[GRASS-user] Re: updating from GRASS from svn Unable to locate curses includes

[Glynn Clements]

Hamish wrote:

> these instructions should help:
> http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Compile_and_Install#Platform_Specific_Notes
> 
> 
> one thing there I don't understand: it recommends to do:
>   CFLAGS="-g" LDFLAGS="-s" ./configure
> 
> -g adds debugging hooks, but -s strips away debug messages.  ???
> (to quote tom waits: the large print giveth and the small print taketh away)

The LDFLAGS=-s part is bogus.

It used to be a common recommendation to counteract the fact that
configure defaults to "-g -O2" if the compiler is gcc. You wouldn't
use -s if you actually want the debug info.

Also, stripping the debug info is a false economy unless you're
seriously short of hard disk space. If you have your own PC (and it
doesn't belong in a museum), your disk space is likely to be measured
in hundreds of gigabytes, of which binaries (libraries and
executables) might account for around a gigabyte if *everything* is
built with debug info.

The only cases where stripping debug info makes sense is if you're
using a shared server with a miniscule quota, or if you're building a
binary distribution and you really need to minimise the size (FWIW, I
keep the debug info for the Cygwin packages).

For normal use, stick with "-g -O2". That produces optimised binaries
but keeps the debug info just in case you need to do minimal debugging
(e.g. make sense of a core file). If you want to actually debug the
program (set breakpoints, single step, examine variables etc), then
you need to drop the -O2, as it will result in object code which bears
little relation to the actual source code, and can only be debugged in
the most superficial sense.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>