218 lines
9.3 KiB
Text
218 lines
9.3 KiB
Text
GDB SNAPSHOT SYSTEM
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(general info)
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Updated 5/7/93
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WHAT ARE GDB SNAPSHOTS
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----------------------
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Snapshots are an "image" of the main GDB development tree, captured at a
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particular random instant in time. When you use the snapshots, you should
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be able to maintain a local copy of GDB that is no more than one day older
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than the official source tree used by the GDB maintainers.
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The primary purpose of providing snapshots is to widen the group of
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motivated developers that would like to help test, debug, and enhance GDB,
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by providing you with access to the "latest and greatest" source.
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This has several advantages, and several disadvantages.
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First the advantages:
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o Once we have a large base of motivated testers using the snapshots,
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this should provide good coverage across all currently supported
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GDB hosts and targets. If a new bug is introduced in GDB due to
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fixing another bug or ongoing development, it should become
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obvious much more quickly and get fixed before the next general
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net release. This should help to reduce the chances of GDB being
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released to the general public with a major bug that went unnoticed
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during the release cycle testing because they are machine dependent.
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We hope to greatly improve GDB's stability and reliability by
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involving more people and more execution environments in the
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prerelease testing.
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o With access to the latest source, any diffs that you send to fix
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bugs or add new features should be much easier for the GDB team
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to merge into the official source base (after suitable review
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of course). This encourages us to merge your changes quicker,
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while they are still "fresh".
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o Once your diffs are merged, you can obtain a new copy of GDB
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containing your changes almost immediately. Thus you do not
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have to maintain local copies of your changes for any longer
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than it takes to get them merged into the official source base.
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This encourages you to send in changes quicker.
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And the disadvantages:
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o The snapshot you get will be largely untested and of unknown quality.
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It may fail to configure or compile. It may have serious bugs.
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You should always keep a copy of the last known working version
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before updating to the current snapshot, or at least be able to
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regenerate a working version if the latest snapshot is unusable
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in your environment for some reason.
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If a production version of GDB has a bug and a snapshot has the fix,
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and you care about stability, you should put only the fix for that
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particular problem into your production version. Of course, if you
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are eager to test GDB, you can use the snapshot versions in your
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daily work, but users who have not been consulted about whether they
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feel like testing GDB should generally have something which is at
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least as bug free as the last released version.
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o Providing timely response to your questions, bug reports, and
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submitted patches will require the GDB development team to allocate
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time from an already thin time budget. Please try to help us make
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this time as productive as possible. See the section below about
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how to submit changes.
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HOW TO GET THE SNAPSHOTS
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------------------------
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The current plan is to provide a full snapshot once weekly, and incremental
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diffs on a daily basis. Each daily diff will be relative to the source
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tree for the previous day after applying all incremental diffs to date.
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The files will be available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cygnus.com, in
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directory pub/gdb, and should look something like:
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gdb-930401.tar.z
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gdb-930401-930402.diff.z
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gdb-930402-930403.diff.z
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gdb-930403-930404.diff.z
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.
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.
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.
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At some point, the files should automatically appear during the evening
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as a result of an automatically run process each evening. For the moment
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however, the process will be manually run by one of the gdb maintainers
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and the appropriate files moved to the ftp area at some convenient point
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during the day.
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Note that the current plan is to provide GNU gzip compressed files only.
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You can ftp gzip from prep.ai.mit.edu in directory pub/gnu.
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Also, as the gcc developers did with their gcc snapshot system, even though
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we will make the snapshots available on a publically accessible ftp area,
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we ask that recipients not widely publicise their availability. The motivation
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for this request is not to hoard them, but to avoid the situation where
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the general GDB user base naively attempts to use the snapshots, has trouble
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with them, complains publically, and the reputation of GDB declines because
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of a perception of instability or lack of quality control.
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GDB TEST SUITE
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--------------
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A test suite is distributed as an integral part of the snapshots. However,
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to use it you will need to get a copy of the dejagnu testing framework.
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Snapshots of dejagnu are available alongside the GDB snapshots, using
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the same naming conventions as the GDB snapshots. Once you have installed
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the dejagnu framework, a simple "make check" in the GDB directory should
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be sufficient to run the tests.
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Note that the test suite is still in its infancy. The test framework
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itself might not install on your system if you have an environment that
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is not similar to one that the GDB developers already use. The tests
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themselves only cover a small portion of GDB features, and what tests
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do exist for a feature are not exhaustive. New tests are welcomed.
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GETTING HELP, GDB DISCUSSIONS, etc
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----------------------------------
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Mail sent to gdb-testers@cygnus.com goes to everyone on the list of gdb
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testers, which should include everyone getting the gdb snapshots. It is
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appropriate whenever you wish your mail to be seen by all the testers.
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This would include announcements of any kind, notices of intent to implement
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a specific enhancement (to coordinate with other people on the list), etc.
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Before sending something to gdb-testers, ask yourself if what you are about
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to send would be something you would care to see show up in your mailbox if
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it was sent by someone else.
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Mail sent to gdb-patches@cygnus.com goes to gdb support people internal to
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Cygnus. Despite the name, it is appropriate for more than just patches.
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Questions about the snapshots, problems accessing the snapshots, bug reports
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without patches, requests for advice on how to track down a bug you have
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encountered, discussion about bug fixes or enhancements in progress, etc are
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all welcome in gdb-patches. Usually mail sent to gdb-patches will result in
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a short private email discussion between you and one or more of the gdb
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developers who can assist you with simple questions or handle your patches.
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Note that gdb-patches is *not* a general gdb electronic support line.
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If you are in need of such support, you probably should not be using the
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snapshots and should seek out one of the commercial suppliers of support
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for free software.
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Do *not* send any questions about the snapshots or patches specific to
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the snapshots to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu (gateway'd to the usenet group
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gnu.gdb.bug). Nobody there will have any idea what you are talking about
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and it will just cause confusion.
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FORMAT FOR PATCHES
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------------------
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If you have a fix for a bug, or an enhancement to submit, send your
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patch to gdb-patches@cygnus.com. Here are some simple guidelines for
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submitting patches:
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o Use "context diffs" for patches. A typical command for generating
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context diffs is "diff -rc gdb-old gdb-new".
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o Use the "minimalist approach" for patches. That is, each patch
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should address only one particular bug, new feature, etc. Do not
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save up many unrelated changes and submit them all in one big
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patch, since in general, the larger the patch the more difficult
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it is for us to decide if the patch is either correct or
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desirable. And if we find something about the patch that needs
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to be corrected before it can be installed, we would have to reject
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the entire patch, which might contain changes which otherwise would
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be accepted if submitted separately.
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o Submit a sample ChangeLog entry with your patch. See the existing
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GDB ChangeLog for examples of what a ChangeLog entry should look
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like. The emacs command ^X4A will create a ChangeLog entry header
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for you.
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BISON and BYACC
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---------------
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GDB's language parsers are all portable, and can be compiled with bison,
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byacc, traditional Unix yacc, or other compatible parser generators.
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For various reasons, Cygnus uses byacc rather than bison by default. When
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a general gdb distribution is made, this default is switched back to bison.
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The snapshots follow the Cygnus default. Your options, if you do not already
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have byacc installed, include:
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o Hack the upper level Makefile.in lines that look like:
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BISON = `if [ -f $${rootme}/byacc/byacc ] ; \
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then echo $${rootme}/byacc/byacc ; \
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else echo byacc ; \ <== change
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fi`
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to replace "byacc" with either "yacc" or "bison -y".
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o Fetch the byacc snapshot from the same location as the gdb snapshots
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and install byacc.
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o Specify BISON=yacc on the make command line to override the default.
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UNIX MAKE and GNU MAKE
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----------------------
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When you build gdb in the same directory as the source, you should be able
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to use any available "make" that has traditional UNIX make functionality.
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If you build gdb in a separate directory tree from the source, using the
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configure "--srcdir" option, then only GNU make is fully supported, although
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other makes with complete VPATH support should work (SunOS make for example).
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Thanks for your help and support.
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-Fred Fish
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Cygnus Support
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