Insight 5.0 on Linux

Insight 5.0 on Linux

[Dennis K. Peters]

Hi Insight team,

I have two questions, both of which are probably FAQ, but I couldn't find
an FAQ on your web site so I've got to ask them.

1) I'm trying to upgrade my existing Linux (Slackware 7.0) system to use
Insight 5.0. It seems that the distribution comes with a bunch of stuff
that I already have and in some cases have more recent versions of (e.g. I
have tcl 8.0.5 installed, the distribution comes with tcl 8.0.4). I'm
reluctant to install over these existing versions, particularly if it
means going backwards in version numbers, so I'd like to use what I've
already got, but the confgure/make doesn't seem to use what I have. Is
there an easy way to just build and install the new gdb executable (and
corresponding documentation etc.), and be informed if I'm missing anything
else. (Isn't this the way configure usually works?)

2) Having built successfully, but not installed, I've tested it in my the
build directory. It seems to work fine if I start it in a (bash) shell in
the foreground, but if I background the process (i.e., "gdb <file> &"),
when I click the 'run' icon it loops forever. (The first statement in the
program I'm debugging is of the form 'cout << "This program ...', if that's
important.)

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Dennis Peters

Dennis K. Peters, Ph.D., P.Eng.            | dpeters@engr.mun.ca 
Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science   | http://www.engr.mun.ca/~dpeters
Memorial University of Newfoundland        | Ph: (709) 737-8929 
St. John's, NF  Canada  A1B 3X5            | Fax: (709) 737-4042

Re: Insight 5.0 on Linux

[Fernando Nasser]

"Dennis K. Peters" wrote:
> 
> Hi Insight team,
> 
> I have two questions, both of which are probably FAQ, but I couldn't find
> an FAQ on your web site so I've got to ask them.
> 
Yes, the FAQ is overdue.  We may have it on-line before the end of February.


> 1) I'm trying to upgrade my existing Linux (Slackware 7.0) system to use
> Insight 5.0. It seems that the distribution comes with a bunch of stuff
> that I already have and in some cases have more recent versions of (e.g. I
> have tcl 8.0.5 installed, the distribution comes with tcl 8.0.4). I'm
> reluctant to install over these existing versions, particularly if it
> means going backwards in version numbers, so I'd like to use what I've
> already got, but the confgure/make doesn't seem to use what I have. Is
> there an easy way to just build and install the new gdb executable (and
> corresponding documentation etc.), and be informed if I'm missing anything
> else. (Isn't this the way configure usually works?)
> 

You can't do that yet.  The versions that come with the GNU tree have fixes that
were not incorporated by the Tcl folks.  Things are changed though and we may
lift this restriction this year.

When you configure you can specify the directory where you want thingd to
be installed.  The default is /usr/local but you can change it.

<source dir>/configure --prefix=/local/insight

When you run make install files will go into   /local/insight/bin 
/local/insight/share etc.

Just add /loca/insight/bin to your PATH.


> 2) Having built successfully, but not installed, I've tested it in my the
> build directory. It seems to work fine if I start it in a (bash) shell in
> the foreground, but if I background the process (i.e., "gdb <file> &"),
> when I click the 'run' icon it loops forever. (The first statement in the
> program I'm debugging is of the form 'cout << "This program ...', if that's
> important.)
> 

Yes, someone has reported that background is broken.  It is a GDB problem that
affects us.  I believe we have this entry in the bug database already.
We need some volunteer to fix that (I will eventually do it myself when I find
some time).




-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@redhat.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9

Re: Insight 5.0 on Linux

[Syd Polk]

"Dennis K. Peters" wrote:
> 
> Hi Insight team,
> 
> I have two questions, both of which are probably FAQ, but I couldn't find
> an FAQ on your web site so I've got to ask them.
> 
> 1) I'm trying to upgrade my existing Linux (Slackware 7.0) system to use
> Insight 5.0. It seems that the distribution comes with a bunch of stuff
> that I already have and in some cases have more recent versions of (e.g. I
> have tcl 8.0.5 installed, the distribution comes with tcl 8.0.4). I'm
> reluctant to install over these existing versions, particularly if it
> means going backwards in version numbers, so I'd like to use what I've
> already got, but the confgure/make doesn't seem to use what I have. Is
> there an easy way to just build and install the new gdb executable (and
> corresponding documentation etc.), and be informed if I'm missing anything
> else. (Isn't this the way configure usually works?)
> 


Insight requires the version of tcl/tk that it uses. It is happy to
co-exist with an existing installation; you should build it with

./configure --prefix=/usr/redhat/insight

and put /usr/redhat/insight/bin in your path.

This also has the nice effect that you won't overwrite the gdb version
that comes with RH.

> 2) Having built successfully, but not installed, I've tested it in my the
> build directory. It seems to work fine if I start it in a (bash) shell in
> the foreground, but if I background the process (i.e., "gdb <file> &"),
> when I click the 'run' icon it loops forever. (The first statement in the
> program I'm debugging is of the form 'cout << "This program ...', if that's
> important.)

Insight will not work if executed in background. It is really hard to
get it to work that way, as every different operating system has really
bizarre ways to do pseudo-terminals.
 
> Thanks in advance for your assistance.
> 
> Dennis Peters
> 
> Dennis K. Peters, Ph.D., P.Eng.            | dpeters@engr.mun.ca
> Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science   | http://www.engr.mun.ca/~dpeters
> Memorial University of Newfoundland        | Ph: (709) 737-8929
> St. John's, NF  Canada  A1B 3X5            | Fax: (709) 737-4042

Re: Insight 5.0 on Linux

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Syd" == Syd Polk <spolk@redhat.com> writes:

Syd> Insight will not work if executed in background. It is really
Syd> hard to get it to work that way, as every different operating
Syd> system has really bizarre ways to do pseudo-terminals.

Actually, I think a patch to make Insight work in the background
wouldn't be too hard.  You have to change inflow.c:gdb_has_a_terminal()
to say that there is never a controlling terminal when the gui is
running.  I hacked this in to my gdb and it seems to work ok.  Of
course if you do this and want to debug a program that actually uses
its terminal then you have to enable the xterm-for-inferior feature.

I've appended my patch.  I don't know whether it is really advisable
or not, so I haven't submitted it to gdb-patches.

Tom

Index: inflow.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/gdb/inflow.c,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -r1.4 inflow.c
--- inflow.c	2000/12/15 01:01:47	1.4
+++ inflow.c	2001/01/08 19:07:43
@@ -138,6 +138,13 @@
 #endif
 
       gdb_has_a_terminal_flag = no;
+
+      /* If we have a window system then by default we assume there is
+	 no controlling terminal.  If the inferior needs one then it
+	 is up to the GUI to deal with it.  */
+      if (use_windows)
+	return 0;
+
       stdin_serial = SERIAL_FDOPEN (0);
       if (stdin_serial != NULL)
 	{