Re: HEADS-UP: Enabling WITH_DEBUG_FILES by default

On 11 February 2015 at 21:39, Glen Barber <gjb_at_freebsd.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Within the next 24 hours, I will merge the release-install-debug branch
> into head, which will enable building and installing stripped debugging
> files by default.
>
> In general, this should have no significant impact, but any fallout will
> be addressed as soon as possible after the merge.
>
> Those that do not want debugging files built/installed by default should
> add 'WITHOUT_DEBUG_FILES=1' to src.conf(5).  This will also be noted in
> UPDATING.

I want to pick this change up again. There are a few separate parts
under discussion:

1. Release build changes to support standalone debug
2. Installer changes
3. Switching debug files on by default
4. Separating into two or more debug dist sets

Glen's proposed merge from earlier this year included #1 through #3,
but was held up based on discussion in this thread. I propose that we
merge #1 and #2 now, since they're effectively a no-op if debug files
aren't enabled, but facilitate further testing.

Separating the debug dist sets (into runtime and binaries, or even
more fine-grained) requires coordination with the packaged base work,
and I suggest that we hold off on that project for now.

I'd like to flip the default shortly after and continue refining it
with it enabled - we need to start finding and fix issues now in order
to have it ready for 11.0. I have a review open for the default
switch, in https://reviews.freebsd.org/D4018.

In my test just now on a powerful server the cpu (user+system) time
increased from 15260s to 15760s. Wall clock time increased by under
40s (20:08.83 to 20:47.49). The objdir was 2.4GB without debug and
4.3GB with.