gdbserver sparc solaris

gdbserver sparc solaris

[Brian Vandenberg]

I'm trying to build a version of gdb that can run on x86 Linux for
debugging binaries running on a sparc solaris host.

What I have right now is an x86 linux hosted gdb that allows me to debug
core dumps from a process running on a sparc solaris host.

When I try to build gdbserver for that platform it says that host type
isn't supported.

Is it possible to get gdbserver to work on sparc solaris?  Is there an
alternative to gdbserver?  I know about the stubs, but that's aimed at
embedded devices.  In my situation there's typically 40-50 processes
running that I may want to attach to at any time.

-brian

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Pedro Alves]

On 02/08/2019 01:40 AM, Brian Vandenberg wrote:
> I'm trying to build a version of gdb that can run on x86 Linux for
> debugging binaries running on a sparc solaris host.
> 
> What I have right now is an x86 linux hosted gdb that allows me to debug
> core dumps from a process running on a sparc solaris host.
> 
> When I try to build gdbserver for that platform it says that host type
> isn't supported.
> 
> Is it possible to get gdbserver to work on sparc solaris?  

Not without someone porting gdbserver to solaris.

> Is there an alternative to gdbserver?  

Might exist, but I don't know of one myself.

> I know about the stubs, but that's aimed at embedded devices.  

Right.

> In my situation there's typically 40-50 processes
> running that I may want to attach to at any time.

Thanks,
Pedro Alves

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Rainer Orth]

Hi Pedro,

> On 02/08/2019 01:40 AM, Brian Vandenberg wrote:
>> I'm trying to build a version of gdb that can run on x86 Linux for
>> debugging binaries running on a sparc solaris host.
>> 
>> What I have right now is an x86 linux hosted gdb that allows me to debug
>> core dumps from a process running on a sparc solaris host.
>> 
>> When I try to build gdbserver for that platform it says that host type
>> isn't supported.
>> 
>> Is it possible to get gdbserver to work on sparc solaris?  
>
> Not without someone porting gdbserver to solaris.

I had a very quick look at that once, but the code is currently full of
Linux dependencies and I had no actual need for a port.  Given that this
will be a major effort, I certainly won't undertake it myself.

	Rainer

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Pedro Alves]

On 02/08/2019 01:05 PM, Rainer Orth wrote:
> Hi Pedro,

Hi Rainer,

>>> Is it possible to get gdbserver to work on sparc solaris?  
>>
>> Not without someone porting gdbserver to solaris.
> 
> I had a very quick look at that once, but the code is currently full of
> Linux dependencies (...)

Hmm, that doesn't seem correct?  There should be no Linux dependencies like
that.  There are ports of GDBserver for Linux, Windows/mingw and NTO/QNX.
Each of those gets its own *-low.c file, which is the equivalent of GDB's
-nat.c files.  So gdb/linux-nat.c is similar to gdbserver/linux-low.c.  Etc.

Basically, a Solaris port would mean copying over gdb/procfs.c and friends
to gdbserver/, and adjusting them to gdbserver's interfaces.  Well, ideally,
we'd refactor the gdb/procfs.c code a bit so that we could use it for both
gdb and gdbserver, instead of just copying over.  The fact that the Linux
backend implementations in gdb and gdbserver are different was a bad design
mistake that we're still trying to correct [1] [2].

> (...) had no actual need for a port.  Given that this
> will be a major effort, I certainly won't undertake it myself.

Certainly understandable!

[1] https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/Common
[2] https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/LocalRemoteFeatureParity

Thanks,
Pedro Alves

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Brian Vandenberg]

>
> Not without someone porting gdbserver to solaris.
>
> > Is there an alternative to gdbserver?
>
> Might exist, but I don't know of one myself.
>

Is it possible to make gdb act like gdbserver?

This all came about due to some GDB crashes we're seeing with a very
complicated executable.  I haven't had the time to try to figure out why
it's crashing, instead just limping by with dbx until I have more time.  I
was just hoping for an easy way out until I have more free time.

-brian

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Joel Brobecker]

> Is it possible to make gdb act like gdbserver?

Why not debug directly on the machine, then?

> This all came about due to some GDB crashes we're seeing with a very
> complicated executable.  I haven't had the time to try to figure out why
> it's crashing, instead just limping by with dbx until I have more time.  I
> was just hoping for an easy way out until I have more free time.
> 
> -brian

-- 
Joel

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Brian Vandenberg]

On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 9:12 PM Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:

> > Is it possible to make gdb act like gdbserver?
>
> Why not debug directly on the machine, then?
>

My apologies if my wording wasn't clear:


> > This all came about due to some GDB crashes we're seeing with a very
> > complicated executable.  I haven't had the time to try to figure out why
> > it's crashing, instead just limping by with dbx until I have more time.
> I
> > was just hoping for an easy way out until I have more free time.


GDB is crashing when trying to debug directly on the machine and I haven't
had the time to dive in to figure out why; we've had to limp along using
dbx from Solaris Studio in the mean-time.  I had hoped if I could get
remote debugging to work perhaps the problem wouldn't manifest or would
help shed light on the problem by causing a different problem.

-brian

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Joel Brobecker]

> My apologies if my wording wasn't clear:

More likely I read it, and then forgot. Sorry!

> GDB is crashing when trying to debug directly on the machine and I haven't
> had the time to dive in to figure out why; we've had to limp along using
> dbx from Solaris Studio in the mean-time.  I had hoped if I could get
> remote debugging to work perhaps the problem wouldn't manifest or would
> help shed light on the problem by causing a different problem.

Have you tried other, maybe older versions of GDB, to see if
they fare better?

-- 
Joel

Re: gdbserver sparc solaris

[Brian Vandenberg]

>
> > GDB is crashing when trying to debug directly on the machine and I
> haven't
> > had the time to dive in to figure out why; we've had to limp along using
> > dbx from Solaris Studio in the mean-time.  I had hoped if I could get
> > remote debugging to work perhaps the problem wouldn't manifest or would
> > help shed light on the problem by causing a different problem.
>
> Have you tried other, maybe older versions of GDB, to see if they fare
> better?
>

Sometime during 6.x or early to mid 7.x gdb became broken on sparc solaris,
so the earliest I've tried is ~7.8 (with variants of the patches I
submitted over the last few months that address them).  I'm fairly sure if
I go back far enough that it's [semi?-]functional it would be too old
because we're making use of C++11/14-isms.

-brian