aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/gdb/gdbserver
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'gdb/gdbserver')
-rw-r--r--gdb/gdbserver/README85
1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/gdb/gdbserver/README b/gdb/gdbserver/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c155ce9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gdb/gdbserver/README
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+ README for GDBserver
+ by Stu Grossman
+
+Introduction:
+
+This is GDBserver, a remote server for Un*x-like systems. It can be used to
+control the execution of a program on a target host from a GDB on a different
+host. GDB and GDBserver communicate using the standard remote serial protocol
+implemented in remote.c, and various *-stub.c files. They can communicate via
+either a serial line or a TCP connection.
+
+Usage (server (target) side):
+
+First, you will need to have a copy of the program to be debugged put onto
+the target system. It can be stripped if you need to save space. This is ok
+because GDBserver doesn't care about symbols, all of that stuff is taken care
+of by the GDB running on the host system.
+
+To use the server, you will need to log on to the target system, and run the
+server program. You will need to tell it how to communicate with GDB, the
+name of the program to be debugged, and it's arguments. For example, using a
+serial port, you might say:
+
+ target> gdbserver /dev/com1 emacs foo.txt
+
+This tells gdbserver to debug emacs with an argument of foo.txt. The server
+will communicate with GDB via /dev/com1. GDBserver will now wait patiently
+for GDB to communicate with it.
+
+To use a TCP connection, you could say:
+
+ target> gdbserver host:2345 emacs foo.txt
+
+This says pretty much the same thing as the last example, except that we are
+now going to communicate with GDB via TCP. The `host:2345' argument means that
+we are expecting to see a TCP connection from `host' to local TCP port 2345.
+Currently, the host part is ignored. You can choose any number you want for
+the port number as long as it does not conflict with any existing ports on your
+system. This same port number will also be used in the GDB `target remote'
+command, which we will discuss later. Note that it's safe to chose a number
+that conflicts, gdbserver will just print an error message and exit.
+
+Usage (host side):
+
+You should have a copy of the target program on your host system, since GDB
+will need it to examine symbol tables and such. You should start up GDB just
+as you normally would, with the target program as the first argument. Ie:
+`gdb target-prog'. After that, you will only need to know about one new
+command. This is `target remote'. It's argument is either a device name
+(preferably of a serial device, like /dev/ttyb), or a host:port descriptor.
+For example:
+
+ (gdb) target remote /dev/ttyb
+
+will communicate with the server via the hardware serial line /dev/ttyb, and:
+
+ (gdb) target remote the-target:2345
+
+will communicate via a TCP connection to port 2345 on host `the-target', where
+you have already started up gdbserver with the same port number. Note that you
+must start up gdbserver prior to using the target command, otherwise you will
+get an error that looks something like `Connection refused'.
+
+Building:
+
+Currently, the only target system supported by the server is Lynx. To build
+the server for Lynx, make a new copy of the distribution onto a disk that is
+NFS shared with the Lynx system. Lets say that's in a directory called xyzzy.
+Then, follow these steps under the host system:
+
+ 1) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
+ 2) ../../configure --target i386-none-lynx
+
+When that completes, do the following on the Lynx system:
+
+ 3) cd xyzzy/gdb/gdbserver
+ 4) make CC=gcc
+
+It should build with only a minor complaint about NULL being redefined. That's
+a LynxOS problem, and can be ignored.
+
+It's also possible that you may have a cross-compiler to Lynx. In that case,
+you can skip the stuff about NFS. You would replace steps 3 & 4 with:
+
+ make CC=lynx-target-compiler...