configure
script that automates the process
of preparing GDB for installation; you can then use make
to
build the gdb
program.
The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for
GDB in a single directory, whose name is usually composed by
appending the version number to gdb
.
For example, the GDB version 5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224) distribution is in the
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)
directory. That directory contains:
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/configure
(and supporting files)
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/gdb
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/bfd
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/include
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/libiberty
-liberty
free software library
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/opcodes
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/readline
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/glob
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/mmalloc
The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run configure
from the gdb-
version-number source directory, which in
this example is the
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)
directory.
First switch to the gdb-
version-number source directory
if you are not already in it; then run
configure
. Pass the
identifier for the platform on which GDB will run as an
argument.
For example:
cd gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224) ./configure host make
where host is an identifier such as sun4
or
decstation
, that identifies the platform where GDB will run.
(You can often leave off host; configure
tries to guess the
correct value by examining your system.)
Running configure
host and then running
make
builds the
bfd
, readline
, mmalloc
, and libiberty
libraries, then gdb
itself. The configured source files, and the
binaries, are left in the corresponding source directories.
configure
is a Bourne-shell (/bin/sh
) script; if your
system does not recognize this automatically when you run a different
shell, you may need to run sh
on it explicitly:
sh configure host
If you run configure
from a directory that contains source
directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the
gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)
source directory for version 5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224), configure
creates configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless
you tell it not to, with the --norecursion
option).
You can run the configure
script from any of the
subordinate directories in the GDB distribution if you only want to
configure that subdirectory, but be sure to specify a path to it.
For example, with version 5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224), type the following to configure only
the bfd
subdirectory:
cd gdb-5.3 for gnat 3.17w (20030224)/bfd ../configure host
You can install gdb
anywhere; it has no hardwired paths.
However, you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by
the SHELL
environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember
that GDB uses the shell to start your program--some systems refuse to
let GDB debug child processes whose programs are not readable.