Re: [avr-chat] Preferred debugging/executable format (ELF vs. DWARF)?

[Galen Seitz]

Rick Mann <address@hidden> wrote:

> I'm toying with the idea of writing a debugger for AVR development
> (don't ask why).
> 
> I'd like to know a little about ELF vs. DWARF formats. Are these two
> mutually exclusive? I currently build and debug with ELF, but I get
> the idea that DWARF is preferred. Is this the case? How well is it
> supported in the current toolchain?

DWARF is a debugging format.  ELF is an object/executable format.  DWARF 
debugging info is located inside an ELF file.

  http://dwarf.freestandards.org/faq.php

Currently I believe avr-gdb only supports stabs(an older debugging
format).  Newer versions of AVRStudio understand DWARF, so it's possible
to debug code produced by avr-gcc using AVRStudio.

If you're looking for a project, adding DWARF support to avr-gdb would
be a great thing to contribute.

galen