Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Steve Folly]

Hi,

I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for  
target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.

Unfortunately nothing much gets built. Probably because of the bit of  
the configure script I found that starts with the comment:

     # Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native.


I'm trying to get a GNU toolset hosted on OS X and targetting Windows  
(MinGW). So far, the compiler toolset is working dandy, and having  
gdb would top it off just right.

But it looks like I've hit a stumbling block. Does anyone know the  
reason for this limitation?

Thanks for any insight.

-- 
Regards,
Steve.

Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Steve Folly]

Hi,

I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for  
target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.

Unfortunately nothing much gets built. Probably because of the bit of  
the configure script I found that starts with the comment:

     # Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native.


I'm trying to get a GNU toolset hosted on OS X and targetting Windows  
(MinGW). So far, the compiler toolset is working dandy, and having  
gdb would top it off just right.

But it looks like I've hit a stumbling block. Does anyone know the  
reason for this limitation?

Thanks for any insight.

-- 
Regards,
Steve.

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:12:40PM +0100, Steve Folly wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for  
> target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.

GDB 6.3 doesn't support the mingw32 target.  In fact it doesn't support
mingw32 as a host either.  Later versions will support it as a host but
not target.

> Unfortunately nothing much gets built. Probably because of the bit of  
> the configure script I found that starts with the comment:
> 
>     # Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native.

This line does not appear in the GDB I'm looking at.  You must be using
someone's mingw32 patches.

> I'm trying to get a GNU toolset hosted on OS X and targetting Windows  
> (MinGW). So far, the compiler toolset is working dandy, and having  
> gdb would top it off just right.

Note, even if this worked, you'd need a remote debug agent for Windows.
There isn't one finished yet (though I have an unfinished one lying
around somewhere if I can ever find the time).

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery, LLC

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Steve Folly]

On 27 Sep 2005, at 22:18, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:12:40PM +0100, Steve Folly wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for
>> target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.
>>
>
> GDB 6.3 doesn't support the mingw32 target.  In fact it doesn't  
> support
> mingw32 as a host either.  Later versions will support it as a host  
> but
> not target.

The configure script in the gdb-6.3.tar.gz I downloaded seems to?

>
>
>> Unfortunately nothing much gets built. Probably because of the bit of
>> the configure script I found that starts with the comment:
>>
>>     # Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native.
>>
>
> This line does not appear in the GDB I'm looking at.  You must be  
> using
> someone's mingw32 patches.

Its in http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb/gdb-6.3.tar.gz - configure - line  
1360. I thought this would have been the 'official' unpatched version?

I am confused now - which 6.3 are you looking at that *doesn't*  
support mingw32?!


>
>
>> I'm trying to get a GNU toolset hosted on OS X and targetting Windows
>> (MinGW). So far, the compiler toolset is working dandy, and having
>> gdb would top it off just right.
>>
>
> Note, even if this worked, you'd need a remote debug agent for  
> Windows.
> There isn't one finished yet (though I have an unfinished one lying
> around somewhere if I can ever find the time).
>

Where can I find out more information about writing a remote debug  
agent for Windows?

Thanks very much for swift reply!

-- 
Regards,
Steve.

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:53:53PM +0100, Steve Folly wrote:
> >On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:12:40PM +0100, Steve Folly wrote:
> >
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for
> >>target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.
> >>
> >
> >GDB 6.3 doesn't support the mingw32 target.  In fact it doesn't  
> >support
> >mingw32 as a host either.  Later versions will support it as a host  
> >but
> >not target.
> 
> The configure script in the gdb-6.3.tar.gz I downloaded seems to?

No, it has some mingw bits scattered all over, but GDB definitely does
not have support for this target.

> >This line does not appear in the GDB I'm looking at.  You must be  
> >using
> >someone's mingw32 patches.
> 
> Its in http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb/gdb-6.3.tar.gz - configure - line  
> 1360. I thought this would have been the 'official' unpatched version?
> 
> I am confused now - which 6.3 are you looking at that *doesn't*  
> support mingw32?!

You're looking at the top level configure script.  I was looking at the
GDB subdirectory's.  So for that part of my comment I apologize; it was
wrong.

> >>I'm trying to get a GNU toolset hosted on OS X and targetting Windows
> >>(MinGW). So far, the compiler toolset is working dandy, and having
> >>gdb would top it off just right.
> >>
> >
> >Note, even if this worked, you'd need a remote debug agent for  
> >Windows.
> >There isn't one finished yet (though I have an unfinished one lying
> >around somewhere if I can ever find the time).
> >
> 
> Where can I find out more information about writing a remote debug  
> agent for Windows?

Nowhere in particular, but try the list archives for what is involved.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery, LLC

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Andrew STUBBS]

Steve Folly wrote:
> 
> On 27 Sep 2005, at 22:18, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Sep 27, 2005 at 10:12:40PM +0100, Steve Folly wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm trying to build gdb 6.3 on host powerpc-apple-darwin8.2.0 for
>>> target i386-pc-mingw32msvc.
>>>
>>
>> GDB 6.3 doesn't support the mingw32 target.  In fact it doesn't  support
>> mingw32 as a host either.  Later versions will support it as a host  but
>> not target.
> 
> 
> The configure script in the gdb-6.3.tar.gz I downloaded seems to?

The top level configure script may do, but as Daniel says the GDB 
sources do not.

Look at www.mingw.org for GDB MinGW patches (GDB 6.3-1 last time I 
looked). These will get it to compile for MinGW, but, even if they can 
be made to cross compile, Daniel's point about remote debugging still 
stands. I can see why you wouldn't want to use Windows as a build 
platform, but I suggest that, unless you have a good reason not to, you 
debug the programs natively using the native MinGW GDB. You can probably 
download a binary from their website along with the rest of MinGW/MSYS.

Alternatively, the GDB in Cygwin (www.cygwin.com) is capable of 
debugging MinGW programs. Cygwin also has support for compiling them 
with 'gcc -mno-cygwin'. Note that the standard Cygwin install does not 
include developer tools, but the installation tool is quite easy to use.

HTH

Andrew

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Steve Folly]

On 28 Sep 2005, at 11:37, Andrew STUBBS wrote:

>
> The top level configure script may do, but as Daniel says the GDB  
> sources do not.

I see now. I'm new to configure scripts. :-)

>
> Look at www.mingw.org for GDB MinGW patches (GDB 6.3-1 last time I  
> looked). These will get it to compile for MinGW, but, even if they  
> can be made to cross compile, Daniel's point about remote debugging  
> still stands. I can see why you wouldn't want to use Windows as a  
> build platform, but I suggest that, unless you have a good reason  
> not to, you debug the programs natively using the native MinGW GDB.  
> You can probably download a binary from their website along with  
> the rest of MinGW/MSYS.

Some of our apps run full screen and having a remote machine to debug  
on helps quite a bit.

I guess dual-screen capable PCs will help here, but our current  
hardware (supplied by our customer) doesn't support that.

>
> Alternatively, the GDB in Cygwin (www.cygwin.com) is capable of  
> debugging MinGW programs. Cygwin also has support for compiling  
> them with 'gcc -mno-cygwin'. Note that the standard Cygwin install  
> does not include developer tools, but the installation tool is  
> quite easy to use.
>

I think Cygwin may be the way to go - some makefiles we have running  
on OS X are using utilities like sed and grep, and we'd like to port  
them to Windows with the minimum of fuss.


Thanks very much for your advice.

-- 
Regards,
Steve.

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Steve Folly <gdb-list@spfweb.co.uk>
> Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:07:54 +0100
> 
> I think Cygwin may be the way to go - some makefiles we have running  
> on OS X are using utilities like sed and grep, and we'd like to port  
> them to Windows with the minimum of fuss.

You can find MinGW ports of Grep, Sed, and many others here:

    http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Christopher Faylor]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2005 at 12:20:58AM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Steve Folly
>> Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 21:07:54 +0100
>> 
>> I think Cygwin may be the way to go - some makefiles we have running  
>> on OS X are using utilities like sed and grep, and we'd like to port  
>> them to Windows with the minimum of fuss.
>
>You can find MinGW ports of Grep, Sed, and many others here:
>
>    http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gnuwin32

And, as mentioned, you can find many more ports, and an active community
supporting them, at http://cygwin.com/ .

Re: Can't build gdb for mingw32 if not native? :-(

[Dave Murphy]

Steve Folly wrote:

>
> Some of our apps run full screen and having a remote machine to debug  
> on helps quite a bit.
>
> I guess dual-screen capable PCs will help here, but our current  
> hardware (supplied by our customer) doesn't support that.
>
I'm nearly sure that remote debugging has been done using mingw tools 
although I could be mistaken. It's probably worth asking on the mingw 
mailing lists about this.

>
> I think Cygwin may be the way to go - some makefiles we have running  
> on OS X are using utilities like sed and grep, and we'd like to port  
> them to Windows with the minimum of fuss.
>
>
Msys provides much of what you need for comfortable use of unix style 
tools, the basic install definitely includes sed and grep. I build gnu 
tools with mingw/msys on a regular basis, including gcc cross compilers.

http://www.mingw.org/

This wiki page also provides some useful information on building a cross 
compiler in that environment.

http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/index.php/mingw%20hosted%20cross%20compiler

Dave