From 155e56bd970d4f386fd3ca903eadc2b8d3ee0276 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 17:08:33 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Update documentation suggestions for debugging the backend.
Tom Lane, with minor adjustments by me.
---
doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml | 21 +++++++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
index 113596138ef..75fb7838949 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
@@ -1415,10 +1415,23 @@ su - postgres
<note>
<para>
- Server developers should consider using the configure options
- <option>--enable-cassert</> and <option>--enable-debug</> to enhance the
- ability to detect and debug server errors. Your debugger might
- also require specific compiler flags to produce useful output.
+ When developing code inside the server, it is recommended to
+ use the configure options <option>--enable-cassert</> (which
+ turns on many run-time error checks) and <option>--enable-debug</>
+ (which improves the usefulness of debugging tools).
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If using GCC, it is best to build with an optimization level of
+ at least <option>-O1</>, because using no optimization
+ (<option>-O0</>) disables some important compiler warnings (such
+ as the use of uninitialized variables). However, non-zero
+ optimization levels can complicate debugging because stepping
+ through compiled code will usually not match up one-to-one with
+ source code lines. If you get confused while trying to debug
+ optimized code, recompile the specific files of interest with
+ <option>-O0</>. An easy way to do this is by passing an option
+ to <application>make</>: <command>gmake PROFILE=-O0 file.o</>.
</para>
</note>
</step>
--
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