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Installing
GDB
GDB comes with a configure
script that automates the process of preparing GDB for installation; you
can then use make
to build the gdb
program.
The GDB distribution includes
all the source code you need for GDB in a single directory, whose name
is usually composed by appending the version number to gdb.
That directory contains the
following.
-
configure
(and supporting files)
Script for configuring GDB
and all its supporting libraries
-
gdb
The source specific to GDB
itself
-
bfd
Source for the Binary File
Descriptor library
-
include
GNU include files
-
libiberty
Source for the -liberty
free software library
-
opcodes
Source for the library of
opcode tables and disassemblers
-
readline
Source for the GNU command-line
interface
-
glob
Source for the GNU filename
pattern-matching subroutine
-
mmalloc
Source for the GNU memory-mapped
malloc
package
The simplest way to configure
and build GDB is to run configure
from the source directory.
Pass the identifier for the
platform on which GDB will run as an argument.
Change to the directory in
which GDB resides. Then, use the following command.
host
is an identifier such as sun4
or decstation,
that identifies the platform where GDB will run. (You can often leave off
host; configure
tries to guess the correct value by examining your system.)
Running configure
host and
then running make
builds the bfd,
readline,
mmalloc,
and libiberty
libraries, then gdb
itself. The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the
corresponding source directories.
configure
is a Bourne-shell (/bin/sh)
script; if your system does not recognize this automatically when you run
a different shell, you may need to run sh
on it explicitly:
If you run configure
from a directory that contains source directories for multiple libraries
or programs, configure
creates configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless
you tell it not to, with the --norecursion
option). You can run the configure
script from any of the subordinate directories if you only want to configure
from one of those subdirectories, but be sure to specify a path to it.
You can install gdb
anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, you should make sure that
the shell on your path (named by the SHELL
environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that GDB uses the
shell to start your programsome systems refuse to let GDB debug child
processes whose programs are not readable.
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