[coreboot] debugging symbols for final ROM image

[Jeremy Jackson]

On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 00:04 +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:

> Is there a way to strip out the debugging information from an image
> compiled with -g? I would like to have an image without debugging info,
> especially for the bootblock and initram because both are uncompressed
> and storing uncompressed debug info in a ROM is a total waste of space.
> The debugging info for each LAR member can be stored in a separate
> (always compressed) member.

There is the question of including the debug symbols in the ROM
(compiler default), provided with the ROM in a separate file (put both
in a .tgz for distribution from a website), or offering as a separate
download.  There's probably a use case for all 3, so configure/build
option?

Debian/Ubuntu has separate -dbg packages for some things, which contain
the debug symbol files. (separate from the .so libraries)  The man page
for "strip" suggests:

$ objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.dbg
$ objcopy --strip-debug foo
$ objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.dbg foo

> By the way, the debugging info is similar to one of the pet projects I
> have: Providing a symbol file for the boot block, enabling people to
> build initram and stage2 against a given bootblock.

This sounds like a special case, but in general, "there's nothing new
under the sun" and compilers/assemblers/linkers do this every day...
wouldn't that just be a matter of providing the .o/.a object file
and/or .h header file?

-- 
Jeremy Jackson
Coplanar Networks
(519)489-4903
http://www.coplanar.net
jerj at coplanar.net