Re: Change in core[master]: restore --enable-symbols option again -- was FYI: Cleanup of debug options

On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:01 AM, Stephan Bergmann <sbergman@redhat.com> wrote:
> One problem with "S: symbols" is that "symbols" is a vague term here.

http://www.network-theory.co.uk/docs/gccintro/gccintro_37.html
"The debug compilation option works by storing the names and source
code line-numbers of functions and variables in a 'symbol' table in
the object file or executable. "

My understanding of --enable-symbol is that it provide additional info
so that a backtrace contain human-friendly info even for 'local
function' (i.e the one that are resolved at compile time not at link
time). How that is implemented is platform specific, and the fact that
on some platform it is indistinguishable from --enable-debug-info is
irrelevant.
for me --enable-debug-info add enough to allow me to step through the
code using a debugger, having all the variables name, line number etc,
which is _not_ what --enable-symbol is aiming at.

> It is not per-se about any kind of symbols (like not stripping internal symbols on ELF, etc.), but

yes it is very much about symbols and not stripping them and making
sure that there is enough of them (more than strictly necessary for
the linker and kept in after link)

Norbert