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tlbdk wants to merge 7 commits into from
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Add section on how to build debug build #22510

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c4a7b72
Add section on how to build debug build
Aug 24, 2018
b81cd6a
doc: clarify building a debug build
mathiastj Aug 29, 2018
5e3717b
Merge pull request #1 from mathiastj/patch-2
tlbdk Aug 29, 2018
d5c02d5
Added a bit of detail on gdb and backtrace
Aug 29, 2018
91fe56d
Minor tweaks from @lundibundi
Aug 29, 2018
aa7d6ad
minor tweaks from @vsemozhetbyt
mathiastj Aug 30, 2018
2f3d272
Merge pull request #2 from mathiastj/patch-3
tlbdk Aug 30, 2018
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38 changes: 38 additions & 0 deletions BUILDING.md
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Expand Up @@ -253,6 +253,44 @@ To install this version of Node.js into a system directory:
$ [sudo] make install
```

#### Building a debug build

If you run into an issue where the information provided by the JS stack trace
is not enough, or if you suspect the error happens outside of the JS VM, you
can try to build a debug enabled binary:

```console
$ ./configure --debug
$ make -j4
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@refack refack Aug 24, 2018

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I might suggest make -C out BUILDTYPE=Debug -j4 to avoid unnececerily building the Release binary. That could allow you to replace the following paragraph with:

If the build finished successfully, the debug enabled binary will be at `out/Debug/node`

```

`make` with `./configure --debug` generates two binaries, the regular release
one in `out/Release/node` and a debug binary in `out/Debug/node`, only the
release version is actually installed when you run `make install`.

To use the debug build with all the normal dependencies overwrite the release
version in the install directory:

``` console
$ make install --prefix=/opt/node-debug/
$ cp -a -f out/Debug/node /opt/node-debug/node
```

When using the debug binary, core dumps will be generated in case of crashes.
These core dumps are useful for debugging when provided with the
corresponding original debug binary and system information.

Reading the core dump requires gdb built on the same platform core dump was
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@vsemozhetbyt vsemozhetbyt Aug 30, 2018

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gdb -> `gdb` here and below?

captured on(i.e. 64bit gdb for node built on a 64bit system, Linux gdb
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@vsemozhetbyt vsemozhetbyt Aug 30, 2018

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on(i.e. -> on (i.e. (missing space)

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@vsemozhetbyt vsemozhetbyt Aug 30, 2018

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node -> Node.js here and below (or node -> `node`).

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@vsemozhetbyt vsemozhetbyt Aug 30, 2018

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Not sure but maybe 64bit -> 64 bit for consistency with other cases in this doc.

for node built on Linux) otherwise you will get errors like
"not in executable format: File format not recognized".

Example of generating a backtrace from the core dump:

``` console
gdb /opt/node-debug/node core.node.8.1535359906
backtrace
```

### Windows

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