RE: debugging core files from other machines with archived symbol files

["Staffan Gustafsson" <loa_gus at hotmail dot com>]

Problem is mostly in the automation area. On windows, we have a
simple script that starts the debugger on the core file, maps in 
the correct symbols and images from a symbol server, the correct 
version of the source and takes me to the line causing 
the crash.

When debugging a lot of dumps, that's a big saver. The story 
using redhat/gdb seems much weeker.

So while I could create a directory structure similar to what some 
client has chosen for his/her machine, copy my files to that 
location, it is a harder to automate, since I have to start gdb on 
the core file just to find out what that directory structure is.

But I guess it can be done. This is however an area where Microsoft 
has a more streamlined solution, and it wouldn't hurt to have the 
possibility to look up symbols/images from a server in gdb.

Just my $.02

/Staffan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Koning [mailto:pkoning@equallogic.com] 
> Sent: den 19 augusti 2003 15:32
> To: loa_gus@hotmail.com
> Cc: drow@mvista.com; gdb@sources.redhat.com
> Subject: Re: debugging core files from other machines with 
> archived symbol files
> 
> 
> >>>>> "Erik" == Erik Gustafsson <loa_gus@hotmail.com> writes:
> 
>  Erik> Hmm.. Isn't this something you want to be able to do?  
> Seems to  Erik> me that everybody that is shipping software 
> to customers would  Erik> like to be able to debug crash 
> dumps from customer sites in a  Erik> simple way.
> 
>  Erik> I'm not sure I understand on what level the problem 
> is. Is this  Erik> a missing feature in GDB or missing 
> information in the core  Erik> file?
> 
> I don't think there is a real issue in practice.  Daniel 
> briefly stated the requirements -- you need to have a file 
> system subtree somewhere that has the same shape as the 
> target system tree.  That in general isn't a big deal.
> 
> Given that, you simply point gdb to that subtree with 
> solib-absolute-prefix, and you're good to go.
> 
> For example, suppose your build procedure produces full 
> (unstripped) binaries in .../targetroot/usr/lib, 
> .../targetroot/usr/bin, etc. Then this gets the job done:
>      gdb .../targetroot/usr/bin/brokenapp
>      (gdb) set solib-absolute-prefix .../targetroot
>      (gdb) core customercorefile
> 
> GDB will find the relevant file names and the load addresses 
> from data stored in the corefile.  Well, that depends on the 
> OS; some don't do a particularly good job.  For example, you 
> may discover, as I did, that you can find text sections of 
> libs but not data sections.
> 
>     paul
> 
> 
> 
> 
>