Newbie asks about .so libraries

Newbie asks about .so libraries

[William Trenker]

Here's a basic question.  Can gdb/insight debug code from .so files?

I have a library, compiled with debug information, and a main program, also with debug info.  If I start gdb with the main program, does gdb automatically dig up the debug info from any .so libraries used by the main program?  Can I set breakpoints on the source code in the .so file?

Or do I have to link statically for debugging purposes?

Thanks,
Bill

Re: Newbie asks about .so libraries

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 08:50:49AM +0000, William Trenker wrote:
> Here's a basic question.  Can gdb/insight debug code from .so files?
> 
> I have a library, compiled with debug information, and a main
> program, also with debug info.  If I start gdb with the main program,
> does gdb automatically dig up the debug info from any .so libraries
> used by the main program?  Can I set breakpoints on the source code
> in the .so file?
> 
> Or do I have to link statically for debugging purposes?

It should work fine.  There are a couple of quirks, though.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer

Re: Newbie asks about .so libraries

[Bennett F. Dill]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 12:17:19PM -0500, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 08:50:49AM +0000, William Trenker wrote:
> > Here's a basic question.  Can gdb/insight debug code from .so files?
> > 
> > I have a library, compiled with debug information, and a main
> > program, also with debug info.  If I start gdb with the main program,
> > does gdb automatically dig up the debug info from any .so libraries
> > used by the main program?  Can I set breakpoints on the source code
> > in the .so file?
> > 
> > Or do I have to link statically for debugging purposes?
> 
> It should work fine.  There are a couple of quirks, though.
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Jacobowitz
> MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer
In my experience, when I attach to a process that includes say
libc.so.1, gdb says no debugging information found.  I thought maybe I
had to recompile libc.so.1.  Is that not the case?  Maybe/probably I'm
doing something wrong.

Ben

Re: Newbie asks about .so libraries

[Jim Blandy]

renee517@yahoo.com writes:

> Here's a basic question.  Can gdb/insight debug code from .so files?
> 
> I have a library, compiled with debug information, and a main program, also with debug info.  If I start gdb with the main program, does gdb automatically dig up the debug info from any .so libraries used by the main program?  Can I set breakpoints on the source code in the .so file?
> 
> Or do I have to link statically for debugging purposes?

No, GDB doesn't know anything about the shared libraries until they're
loaded.  If you set a breakpoint on 'main', and run the program to it,
then GDB will know about the shared libraries, and you'll be able to
set breakpoints on them.