Talk:Debugging information

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I wonder whether this article should be merged into Debugging data format. Much of this information is about debug data in general, rather than being specific to debug symbols. What do other contributors think? CWC 12:38, 24 December 2009 (UTC)Reply

This article focuses heavily on Windows and Microsoft, pleas consider mentioning other OSes as well. 173.81.25.50 (talk) 19:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

This article underwent an act of vandalism of the address 75.139.254.117 by submerging it by quotations such as : Citation Needed, Who, Why, How Much, Which for any reason !--PhiberOptik (talk) 15:54, 30 January 2017 (UTC)Reply

There is a link from Linker (computing) for what should be External symbol. It seems to me that this is the wrong place, but I don't know a better one. Gah4 (talk) 09:37, 1 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

The page should be titled Debug Info rather than Debug Symbol. The descriptions are about the debug info than the debug symbols. Wikieditor 2027 (talk) 11:21, 11 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

The items in a symbol table are symbols. If they are enriched with info about the location in the source files, they are usually referred to as "debug symbols". Kleuske (talk) 11:25, 11 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

Not sure about that, because the gcc clearly gives a section in object code named as 'Disassembly of section .debug_info: '.

And a page for debug symbol is not necessary imo. That could have been a subsection in the Debug Info page. Wikieditor 2027 (talk) 11:33, 11 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

@Guy Harris: Edit permalink/1233783061 removed a paragraph from Debug symbol § Embedded symbols, leaving All of this additional information without a referent.-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 08:43, 11 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Chatul: I changed it to just "Debugging information". However, it's true regardless of whether debugging symbols are in the object/executable/shared library file or in separate files, so it's a motivation for either 1) stripping symbols from a file or 2) not shipping files debugging-information files. Guy Harris (talk) 08:51, 11 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Many interactive debuggers allow the user to define temporary symbols during a debug session, and references to these may have different syntax from references to symbols in the executable's symbol table. I believe that a different name for the article may be appropriate. Further, if the article is not moved to a different name I believe that a citation is needed for this specific meaning of the term debug symbol. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 14:29, 2 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

There are several references in the LLDB documentation, but LLDB started out, as I remember, as an Apple project, and, given that Apple tends not to put debug symbols in the executable's symbol table, putting them into... "dSYM files", perhaps "debug symbol" is an Apple-ism. I'll do a bit more poking to see if anything else in UN*Xland uses that term, or if it's used by Microsoft for Windows. Guy Harris (talk) 20:27, 25 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Microsoft also uses the term, again in the context of symbols in a file other than the executable. Guy Harris (talk) 20:53, 25 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Section 3.10 "Options for Debugging Your Program" of the GCC documentation also uses the term, as well as using the term "debugging information". Other uses show up with searches for "debug symbol" and "dwarf" and searches for "debug symbol" and "stabs". Guy Harris (talk) 20:59, 25 August 2024 (UTC)Reply