Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

# Installing GDB

GDB comes with a `configure` script that automates the process of preparing GDB for installation; you can then use `make` to build the `gdb` program. (5)

The GDB distribution includes all the source code you need for GDB in a single directory, whose name is usually composed by appending the version number to ``gdb'`.

For example, the GDB version 4.18 distribution is in the ``gdb-4.18'` directory. That directory contains:

`gdb-4.18/configure (and supporting files)`
  script for configuring GDB and all its supporting libraries
`gdb-4.18/gdb`
  the source specific to GDB itself
`gdb-4.18/bfd`
  source for the Binary File Descriptor library
`gdb-4.18/include`
  GNU include files
`gdb-4.18/libiberty`
  source for the ``-liberty'` free software library
`gdb-4.18/opcodes`
  source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers
`gdb-4.18/readline`
  source for the GNU command-line interface
`gdb-4.18/glob`
  source for the GNU filename pattern-matching subroutine
`gdb-4.18/mmalloc`
  source for the GNU memory-mapped malloc package

The simplest way to configure and build GDB is to run `configure` from the ``gdb-version-number'` source directory, which in this example is the ``gdb-4.18'` directory.

First switch to the ``gdb-version-number'` source directory if you are not already in it; then run `configure`. Pass the identifier for the platform on which GDB will run as an argument.

For example:

    cd gdb-4.18
    ./configure host
    make

where host is an identifier such as ``sun4'` or ``decstation'`, that identifies the platform where GDB will run. (You can often leave off host; `configure` tries to guess the correct value by examining your system.)

Running ``configure host'` and then running `make` builds the ``bfd'`, ``readline'`, ``mmalloc'`, and ``libiberty'` libraries, then `gdb` itself. The configured source files, and the binaries, are left in the corresponding source directories.

`configure` is a Bourne-shell (`/bin/sh`) script; if your system does not recognize this automatically when you run a different shell, you may need to run `sh` on it explicitly:

    sh configure host

If you run `configure` from a directory that contains source directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the ``gdb-4.18'` source directory for version 4.18, `configure` creates configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless you tell it not to, with the ``--norecursion'` option).

You can run the `configure` script from any of the subordinate directories in the GDB distribution if you only want to configure that subdirectory, but be sure to specify a path to it.

For example, with version 4.18, type the following to configure only the `bfd` subdirectory:

    cd gdb-4.18/bfd
    ../configure host

You can install `gdb` anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the ``SHELL'` environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that GDB uses the shell to start your program--some systems refuse to let GDB debug child processes whose programs are not readable.

- Separate Objdir: Compiling GDB in another directory
- Config Names: Specifying names for hosts and targets
- Configure Options: Summary of options for configure

## Compiling GDB in another directory

If you want to run GDB versions for several host or target machines, you need a different `gdb` compiled for each combination of host and target. `configure` is designed to make this easy by allowing you to generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in the source directory. If your `make` program handles the ``VPATH'` feature (GNU `make` does), running `make` in each of these directories builds the `gdb` program specified there.

To build `gdb` in a separate directory, run `configure` with the ``--srcdir'` option to specify where to find the source. (You also need to specify a path to find `configure` itself from your working directory. If the path to `configure` would be the same as the argument to ``--srcdir'`, you can leave out the ``--srcdir'` option; it is assumed.)

For example, with version 4.18, you can build GDB in a separate directory for a Sun 4 like this:

    cd gdb-4.18
    mkdir ../gdb-sun4
    cd ../gdb-sun4
    ../gdb-4.18/configure sun4
    make

When `configure` builds a configuration using a remote source directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library ``libiberty.a'` in the directory ``gdb-sun4/libiberty'`, and GDB itself in ``gdb-sun4/gdb'`.

One popular reason to build several GDB configurations in separate directories is to configure GDB for cross-compiling (where GDB runs on one machine--the host---while debugging programs that run on another machine--the target). You specify a cross-debugging target by giving the ``--target=target'` option to `configure`.

When you run `make` to build a program or library, you must run it in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you called `configure` (or one of its subdirectories).

The `Makefile` that `configure` generates in each source directory also runs recursively. If you type `make` in a source directory such as ``gdb-4.18'` (or in a separate configured directory configured with ``--srcdir=dirname/gdb-4.18'`), you will build all the required libraries, and then build GDB.

When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate directories, you can run `make` on them in parallel (for example, if they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere with each other.

## Specifying names for hosts and targets

The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure` script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short predefined aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes three pieces of information in the following pattern:

    architecture-vendor-os

For example, you can use the alias `sun4` as a host argument, or as the value for target in a `--target=target` option. The equivalent full name is ``sparc-sun-sunos4'`.

The `configure` script accompanying GDB does not provide any query facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. `configure` calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub` to map abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example:

    % sh config.sub i386-linux
    i386-pc-linux-gnu
    % sh config.sub alpha-linux
    alpha-unknown-linux-gnu
    % sh config.sub hp9k700
    hppa1.1-hp-hpux
    % sh config.sub sun4
    sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1
    % sh config.sub sun3
    m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1
    % sh config.sub i986v
    Invalid configuration `i986v': machine `i986v' not recognized

`config.sub` is also distributed in the GDB source directory (``gdb-4.18'`, for version 4.18).

## `configure` options

Here is a summary of the `configure` options and arguments that are most often useful for building GDB. `configure` also has several other options not listed here. See Info file `configure.info', node `What Configure Does', for a full explanation of `configure`.

    configure [--help]
              [--prefix=dir]
              [--exec-prefix=dir]
              [--srcdir=dirname]
              [--norecursion] [--rm]
              [--target=target]
              host

You may introduce options with a single ``-'` rather than ``--'` if you prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use ``--'`.

`--help`
  Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure`.
`--prefix=dir`
  Configure the source to install programs and files under directory ``dir'`.
`--exec-prefix=dir`
  Configure the source to install programs under directory ``dir'`.
`--srcdir=dirname`
  Warning: using this option requires GNU `make`, or another `make` that implements the `VPATH` feature.
  Use this option to make configurations in directories separate from the GDB source directories. Among other things, you can use this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, in separate directories. `configure` writes configuration specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to use the source in the directory dirname. `configure` creates directories under the working directory in parallel to the source directories below dirname.
`--norecursion`
  Configure only the directory level where `configure` is executed; do not propagate configuration to subdirectories.
`--target=target`
  Configure GDB for cross-debugging programs running on the specified target. Without this option, GDB is configured to debug programs that run on the same machine (host) as GDB itself. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available targets.
`host ...`
  Configure GDB to run on the specified host. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available hosts.

There are many other options available as well, but they are generally needed for special purposes only.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.