Re: GDB 4.16.85 on IRIX 6.2

["Peter.Schauer" <Peter.Schauer@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de>]

gdb-4.16.85 should work mostly with -n32 compiled executables, the
notable exception is function calling in the inferior process, which
might pass the wrong arguments to the called functions, due to ABI
calling differences.

I'd bet that you were using native make when building gdb-4.16.85, which
triggers a bug in gdb/Makefile.in, a patch to fix this is included below.
Alternatively you could use gnu make.

The symptom is a truncated gdb/init.c file, if you don't find
_initialize_elfread in it, you are hit by the problem.
Removing gdb/init.c, applying the patch and rebuilding GDB should get rid
the problem.

Index: Makefile.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/cvsfiles/devo/gdb/Makefile.in,v
retrieving revision 1.605
diff -u -r1.605 Makefile.in
--- Makefile.in	1998/02/05 01:47:26	1.605
+++ Makefile.in	1998/02/09 20:36:06
@@ -629,7 +629,7 @@
 	@echo '#include "ansidecl.h"' >>init.c-tmp
 	@echo 'extern void initialize_all_files PARAMS ((void));' >>init.c-tmp
 	@echo 'void initialize_all_files PARAMS ((void)) {' >>init.c-tmp
-	@echo $(OBS) $(TSOBS) | \
+	@-echo $(OBS) $(TSOBS) | \
 	tr ' ' '\012' | \
 	sed -e '/^Onindy.o/d' \
 	    -e '/^nindy.o/d' \


> I've been looking for a GDB that works with IRIX 6.2, particularly when
> we compile our applications in SGI's N32 format. When I compile
> helloworld with or without the -n32 switch and run gdb I get the
> following message:
> 
> GNU gdb 4.16.85
> Copyright 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
> welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
> Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
> There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
> This GDB was configured as "mips-sgi-irix6.2"...
> 
> I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.  Symbol format `elf32-bigmips' unknown.
> No display number 0.
> Disabling display 0 to avoid infinite recursion.
> 
> If I compile without the -n32 switch and run 4.16 (which I compiled
> under IRIX 5.3) GDB actually works on the non -n32 library but complains
> there are no debugging symbols found with -n32. I hope this is useful
> information for you. Let me know if I can help test any patches.
> 
> 							- |Daryll
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Peter Schauer			pes@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de