[Crash-utility] Re: [PATCH RFC 00/11] crash build refinements

The embedded gdb module dominates a crash build. Until now it was built with everything its own configure enables by default, and with debug information for crash and gdb alike, even though crash uses neither gdb's full-screen TUI nor the libctf and libbacktrace libraries. At the same time crash's own configure rewrote the tracked top-level Makefile in place: the tree was dirty after every build, and it was easy to end up with objects built with stale flags, since make cannot see that a flag changed. This series builds only what crash needs, and tidies the interface around the build and the release targets. Patches 1-4 trim the build, 5-8 rework the configure and release machinery, and 9-11 document and harden the result. Trimming the build: build: make debug information optional, off by default build: don't build the embedded gdb TUI build: don't build the unused libctf and libbacktrace libraries build: remove the unused gdb_files, glink, name and ref targets -g is now opt-in with "make DEBUG=1", for crash and the embedded gdb both. The gdb build no longer compiles its TUI (crash has its own CLI), nor libctf and libbacktrace: 68 source files in all. A full native build now compiles 599 objects and produces a ~14 MB crash binary. Reworking configure and the release targets: build: write the configure variables to Makefile.inc build: add a separate srpm target, release only builds the tarball build: remove the redundant tar target build: make README a static source file configure no longer edits the Makefile. It writes the variables it manages to a generated Makefile.inc, which the Makefile includes after its own defaults, so the tracked file is never modified and unconfiguring is just removing that file: "make unconfig", or "make distclean", which also removes the extracted gdb tree, the generated configure files and any release tarball/spec/source RPM. The release step is split so that "make release" only produces the source tarball and "make srpm" builds the source RPM from it, the redundant "make tar" is gone, and README is a normal source file rather than something a release regenerates from the built binary. Documenting and hardening: build: add a "make help" target README: document the new cleanup and packaging targets build: recover from an interrupted embedded-gdb configure "make help" lists the targets and options, including which target= values a given host accepts. gdb's configure creates config.status early but gdb/Makefile late, so an interrupted configure used to look like a complete one; a .configured marker written when configure finishes makes the next build reconfigure instead, and the remaining failure paths now point at "make distclean". README describes the new targets and the cleanup rules. Testing: - fresh native (x86_64) build: 599 objects, ~14 MB crash binary, runs and reports crash 9.0.3++; - fresh "make target=ARM64" build: links and runs; - configure leaves the tracked Makefile untouched, and "make files" no longer rewrites README; - "make clean", "make unconfig" and "make distclean" verified, including that distclean keeps CFLAGS.extra/LDFLAGS.extra and the downloaded gdb tarball; - the series applies in order to the current master. Notes: - "make tar" produced an unversioned, gdb-less crash.tar.gz next to the versioned, gdb-bundled crash-<version>.tar.gz from "make release". If the gdb-less variant is still wanted, it belongs as an option of release rather than as a second target. - README no longer mirrors help.c's built-in README text; "crash -h README" still substitutes the crash and gdb versions and the date at run time. - "make srpm" still triggers rpmbuild's "%source_date_epoch_from_changelog is set, but %changelog has no entries" warning on Fedora/RHEL, because the generated spec carries no %changelog. It is cosmetic and left as is. - These series were assited by LLM. I have a plan to continue to improve the code later, for example remove dead code, maintain the documents including the white paper within the git tree. I'd like to convert the static html into .rst files, and generate html/pdf dynamically. - I'd appreciate for inputs and comments. Dave Young (11): build: remove the unused gdb_files, glink, name and ref targets build: make debug information optional, off by default build: don't build the embedded gdb TUI build: don't build the unused libctf and libbacktrace libraries build: write the configure variables to Makefile.inc build: add a separate srpm target, release only builds the tarball build: remove the redundant tar target build: make README a static source file build: add a "make help" target README: document the new cleanup and packaging targets build: recover from an interrupted embedded-gdb configure .gitignore | 2 + Makefile | 174 ++++++++++++++++----- README | 32 +++- configure.c | 412 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------ gdb-16.2.patch | 22 ++- 5 files changed, 398 insertions(+), 244 deletions(-) -- 2.51.1 -- Crash-utility mailing list -- devel(a)lists.crash-utility.osci.io To unsubscribe send an email to devel-leave(a)lists.crash-utility.osci.io https://${domain_name}/admin/lists/devel.lists.crash-utility.osci.io/ Contribution Guidelines: https://github.com/crash-utility/crash/wiki