64'
 436      Use the libunwind library for unwinding function call stack on ia64
 437      target platforms.
 438      See http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind/index.html for details.
 439
 440 `--with-system-readline'
 441      Use the readline library installed on the host, rather than the
 442      library supplied as part of GDB.
 443
 444 `--with-system-zlib
 445      Use the zlib library installed on the host, rather than the
 446      library supplied as part of GDB.
 447
 448 `--with-expat'
 449      Build GDB with Expat, a library for XML parsing.  (Done by
 450      default if libexpat is installed and found at configure time.)
 451      This library is used to read XML files supplied with GDB.  If it
 452      is unavailable, some features, such as remote protocol memory
 453      maps, target descriptions, and shared library lists, that are
 454      based on XML files, will not be available in GDB.  If your host
 455      does not have libexpat installed, you can get the latest version
 456      from `http://expat.sourceforge.net'.
 457
 458 `--with-libiconv-prefix[=DIR]'
 459      Build GDB with GNU libiconv, a character set encoding conversion
 460      library.  This is not done by default, as on GNU systems the
 461      `iconv' that is built in to the C library is sufficient.  If your
 462      host does not have a working `iconv', you can get the latest
 463      version of GNU iconv from `https://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/'.
 464
 465      GDB's build system also supports building GNU libiconv as part of
 466      the overall build.  See the GDB manual instructions on how to do
 467      this.
 468
 469 `--with-lzma'
 470      Build GDB with LZMA, a compression library.  (Done by default if
 471      liblzma is installed and found at configure time.)  LZMA is used
 472      by GDB's "mini debuginfo" feature, which is only useful on
 473      platforms using the ELF object file format.  If your host does
 474      not have liblzma installed, you can get the latest version from
 475      `https://tukaani.org/xz/'.
 476
 477 `--with-mpfr'
 478      Build GDB with GNU MPFR, a library for multiple-precision
 479      floating-point computation with correct rounding.  (Done by
 480      default if GNU MPFR is installed and found at configure time.)
 481      This library is used to emulate target floating-point arithmetic
 482      during expression evaluation when the target uses different
 483      floating-point formats than the host.  If GNU MPFR is not
 484      available, GDB will fall back to using host floating-point
 485      arithmetic.  If your host does not have GNU MPFR installed, you
 486      can get the latest version from `http://www.mpfr.org'.
 487
 488 `--with-python[=PYTHON]'
 489      Build GDB with Python scripting support.  (Done by default if
 490      libpython is present and found at configure time.)  Python makes
 491      GDB scripting much more powerful than the restricted CLI
 492      scripting language.  If your host does not have Python installed,
 493      you can find it on `http://www.python.org/download/'.  The oldest
 494      version of Python supported by GDB is 2.4.  The optional argument
 495      PYTHON is used to find the Python headers and libraries.  It can
 496      be either the name of a Python executable, or the name of the
 497      directory in which Python is installed.
 498
 499 `--with-guile[=GUILE]'
 500      Build GDB with GNU Guile scripting support.  (Done by default if
 501      libguile is present and found at configure time.)  If your host
 502      does not have Guile installed, you can find it at
 503      `https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/'.  The optional argument
 504      GUILE can be a version number, which will cause `configure' to
 505      try to use that version of Guile; or the file name of a
 506      `pkg-config' executable, which will be queried to find the
 507      information needed to compile and link against Guile.
 508
 509 `--without-included-regex'
 510      Don't use the regex library included with GDB (as part of the
 511      libiberty library).  This is the default on hosts with version 2
 512      of the GNU C library.
 513
 514 `--with-sysroot=DIR'
 515      Use DIR as the default system root directory for libraries whose
 516      file names begin with `/lib' or `/usr/lib'.  (The value of DIR
 517      can be modified at run time by using the "set sysroot" command.)
 518      If DIR is under the GDB configured prefix (set with `--prefix' or
 519      `--exec-prefix' options), the default system root will be
 520      automatically adjusted if and when GDB is moved to a different
 521      location.
 522
 523 `--with-system-gdbinit=FILE'
 524      Configure GDB to automatically load a system-wide init file.
 525      FILE should be an absolute file name.  If FILE is in a directory
 526      under the configured prefix, and GDB is moved to another location
 527      after being built, the location of the system-wide init file will
 528      be adjusted accordingly.
 529
 530 `--enable-build-warnings'
 531      When building the GDB sources, ask the compiler to warn about any
 532      code which looks even vaguely suspicious.  It passes many
 533      different warning flags, depending on the exact version of the
 534      compiler you are using.
 535
 536 `--enable-werror'
 537      Treat compiler warnings as werrors.  It adds the -Werror flag to
 538      the compiler, which will fail the compilation if the compiler
 539      outputs any warning messages.
 540
 541 `--enable-ubsan'
 542      Enable the GCC undefined behavior sanitizer.  By default this is
 543      disabled in GDB releases, but enabled when building from git.
 544      The undefined behavior sanitizer checks for C++ undefined
 545      behavior.  It has a performance cost, so if you are looking at
 546      GDB's performance, you should disable it.
 547
 548 `--enable-unit-tests[=yes|no]'
 549      Enable (i.e., include) support for unit tests when compiling GDB
 550      and GDBServer.  Note that if this option is not passed, GDB will
 551      have selftests if it is a development build, and will *not* have
 552      selftests if it is a non-development build.
 553
 554 `configure' accepts other options, for compatibility with configuring
 555 other GNU tools recursively.
 556
 557
 558 Remote debugging
 559 =================
 560
 561    The files m68k-stub.c, i386-stub.c, and sparc-stub.c are examples
 562 of remote stubs to be used with remote.c.  They are designed to run
 563 standalone on an m68k, i386, or SPARC cpu and communicate properly
 564 with the remote.c stub over a serial line.
 565
 566    The directory gdb/gdbserver/ contains `gdbserver', a program that
 567 allows remote debugging for Unix applications.  GDBserver is only
 568 supported for some native configurations, including Sun 3, Sun 4, and
 569 Linux.
 570
 571    The file gdb/gdbserver/README includes further notes on GDBserver; in
 572 particular, it explains how to build GDBserver for cross-debugging
 573 (where GDBserver runs on the target machine, which is of a different
 574 architecture than the host machine running GDB).
 575
 576
 577 Reporting Bugs in GDB
 578 =====================
 579
 580    There are several ways of reporting bugs in GDB.  The prefered
 581 method is to use the World Wide Web:
 582
 583       http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/
 584
 585 As an alternative, the bug report can be submitted, via e-mail, to the
 586 address "bug-gdb@gnu.org".
 587
 588    When submitting a bug, please include the GDB version number, and
 589 how you configured it (e.g., "sun4" or "mach386 host,
 590 i586-intel-synopsys target").  Since GDB supports so many
 591 different configurations, it is important that you be precise about
 592 this.  The simplest way to do this is to include the output from these
 593 commands:
 594
 595       % gdb --version
 596       % gdb --config
 597
 598    For more information on how/whether to report bugs, see the
 599 Reporting Bugs chapter of the GDB manual (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo).
 600
 601
 602 Graphical interface to GDB -- X Windows, MS Windows
 603 ==========================
 604
 605    Several graphical interfaces to GDB are available.  You should
 606 check:
 607
 608         https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB%20Front%20Ends
 609
 610 for an up-to-date list.
 611
 612    Emacs users will very likely enjoy the Grand Unified Debugger mode;
 613 try typing `M-x gdb RET'.
 614
 615
 616 Writing Code for GDB
 617 =====================
 618
 619    There is information about writing code for GDB in the file
 620 `CONTRIBUTE' and at the website:
 621
 622         http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/
 623
 624 in particular in the wiki.
 625
 626    If you are pondering writing anything but a short patch, especially
 627 take note of the information about copyrights and copyright assignment.
 628 It can take quite a while to get all the paperwork done, so
 629 we encourage you to start that process as soon as you decide you are
 630 planning to work on something, or at least well ahead of when you
 631 think you will be ready to submit the patches.
 632
 633
 634 GDB Testsuite
 635 =============
 636
 637    Included with the GDB distribution is a DejaGNU based testsuite
 638 that can either be used to test your newly built GDB, or for
 639 regression testing a GDB with local modifications.
 640
 641    Running the testsuite requires the prior installation of DejaGNU,
 642 which is generally available via ftp.  The directory
 643 ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/dejagnu/ will contain a recent snapshot.
 644 Once DejaGNU is installed, you can run the tests in one of the
 645 following ways:
 646
 647   (1)   cd gdb-VERSION
 648         make check-gdb
 649
 650 or
 651
 652   (2)   cd gdb-VERSION/gdb
 653         make check
 654
 655 or
 656
 657   (3)   cd gdb-VERSION/gdb/testsuite
 658         make site.exp   (builds the site specific file)
 659         runtest -tool gdb GDB=../gdb    (or GDB=<somepath> as appropriate)
 660
 661 When using a `make'-based method, you can use the Makefile variable
 662 `RUNTESTFLAGS' to pass flags to `runtest', e.g.:
 663
 664         make RUNTESTFLAGS=--directory=gdb.cp check
 665
 666 If you use GNU make, you can use its `-j' option to run the testsuite
 667 in parallel.  This can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for
 668 the testsuite to run.  In this case, if you set `RUNTESTFLAGS' then,
 669 by default, the tests will be run serially even under `-j'.  You can
 670 override this and force a parallel run by setting the `make' variable
 671 `FORCE_PARALLEL' to any non-empty value.  Note that the parallel `make
 672 check' assumes that you want to run the entire testsuite, so it is not
 673 compatible with some dejagnu options, like `--directory'.
 674
 675 The last method gives you slightly more control in case of problems
 676 with building one or more test executables or if you are using the
 677 testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree.
 678
 679 See the DejaGNU documentation for further details.
 680
 681
 682 Copyright and License Notices
 683 =============================
 684
 685 Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
 686 as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.
 687
 688 To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
 689 copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
 690 the following list of copyright years...
 691
 692     1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
 693
 694 ... is abbreviated into:
 695
 696     1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011
 697
 698 Every year of each range, inclusive, is a copyrightable year that
 699 could be listed individually.
 700
 701 \f
 702 (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs)
 703 Local Variables:
 704 mode: text
 705 End: