prebuilt tool binaries question

[Joel Sherrill]

Jake Janovetz wrote:
> 
> > >     Joel> usefulness of the configurations being built.  For example,
> > >     Joel> the m68k gdb does not include Eric Norum's bdm kit.
> > >
> > > What would it take to fold in the BDM patches into GDB binaries?  I
> > > would guess that a BDM-capable m68k/coldfire gdb would be a very
> > > common case, one that would be nice to support "out of the box."
> >
> > I think BDM is important to support.  If Eric Norum can't
> > use the gdb RPM, then who can? :)
> >
> > We started to add the BDM patch but had to stop and
> > back it out because there were problems that were too
> > complicated to address this close to a release.
> >
> > The problem is that the BDM patches are Linux specific,
> > not enabled for m68k-rtems, and do not turn themselves
> > off when configuring on a non-Linux host.
> > As it is, this causes problems building for non-Linux hosts.
> > Moreover, you have to have the bdm device installed to use it.
> >
> > Mostly I think it is a matter of tinkering with configure
> > scripts in gdb so:
> >
> >   + disable automatically on Linux
> >   + m68k-rtems on Linux includes this bdm support
> >   + m68k-rtems on other hosts does not include it
> >   + address the device installation issue
> >   + address including bdm documentation in the RPM.
> 
> Joel,
> 
>    How difficult (or would it even be reasonable) to provide
> three levels of RPM for gdb:  rtems-base-, m68k-rtems-, and bdm-.
> The last one installs the differences involved for BDM support.
>    (including the bdm.o module)

I considered this but it requires adding another rpm spec
file and did not want to get involved in adding another
spec to the build right now.  

Long term, gdb will become more rtems aware so m68k-bdm
and m68k-rtems w/bdm support should be considered different.

This is not a bad idea and I think it is good step.

And James' comments indicate that a FreeBSD user could not
use a Linux gdb binary with bdm support in it.  So having
bdm and non-bdm variants is a better way to go.

>     Cheers,
>     Jake
> 
> --
>    janovetz at uiuc.edu    | How can it be that mathematics, being after all a
>  University of Illinois | product of human thought independent of experience,
>                         | is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?
>         PP-ASEL         |                                  - Albert Einstein
> 
> Disclaimer: The policies of this University certainly do not reflect my
>             own opinions, objectives, or agenda.

-- 
Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
joel at OARcorp.com                 On-Line Applications Research
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