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Hi Simon,
Just to add another data point: I use DJGPP extensively for quite a few closed-source DOS projects. My workflow involves using modern GCC (and
Clang) cross-compilers, targeting i686-pc-msdosdjgpp, with
cross-compiled DJGPP tools used to create the final executable files.
I just double checked all of my projects. I am using DWARF Version 5 in
all of them (generally using objcopy to split symbols into separate .dbg files). Modern DWARF works flawlessly for me, so removing COFF debug
info support from GDB would not affect my workflow.
I also make extensive use of NASM [1] in these projects, but when
generating COFF object files (needed to link with the other files), NASM cannot output debugging information of any kind, so that also does not
matter.
Robert
[1]
https://www.nasm.us/
On 1/9/2026 11:25 AM, Simon Marchi (
simon.marchi@polymtl.ca) [via
djgpp@delorie.com] wrote:
Hi,
GDB maintainer here. I'm in the process of cleaning up obsolete things,
like debug info formats that are not longer relevant. I am now looking
at COFF [1]. I am wondering if this is still useful for DJGPP, or if nowadays you can use DWARF like most other targets (or if people use GDB
for DJGPP at all).
In the gcc source code [1] I see this, so I guess that DWARF 2 is the
default debug format now?
/* Support generation of DWARF2 debugging info. */
#define DWARF2_DEBUGGING_INFO 1
#undef PREFERRED_DEBUGGING_TYPE
#define PREFERRED_DEBUGGING_TYPE DWARF2_DEBUG
...
/* Don't emit DWARF3/4 unless specifically selected. */ \
/* DWARF3/4 currently does not work for DJGPP. */ \
if (!OPTION_SET_P (dwarf_version)) \
dwarf_version = 2; \
\
} \
Note that I am only talking about the debug info aspects of COFF,
there are probably some things in coffread.c that would still be needed
in order to read executable files on Windows and/or DJGPP.
Thanks,
Simon
[1]https://gitlab.com/gnutools/gcc/-/blob/c10076b34d3ede485bfb306b2a91feeee8368cd5/gcc/config/i386/djgpp.h#L20-24
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Hi Simon,<br>
<br>
Just to add another data point: I use DJGPP extensively for quite a
few closed-source DOS projects. My workflow involves using modern
GCC (and Clang) cross-compilers, targeting i686-pc-msdosdjgpp, with
cross-compiled DJGPP tools used to create the final executable
files.<br>
<br>
I just double checked all of my projects. I am using DWARF Version 5
in all of them (generally using objcopy to split symbols into
separate .dbg files). Modern DWARF works flawlessly for me, so
removing COFF debug info support from GDB would not affect my
workflow.<br>
<br>
I also make extensive use of NASM [1] in these projects, but when
generating COFF object files (needed to link with the other files),
NASM cannot output debugging information of any kind, so that also
does not matter.<br>
<br>
Robert<br>
<br>
[1] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="
https://www.nasm.us/">https://www.nasm.us/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/9/2026 11:25 AM, Simon Marchi
(<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:
simon.marchi@polymtl.ca">
simon.marchi@polymtl.ca</a>) [via <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:
djgpp@delorie.com">
djgpp@delorie.com</a>] wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:
0752ebcc-24dd-4ea1-ad68-7822463d0eda@polymtl.ca">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">Hi,
GDB maintainer here. I'm in the process of cleaning up obsolete things,
like debug info formats that are not longer relevant. I am now looking
at COFF [1]. I am wondering if this is still useful for DJGPP, or if
nowadays you can use DWARF like most other targets (or if people use GDB
for DJGPP at all).
In the gcc source code [1] I see this, so I guess that DWARF 2 is the
default debug format now?
/* Support generation of DWARF2 debugging info. */
#define DWARF2_DEBUGGING_INFO 1
#undef PREFERRED_DEBUGGING_TYPE
#define PREFERRED_DEBUGGING_TYPE DWARF2_DEBUG
..
/* Don't emit DWARF3/4 unless specifically selected. */ \
/* DWARF3/4 currently does not work for DJGPP. */ \
if (!OPTION_SET_P (dwarf_version)) \
dwarf_version = 2; \
\
} \
Note that I am only talking about the debug info aspects of COFF,
there are probably some things in coffread.c that would still be needed
in order to read executable files on Windows and/or DJGPP.
Thanks,
Simon
[1] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="
https://gitlab.com/gnutools/gcc/-/blob/c10076b34d3ede485bfb306b2a91feeee8368cd5/gcc/config/i386/djgpp.h#L20-24">https://gitlab.com/gnutools/gcc/-/blob/c10076b34d3ede485bfb306b2a91feeee8368cd5/gcc/config/i386/djgpp.h#L20-24</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
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