290122 - Compile source files with absolute pathnames on AIX

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(NSPR :: NSPR, defect, P3)

Description

[Julien Pierre]

This is the counterpart to bug 290120 . We need to compile NSPR with absolute
pathnames in order to debug the binaries with dbx and idebug .

Comment 1

[Julien Pierre]

Attachment: set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX

Comment 2

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Comment on attachment 180553 [details] [diff] [review]
set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX

We should combine this with the existing code for OS2,
like this:

-ifeq ($(OS_ARCH),OS2)
+ifeq (,$(filter-out AIX OS2,$(OS_ARCH)))
 NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH = 1
 endif

Comment 3

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Philip, this is an NSPR makefile change in the way
we compile files on AIX.  The proposal is to pass
full pathnames of the source files to the compiler.

Comment 4

[Julien Pierre]

Yes, the dbx on AIX is different, at the one I have. It won't automatically find
source files unless compiled with full pathnames.

Comment 5

[Philip K. Warren]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Yes, the dbx on AIX is different, at the one I have. It won't automatically find
> source files unless compiled with full pathnames.

This is true, but you can use the "use" command in dbx to specify a search path
for source files. See:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.doc/cmds/aixcmds2/dbx.htm
for more information.

Comment 6

[Julien Pierre]

Wan-Teh,

Your proposed change in comment #2 is fine. Please check it in to the NSPR tip
for 4.6. Thanks !

Comment 7

[Wan-Teh Chang]

One problem I have with using full pathnames of
source files is that the users of our debug libraries
must reproduce a source tree with the exact same
pathname to get the source code; otherwise the debugger
can't find the source files.

The reason is that if the source file is certdb.c,
the debugger will ask you where to find certdb.c, but
if the source file is
/home/wtchang/nss-tip/mozilla/security/nss/lib/certdb/certdb.c,
the debugger won't ask you where to find the file because it's
a full pathname.  If the users of our debug libraries cannot
create /home/wtchang on their machines, the debugger won't
be able to find the source files.  I have run into this problem
on Windows.

Comment 8

[Philip K. Warren]

(In reply to comment #7)
> The reason is that if the source file is certdb.c,
> the debugger will ask you where to find certdb.c, but
> if the source file is
> /home/wtchang/nss-tip/mozilla/security/nss/lib/certdb/certdb.c,
> the debugger won't ask you where to find the file because it's
> a full pathname.  If the users of our debug libraries cannot
> create /home/wtchang on their machines, the debugger won't
> be able to find the source files.  I have run into this problem
> on Windows.

DBX on AIX offers a fix for this. From the docs:

"To express that source files whose full-path name information begins with
/home/developer are now located under /mnt, enter:

use + [/home/developer=/mnt]"

Comment 9

[Julien Pierre]

Let's examine the current situation on AIX when sources are compiled without a
pathname. The debugger prompts for the location of every single source file in
every subdirectory.

The use command won't help much, because to my knowledge , only the explicit
directory specified with use is searched. dbx will not do a recursive search to
find source files. And since there are no relative pathnames by default in the
current build either, that means you'll have to add lib/xxx, lib/yyy,
include/zzz, etc ... one at a time with the use command. That's not practical.

If your object files contain an absolute location that you can't directly
access, a single use command can also be issued to map /home/wtchang to
/yourtree . This is according to the documentation link that Philip posted.
 

Comment 10

[Philip K. Warren]

I agree that it is much simpler for developers to use the absolute pathnames
when debugging. I have gotten in the habit of creating a dbx script file where I
add several "use + ..." statements which are executed when dbx starts, but this
sounds like a better solution.

Comment 11

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Attachment: set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX, v1.1

Right now NSPR 4.6 checkins require mozilla.org drivers'
approval.  We need to have a patch in order to request
approval.  Please mark your review+ first.  Thanks.

Comment 12

[Philip K. Warren]

Comment on attachment 180627 [details] [diff] [review]
set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX, v1.1

Not an sr but I approve this patch from an AIX platform owner perspective.

Comment 13

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Comment on attachment 180627 [details] [diff] [review]
set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX, v1.1

Requesting aviary1.1a and mozilla1.8b2 approvals.

This patch has a low risk.  We want to pass full pathnames
of the source files to the compiler to help the debugger
find the files.  It has been reviewed by Julien Pierre
of Sun and Philip Warren of IBM.

Comment 14

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Comment on attachment 180627 [details] [diff] [review]
set NEED_ABSOLUTE_PATH on AIX, v1.1

a=caillon

Comment 15

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Fix checked into the NSPR trunk (NSPR 4.6) and the
NSPRPUB_PRE_4_2_CLIENT_BRANCH (Mozilla 1.8 Beta 2).