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Date:      Tue, 30 Mar 1999 12:31:36 +0930
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Archie Cobbs <archie@whistle.com>, paul@originative.co.uk
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Debug kernel by default? (was: Taking panic dumps (was: 3.1-S TABLE dies on 40+ connects (resolved)))
Message-ID:  <19990330123136.H413@lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <199903282321.PAA14589@bubba.whistle.com>; from Archie Cobbs on Sun, Mar 28, 1999 at 03:21:11PM -0800
References:  <A6D02246E1ABD2119F5200C0F0303D10FE84@octopus> <199903282321.PAA14589@bubba.whistle.com>

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On Sunday, 28 March 1999 at 15:21:11 -0800, Archie Cobbs wrote:
> paul@originative.co.uk writes:
>>> Greg Lehey writes:
>>>> In that connection, any comments about changing the default way of
>>>> building a kernel to create a debug kernel and a stripped copy, and
>>>> install the stripped copy?  It would require about 10 MB more storage
>>>> and a little more time to build the kernel, but since kgdb is useless
>>>> without the debug symbols, and disk space is cheap, it seems to me
>>>> that it would be worthwhile.
>>>
>>> Building debug kernels takes up a lot more space, which some people
>>> may not have.
>>>
>>> How about simply fixing 'config -g' to generate a Makefile that
>>> does the extra step of copying and stripping the kernel and installing
>>> the stripped version kernel.strip instead of kernel?
>>
>> Unless I misunderstood Greg I think the intention is to always build a debug
>> kernel without the user really realising that is happening so that when they
>> have a panic they've got the infrastructure there to let the "support team"
>> track down the problem.
>
> [ trimmimg freebsd-net ]

Oops, sorry.

> Right.. I'm just worried that certain people may object to changing the
> behavior to do this automatically (not me by the way).

Certain people will object to any change :-)  There's a valid point
that it uses more memory here, though.

>> I think that's a good idea, switch the options around so that by default a
>> debug kernel is built and provide an option to build a "production" kernel.
>> I don't think a kernel built with -g is going to be significantly slower or
>> bigger than a standard kernel once stripped and those after maximum
>> performance should know how to go about getting it.
>
> This is just doing my steps #1 and #2 at the same time, ie:
>
>   Step #1: Fix config -g makefile
>   Step #2: Make config assume -g by default

I think we can do both of these at the same time, as long as we leave
a solution for people who really don't have the extra 20 MB (you need
space for larger .o files as well).

How about this:

 - make config assume the -g option by default.
 - add a new option (-s) to config to generate stripped objects.
 - add a target install.gdb to the Makefile.  This target will install
   the unstripped kernel for people who want to use ddb.
 - modifiy the existing install target to make a stripped copy of the
   kernel and to install it.

Greg
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