Building insight independantly of gdb

Building insight independantly of gdb

[Michael Stather]

As I read from the "about" page insight is a GUI for gdb. But it seems to be
built as a "gdb" executable mixing native gdb functionality with a gui.
But if insight replaces my existing gdb other gdb GUIs and apps which use
gdb don´t work anymore.
Can I compile insight independant from gdb, so that it doesn´t interfere
with an existing gdb installation. The actual executable should be named
"insight" then.
 
regards
 
Michael Stather

Re: Building insight independantly of gdb

[Steven Johnson]

Hi Michael,

This isnt correct.  When you build Insight, you get a "gdb" executable, 
which is just (for all intents and purposes) plain old gdb, and an 
"insight" executable, which is insight gui enabled gdb.  They are 
actually the same executable, but insight/gdb decides to go for gui or 
command line mode by the name of the exe.  It can also be controlled 
with --nw or -w switch.  So, your standard tools, that expect a command 
line gdb should still function.

If you want to install it to test, and dont want to over write your 
installed version, your best bet is to use --prefix=(some install 
directory) i like to use --prefix=/opt/insight

then to run just type /opt/insight/bin/insight, or as Keith said, add it 
to your path.

It is highly unlikely that Insight will ever be able to be installed 
separate from GDB, that is because Insight is not a front end to GDB, it 
is GDB.  It uses internal function calls to interface to the core GDB 
debug logic.  It doesnt use the command line annotations or MI mode.  It 
is like the GDB-tui in that regard.

Hope that clears it up for you.

Steven


Michael Stather wrote:

>As I read from the "about" page insight is a GUI for gdb. But it seems to be
>built as a "gdb" executable mixing native gdb functionality with a gui.
>But if insight replaces my existing gdb other gdb GUIs and apps which use
>gdb don´t work anymore.
>Can I compile insight independant from gdb, so that it doesn´t interfere
>with an existing gdb installation. The actual executable should be named
>"insight" then.
> 
>regards
> 
>Michael Stather
>
>
>
>  
>