views:

308

answers:

2

Is there an equivalent in dbg/cocoa/apple word for the Microsoft public symbol server and windbg (http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols)? So basically 1) does gdb support the concept of a symbol server and 2) does apple supply a public URL for their own public symbols?

+1  A: 

1) Not really, but you can load symbols from an external file 2) No

See http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Potential_Projects#gdb_symbol_server_support

Stuart Dunkeld
both responses are useful but Is selected this one because it answers exactly my question
Remus Rusanu
+2  A: 

The Mac OS X frameworks include symbols (to the extent of function-name and Objective-C information) anyway, so you don't need Apple to provide that information from a server.

For your own apps, set your debugging symbol format to DWARF-with-dSYM, and archive the dSYM bundles for every beta and final release. gdb should retrieve symbol information from the dSYM bundles as long as you keep them alongside the real (e.g., .app) bundles. Again, no server needed.

More information:

Peter Hosey
ty. The problem with built in symbols is version. Ie. when I get a crash from a customer, my symbols may not match what the customer was running on. I'm new to the whole gdb ecosystem, so my question may be mute, but I see it as an issue atm.OT: Any chance we'll see Adium on iPhone?
Remus Rusanu
That's why you archive the dSYM bundles for *every* beta and final release. You don't replace one set of dSYMs with the other; you keep them all. Then you use the appropriate dSYMs for the version in the crash report (the Symbolicator will do this automatically).
Peter Hosey