Re: [doc] Avoid conflicts between gdb and cross-gdb.

[Mike Frysinger <vapier at gentoo dot org>]

On Wed 06 Aug 2014 06:24:35 Joel Brobecker wrote:
> > along these lines, should we also transform the default gdb datadir (for
> > python and xml files) ?  and info pages ?  looking at my cross-debugger
> > installs, those are the other big missing pieces.
> 
> For the default gdb_datadir, I am of two minds on this. It's really
> easy to adjust as desired at configure time, and I think that multiple
> GDB installs made at the same location should be compatible, and
> thus should be able to share their Python/XML files. But as previously
> said, it's not a strong opinion.

i'm not sure that's a good idea.  how do you deal with version skews ?  if i 
have gdb-7.8 installed as my native version and i have sh4-linux-gnu-
gdb-7.0.1, i think it's unreasonable to expect that the data files installed 
with my latest version will work fine with the older one.  we're talking the 
python files and cpu definitions and such.  i don't think the project wants to 
commit to maintaining backwards compatibility forever :).

further, distros already have to deal with this.  their choice is either:
(1) delete the data files for all non-native gdbs since they can't all install 
over top of each other
 -> cross gdb doesn't work unless you first install the native gdb
 -> distro commits to it working :)
(2) install the gdb files into a target-specific path
 -> cross gdb always works
 -> diff distros will probably pick a different path standard

i think it's best if the default gdb datadir automatically selected a unique 
location.  i just mean the default -- certainly if someone set the datadir via 
configure, that path should always be used.

in Gentoo, i was doing (1), but then i got reports about things breaking, so 
i've gone with (2) now.  i'm using ${datadir}/gdb/${target}, but i don't 
particularly care about the name :).
-mike

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