minetest-dbgsym..? ... repos, versions ... a confusing mess.

[CuriousNoob]

Chain of events :

With my recent question failing to elicit the hoped-for expertise, I'm still thrashing around in ignorance.

I saw lordfingle's post about debugging minetest.

Debugging software like he's doing is not in my skillset.

But I searched and found Fixerol's post : Minetest 0.4.14.

I realise his post's many months old and relates to an earlier version.

Nevertheless I thought I'd try this gdb thing.

I edited the minetestdevs-daily ppa entry in my Software-Manager's Software-Sources and added '' debug'' to the end.

Clicked to update the cache. Also totally rebooted.

Software-Manager --- with search-string ''minetest'' --- throws back a list which includes :

minetest-dbg --- Version: 0.4.13+repack-1build1
minetest-server --- Version: 0.4.13+repack-1build1

But I do not see any ''minetest-dbgsym'' at all.

And from the command-line :

Code: Select all

#  :  apt show minetest-dbgsym
N: Unable to locate package minetest-dbgsym
N: Unable to locate package minetest-dbgsym
E: No packages found

Question :

Is this minetest-dbgsym thing still relevant, and if so, where is it now..?

Question :

Why are packages with v 0.4.13 still there when I'm using the minetestdevs-daily ppa..?

HTH

Thanks (?)

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[octacian]

What even is minetest-dbgsym? If I were you, rather than fighting with PPAs to get the latest version, just compile it yourself. See Calinou's one-line command here. Simply follow the instructions there, one line, and you'll be done. I'm not sure about the issues you mentioned in the other post, but this should deal with getting the latest version.

[CuriousNoob]

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Hi

Thanks for the suggestion

What even is minetest-dbgsym?

As far as I understand what Fixerol recommended, minetest-dbgsym facilitates debugging.

My desire is not merely to achieve a situation where there are no longer problems for me in the here-and-now.

If possible, it is always better to extend one's comprehension of normal-function and modes-of-failure.

Interestingly in Medicine you see analogues of this.

Minds that question vs minds that merely repeat a pre-programmed performance.

There are plenty of general-practitioners who are little better than ''see ABC, do XYZ'' highly-trained monkeys. And it quickly removes the patient from the room, usually with a prescription for some expensive pharmaceutical.

Unfortunately that's a probabilistic approach to illness that regularly sees misdiagnoses, further suffering, and even preventable deaths.

But surprisingly few are those who think like real scientists, questioning everything, and initiating genuinely investigative comprehensive diagnostic testing.

Understanding where and why a failure occurs allows the body of knowledge to broaden and deepen.

Better comprehension permits greater possibility of most-appropriate treatment in the present, and innovation in the future.

And the more I know and understand the more I can, in turn, help others.

Biomechanically and biochemically complex physiology and large complex software projects share a similarity in so far as there are often poorly-understood and unforeseen interactions.

I believe software debugging allows a better view of what's going on behind-the-scenes and below-the-surface with running-software --- much as modern medical imaging-techniques and tissue-analyses permit views of the internal processes of both healthy and failing bodies.

So, if the aforemetioned ''minetest-dbgsym'' offers a better view, I'd like to try it.

Anything that lets me see more for myself is to be welcomed.

If I were you ... just compile it yourself.

Yes indeed, I have done, many times, as part of trying to investigate this and other issues --- local self-build is a very useful tool in the arsenal when you're fighting to use Linux year-in-year-out. LOL ;-P

... rather than fighting with PPAs to get the latest version ...

It's good to highlight an issue around the ppas.

As noobs we read regularly the advice to add the minetestdevs ppa repo to get up-to-date versions of minetest.

But that only seems to get us the up-to-date version of the basic minetest binary.

I use the minetestdevs daily ppa. Just the other day on these forums, after I suggested someone might try the ''minetest-server'' package, we were both disappointed and surprised to find 0.4.13.

So, from a community perspective, it's quite valid to ask why the other packages are old versions --- or in the case of ''minetest-dbgsym'' entirely absent --- after we've already gone to the trouble of adding the up-to-date ppa.

Further clarification welcome.

Thanks

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