From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Haller To: Daniel Berlin Cc: jtc@redback.com, Christopher Faylor , gdb@sources.redhat.com, binutils@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: stabs vs. dwarf-2 for C programs Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 07:13:00 -0000 Message-id: <3AD70931.CF488A07@lucent.com> References: <5mwv8pzgvt.fsf@jtc.redback.com> <20010412221742.A22383@redhat.com> <5mg0fdzg2t.fsf@jtc.redback.com> X-SW-Source: 2001-04/msg00098.html Daniel Berlin wrote: > The pre-linker pass is on my list of things to do, after all the > optimized code debugging support and finishing the work on the new > register allocator for gcc. The native Sun Solaris linker takes an interesting approach to eliminating duplicate debugging information. It does not copy much debug information from the original object module to the final linked product, just enough to identify which original object contains the debugging information. The debugger then needs to locate the original object module when setting breakpoints or looking up symbol information. The only downside is that this prevents much symbolic debugging if the original built objects aren't around. It can also speed the link not only by not having to rewrite symbolic debug information, but also by not having to read it in the original objects. It also speeds up starting the debugger, as the debugger no longer has to read the entire symbol table at startup. I'm glad to see other people looking at this, because in my spare time it could take years to work on this myself. -- John Haller jhaller@lucent.com