Debugging symbol packages (4 questions)

[Magnus Therning]

More and more debug (-dbg) packages are popping up in the repositories.
Is there an effort going to to make sure _all_ packages in Debian has a
debug package?

It seems that Ubuntu has .ddeb packages while the packages I've seen in
Debian are regular .deb, but with -dbg in their names. Will it remain
this way or will the two converge on one approach at some time?

What I've noticed so far is that most GNOME packages have a -dbg
package. I suppose one reason for this is to make sure users submit
good bug reports to Debian and GNOME. However, expecting regular users
to manually install debug symbols and reproduce the error is a bit too
optimistic. Are there any plans for automating this?

Is there a remote server that shares a folder that I could mount (e.g.
using FUSE) and get all symbols without having to install all the
packages myself?

/M

[Kumar Appaiah]

Post by Magnus Therning
More and more debug (-dbg) packages are popping up in the repositories.
Is there an effort going to to make sure _all_ packages in Debian has a
debug package?

It's possible that it's going to become a requirement for all
libraries in Lenny.

Post by Magnus Therning
It seems that Ubuntu has .ddeb packages while the packages I've seen in
Debian are regular .deb, but with -dbg in their names. Will it remain
this way or will the two converge on one approach at some time?

I don't think so. I think Ubuntu and Debian have diverged far enough
to have different policies.

Post by Magnus Therning
What I've noticed so far is that most GNOME packages have a -dbg
package. I suppose one reason for this is to make sure users submit
good bug reports to Debian and GNOME. However, expecting regular users
to manually install debug symbols and reproduce the error is a bit too
optimistic. Are there any plans for automating this?

I am not sure about this, though this seems sound. But if it's users
of testing/unstable, you could expect some of them to possess enough
knowledge to do the needful to use the dbg library.

Post by Magnus Therning
Is there a remote server that shares a folder that I could mount (e.g.
using FUSE) and get all symbols without having to install all the
packages myself?

I didn't understand this exactly. Is this related to the Debug
packages? Do you want to mount a repository and use the debug packages
without having to install them?

HTH.

Kumar
--
Kumar Appaiah,
462, Jamuna Hostel,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai - 600 036

[Jon Dowland]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2007 at 09:16:02AM +0100, Magnus Therning

Post by Magnus Therning
More and more debug (-dbg) packages are popping up in
the repositories. Is there an effort going to to make
sure _all_ packages in Debian has a debug package?

It's possible that it's going to become a requirement for
all libraries in Lenny.

What do you base this on? Is there a mailing list thread or
link that I can read up to find out more?

[Roberto C. Sánchez]

Post by Jon Dowland

On Wed, Jul 11, 2007 at 09:16:02AM +0100, Magnus Therning

Post by Magnus Therning
More and more debug (-dbg) packages are popping up in
the repositories. Is there an effort going to to make
sure _all_ packages in Debian has a debug package?

It's possible that it's going to become a requirement for
all libraries in Lenny.

What do you base this on? Is there a mailing list thread or
link that I can read up to find out more?

I am relatively certain that he is right. I recall a discussion about
this a whaile back. I'm sure it's in the list archives somewhere.

Regards,

-Roberto

[Kumar Appaiah]

Post by Roberto C. Sánchez
I am relatively certain that he is right. I recall a discussion about
this a whaile back. I'm sure it's in the list archives somewhere.

Well, Neil "codehelp" Williams told me so:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2007/07/msg00001.html

Kumar
--
Kumar Appaiah,
462, Jamuna Hostel,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai - 600 036

[Magnus Therning]

[..]

Post by Kumar Appaiah

Post by Magnus Therning
Is there a remote server that shares a folder that I could mount
(e.g. using FUSE) and get all symbols without having to install all
the packages myself?

I didn't understand this exactly. Is this related to the Debug
packages? Do you want to mount a repository and use the debug packages
without having to install them?

How this actually works is that debug symbols are stripped from the
executables and a new ELF section is put in that points to
/usr/lib/debug/... When gdb loads an executable with that section it
uses the pointer to find the debugging symbols.

One thing that is nice about the Windows platform is remote symbol
servers. Now, if someone would install _all_ debug packages on a
machine on the internet, and export its /usr/lib/debug, then I can mount
that export on my machine and gdb would be able to find debug symbols
without my having to install a single debug package. Is someone
exporting /usr/lib/debug in this way?

Cheers,
M