Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

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Kunda1
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Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by Kunda1 »

Sorry if this is discussed elsewhere, I couldn't locate in the forums where exactly, but I'd like to propose a way for testers (who are on mainstream supported setups) to get quick access to debug builds without necessarily needing to build them as a first resort.

One the FC wiki debugging page it says: (emphasis mine)
If you are running a version of FreeCAD from the bleeding edge of the development curve, it may "crash". You can help solve such problems by providing the developers with a "backtrace". To do this, you need to be running a "debug build" of the software. "Debug build" is a parameter that is set at compile time, so you'll either need to compile FreeCAD yourself, or obtain a pre-compiled "debug" version.
So where are these pre-compiled debug versions? Searching for them doesn't yield clear results.

So my question is what is the status of said debug builds? Will we have them available? If so, lets link to them from pages like 'Debugging' on the wiki.
Also in the meantime, I propose adding links to the debugging page on how to compile FC per ones platform/distro *which already exist. Is that cool?
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agryson
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by agryson »

Kunda1 wrote:So where are these pre-compiled debug versions?
It's unclear to me if these are debug versions, but maybe it's a start?
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by Jee-Bee »

If the pre-builds are debug versions it would be nice if there can also build a python3 version (Even on a single OS is better as none)
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by sgrogan »

The builds on https://github.com/freecad/freecad/releases and the Ubuntu PPA are all release builds. I don't know anyplace that pre-compiled debug versions are available.
On Linux(and OSX) for a crash at least it's useful to run FreeCAD under gdb, from the FAQ
If you are on a linux system, it is easy to do a debug backtrace, which provides very useful information about the crash to the developers:

in a terminal, type: gdb freecad (assuming package gdb is installed)
inside gdb, type run
after the crash, type bt to get the backtrace, that you can include in your bug report.
I just activated the option to build and package the debug symbols for release builds for the PPA. We will see what this adds.
REF: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17617#p138810
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by DeepSOIC »

At some early times of me compiling FreeCAD, I tried to transfer a Windows debug build to another computer. Without success (I don't quite remember, what the error message was, but it was something non-trivial, like "application wasn't installed on system"). I didn't really fight with that for long, i quickly found out I needed to switch to release build.
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Kunda1
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by Kunda1 »

@NormandC wrote a thread[ on [Ubuntu Daily PPA] How to install debug symbols package
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20347
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by NormandC »

sgrogan wrote:I just activated the option to build and package the debug symbols for release builds for the PPA. We will see what this adds.
I didn't remember where sgrogan had mentioned this, thanks Kunda1, and thanks sgrogan for activating this! :D

Now to hunt for a method to crash FreeCAD. :twisted:

Alternatively, I wonder if we could provide an AppImage built in Debug mode?

IIRC the reason the PPA packages are not Debug builds is that it can slow down operations in FreeCAD.
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Kunda1
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by Kunda1 »

NormandC wrote:
sgrogan wrote:I just activated the option to build and package the debug symbols for release builds for the PPA. We will see what this adds.
I didn't remember where sgrogan had mentioned this, thanks Kunda1, and thanks sgrogan for activating this! :D

Now to hunt for a method to crash FreeCAD. :twisted:

Alternatively, I wonder if we could provide an AppImage built in Debug mode?

IIRC the reason the PPA packages are not Debug builds is that it can slow down operations in FreeCAD.
np :)
I'm not sure but it could be that the QGIS folks have some affiliation with a university that builds nightlies for them and hosts them as well. Maybe we can figure out some sort of relationship with a uni or a fablab that can do that ?
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NormandC
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by NormandC »

We could always create a new PPA under freecad-maintainers dedicated to Debug builds.

But I don't like it, because they would only be used by a very small fraction of the FreeCAD users. Which is why an AppImage compatible with most Linux distros could be useful.
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Re: Pre-built Debug Builds easier to access for testers

Post by sgrogan »

NormandC wrote:We could always create a new PPA under freecad-maintainers dedicated to Debug builds.

But I don't like it, because they would only be used by a very small fraction of the FreeCAD users. Which is why an AppImage compatible with most Linux distros could be useful.
What may be possible would be to create a new PPA for debug builds and only trigger the builds for a specific case. A FreeCAD-debug repo, triggered manually only for the most difficult cases.
It seems that if a user, with help on the forum can produce a repeatable test case, then the main dev's usually have enough info.
On Win at least the package size is twice as big and performance is seriously compromised (@DeepSOIC the debug CRT is not re-distributable). IMHO it comes back to educating users to triage bugs in the help forum.
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