[Buildroot] [RFC; PATCH] Use gdbserver from external toolchain

[Anders Darander]

Hi Yann,

(I'm also adding a CC to the mailing list; I think I might have
replied in a wrong way earlier by mistake)...

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 19:26, Yann E. MORIN
<yann.morin.1998 at anciens.enib.fr> wrote:
> Hello Anders!
>
> On Friday 23 October 2009 08:26:52 Anders Darander wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 19:40, Yann E. MORIN
>> <yann.morin.1998 at anciens.enib.fr> wrote:
>> > I'm afraid this is a bit too crosstool-NG centric. OTOH, there's no clean
>> > way to know where in an external toolchain we should look for the gdbserver.
>> Yes, it is quite likely that it relies to heavily on the external
>> toolchain being generated by crosstool-NG. OTOH, as there is no clean
>> way to handle it, this might be the best way anyway? Possibly adding
>> an extra option where one could point out the location of the
>> gdbserver?
>
> Yes, I know. I was just saying that (for now) an external toolchain could
> be generated by something else than crosstool-NG, so we know what the
> patch would imply, and that it may break.

Yes, this is certainly very true, and it is also the use case I got to
think of when reading your earlier reply. However, unless the
configuration system of buildroot can determine that the external
toolchain is built by crosstool-NG, I think the best option we have is
to rely on an extended helptext.

> I am aware that there has recently been a thread about buildroot relying
> on extrernally-built toolchains, and use crosstool-NG to build it: we
> discussed the subject in Grenoble last WE with Peter, Thomas and Co.
> (BTW, I am the maintainer of crosstool-NG).

Well, even though I'm aware of that discussion (and I'm supporting
such a move), I had not made that coupling with this issue earlier. If
buildroot goes that way, than this whole arrangement of finding
gdbserver would probably be made a lot easier...

(By the way, I know that you're the maintainer of crosstool-NG. A huge
thank you for your work with crosstool-NG, I'm really enjoying it when
creating cross-toolchains).

>> If the external toolchain from some other source do not contain
>> gdbserver, the old way of letting buildroot build the gdbserver is
>> still available. Although, this should probably be added to the help
>> text of the new option.
>
> Agreed.
>
>> > This is some API that crosstool-NG should expose to outside: tell me where
>> > in can find the {gdbserver,duma,whatever} and the corresponding dependencies
>> > (libs, scripts...).
>> This would definitely be the best way. Although to make it really
>> usefull, it would have to be supported by more toolchains than the
>> ones from crosstool-NG... Otherwise we would still end up being
>> crosstool-NG-centric...
>
> Agreed as well! But, in the case that buildroot eventually relies on
> crosstool-NG, then it should be easy for buildroot to _ask_ for the
> gdbserver, rather than relying on hard-coded paths (crosstool-NG being
> a separate project, it may change the place where the gdbserver is).

Yes, that is true. I had momentarily forgot about those plans. Then an
API would certainly make sense, even if only crosstool-NG implements
it.

Thanks again!
Best regards,
Anders