Debuginfod

gdb automatically tries to download debug files if the DEBUGINFOD_URLS environment variable is present.

libelf, a dependency of gdb, ships with /etc/profile.d/debuginfod.sh and /etc/profile.d/debuginfod.csh scripts that set the variable on login, so there is no need to install additional packages.

You can optionally install the debuginfod package which provides the utility. This package is required for debuginfod support in .

The tooling looks for debug symbols on the debuginfod servers specified in the DEBUGINFOD_URLS environment variable. The value is string of a space separated URLs.

For example:

DEBUGINFOD_URLS="https://debuginfod.archlinux.org/"

Now a debugger can fetch debug symbols without having to install the appropriate debug package.

$ gdb /usr/bin/i3

[...]
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/i3...
Downloading 1.56 MB separate debug info for /usr/bin/i3
Reading symbols from /home/user/.cache/debuginfod_client/29129d26dbe557d2b56daf90327f64f527304dc1/debuginfo...
(gdb)

You can also do for example:

# coredumpctl gdb

And then inside gdb

bt full

and you will have the debug-symbols of the last crashed app in your sysyem.

See for usage.

Several debuggers support utilizing debuginfod to find debug symbol and source code listing.

• Homepage
• The elfutils debuginfod server, FOSDEM 2020