Enable debug symbols for all packages #18530
Description
PR #15539 mentions this, but I think it’s worthwhile to have a separate GitHub issue.
Currently, a large number of libraries are lacking debug symbols even though environment.enableDebugInfo = true; is specified in my /etc/nixos/configuration.nix. The following list is taken from a gdb session on NetworkManager:
(gdb) info sharedlibrary
From To Syms Read Shared Object Library
0x00007ffff7ddaab0 0x00007ffff7df5990 Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
0x00007ffff7bd6630 0x00007ffff7bd7d01 Yes (*) /nix/store/33z8lb3yzh18z10aqszc07imwlfkyhgb-util-linux-2.28.1/lib/libuuid.so.1
0x00007ffff78c7c80 0x00007ffff7993a44 Yes (*) /nix/store/3yvgy2mnsm2cfvbjkdcaxlzg1xwh80fj-gnutls-3.4.14/lib/libgnutls.so.30
0x00007ffff764b830 0x00007ffff767a1cf Yes (*) /nix/store/yzb1maz797c80606aqj78hafbc4lidcr-p11-kit-0.23.2/lib/libp11-kit.so.0
0x00007ffff7408fd0 0x00007ffff740d6e6 Yes (*) /nix/store/4b33d5w92qxaw464kgyfs6ncskwmp056-libidn-1.33/lib/libidn.so.11
0x00007ffff71f5d50 0x00007ffff7200b6b Yes (*) /nix/store/13lpz809nmpzl12hmn09xnd6yk2jvy7s-libtasn1-4.8/lib/libtasn1.so.6
0x00007ffff6fc4ee0 0x00007ffff6fe15ef Yes (*) /nix/store/5rqh0fg8004z9gkwvywbpg75ydf3w9gy-nettle-3.1.1/lib/libnettle.so.6
0x00007ffff6d8f270 0x00007ffff6d9c1e8 Yes (*) /nix/store/5rqh0fg8004z9gkwvywbpg75ydf3w9gy-nettle-3.1.1/lib/libhogweed.so.4
0x00007ffff6b04280 0x00007ffff6b6ee68 Yes (*) /nix/store/gb81bp3xbwrhkqd8cw7cvwxl0qlzah4x-gmp-6.1.1/lib/libgmp.so.10
0x00007ffff68edb90 0x00007ffff68f0c62 Yes (*) /nix/store/z9nhrhcgiqcag9frhdz8lwriypvl8kc5-libgudev-230/lib/libgudev-1.0.so.0
0x00007ffff7fd5c60 0x00007ffff7fe6886 Yes (*) /nix/store/lamh95q185ymigm217s64x08qcmnfhvm-systemd-231/lib/libudev.so.1
0x00007ffff66d13c0 0x00007ffff66deb35 Yes (*) /nix/store/vw0wcq2zz1w3l86ly5pzw2dphfpychym-libnl-3.2.28/lib/libnl-3.so.200
0x00007ffff7f59760 0x00007ffff7fae2aa Yes (*) /nix/store/lamh95q185ymigm217s64x08qcmnfhvm-systemd-231/lib/libsystemd.so.0
0x00007ffff64c4fe0 0x00007ffff64c6784 Yes (*) /nix/store/z4mg6wiy5y26p0djr95b4b6cnpf3m7qb-libndp-1.6/lib/libndp.so.0
0x00007ffff622a2e0 0x00007ffff6270aef Yes (*) /nix/store/3dg2ld3q204xsi2ml12073nw9bng7xf7-libsoup-2.54.1/lib/libsoup-2.4.so.1
0x00007ffff5eb07a0 0x00007ffff5f93160 Yes (*) /nix/store/9didfvj6wba723zcnls1c5iwp9jv3l3l-libxml2-2.9.4/lib/libxml2.so.2
0x00007ffff5b83660 0x00007ffff5beffba Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libm.so.6
0x00007ffff58b2440 0x00007ffff5955100 Yes (*) /nix/store/1bx29pqdzwc722an88nzxxvn24al2nyb-sqlite-3.14.1/lib/libsqlite3.so.0
0x00007ffff5555490 0x00007ffff562892b Yes (*) /nix/store/nvclglzzqj57gzclmq44aziw33y7d2c4-glib-2.48.2/lib/libgio-2.0.so.0
0x00007ffff531d2b0 0x00007ffff531e1b5 Yes (*) /nix/store/nvclglzzqj57gzclmq44aziw33y7d2c4-glib-2.48.2/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0
0x00007ffff51081a0 0x00007ffff51143d9 Yes (*) /nix/store/ahjpbwi957n7pqp7i7ys6s2vxmk4dr06-zlib-1.2.8/lib/libz.so.1
0x00007ffff4ef2810 0x00007ffff4efe93b Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libresolv.so.2
0x00007ffff4ca79e0 0x00007ffff4cd83a6 Yes (*) /nix/store/nvclglzzqj57gzclmq44aziw33y7d2c4-glib-2.48.2/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0
0x00007ffff4a95aa0 0x00007ffff4a9a35c Yes (*) /nix/store/3zzw0gc6078nsp829x2va9690kca237j-libffi-3.2.1/lib/../lib64/libffi.so.6
0x00007ffff479ef80 0x00007ffff4815bb9 Yes (*) /nix/store/nvclglzzqj57gzclmq44aziw33y7d2c4-glib-2.48.2/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
0x00007ffff4516730 0x00007ffff4565996 Yes (*) /nix/store/10jk5h18ahh2xaad74ng3mgx0lfjmfj6-pcre-8.38/lib/libpcre.so.1
0x00007ffff42fd810 0x00007ffff430a531 Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libpthread.so.0
0x00007ffff40f4d70 0x00007ffff40f590e Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libdl.so.2
0x00007ffff3d75930 0x00007ffff3e9e1a3 Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libc.so.6
0x00007ffff3b526d0 0x00007ffff3b53fd6 Yes (*) /nix/store/4am908pjq2j4bzqcy051mx62ab0rd1xa-libcap-2.25-lib/lib/libcap.so.2
0x00007ffff394af70 0x00007ffff394dd1f Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/librt.so.1
0x00007ffff3725e30 0x00007ffff373bff2 Yes (*) /nix/store/3qq5qv97jdqg0ywq14spj7kmif39fhnw-xz-5.2.2/lib/liblzma.so.5
0x00007ffff35132a0 0x00007ffff351f5bb Yes (*) /nix/store/bppnjqhm8jjbwc8215i9qvg4ws39avz1-lz4-131/lib/liblz4.so.1
0x00007ffff320ce00 0x00007ffff32cce48 Yes (*) /nix/store/i7z7i541bfa6gxw1g71wzf82gj5ms8s7-libgcrypt-1.7.3/lib/libgcrypt.so.20
0x00007ffff2ff0a30 0x00007ffff2ffa099 Yes (*) /nix/store/4ixpz8hqaqv4h4hibm0m8ljpbv38wd3n-libgpg-error-1.24/lib/libgpg-error.so.0
0x00007fffea9c30d0 0x00007fffea9c8d91 Yes /nix/store/y5js9j7zgrmz4j2dqcy0nvaqyk3izbv7-glibc-2.24/lib/libnss_files.so.2
0x00007fffea7a6800 0x00007fffea7b74c6 Yes /tmp/nm/nix/store/g05c3qil03b5lg02nqlz5viv2ad3bsam-network-manager-1.2.2/lib/NetworkManager/libnm-device-plugin-wifi.so
(*): Shared library is missing debugging information.
In the above list, only glibc seems to come with debug symbols, no other library does.
https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/options.html#opt-environment.enableDebugInfo explains how to override individual packages, but that’s tedious and requires recompilation of all reverse-dependencies, which is really really inconvenient (my machine is compiling spidermonkey since half an hour… :-/).
Debian recently started building debug symbol paackages by default and Fedora seems to have debuginfo RPMs built by default as well. I think having debug symbols on by default is a feature that users of modern Linux distributions have come to expect :).
Could we enable debug symbols for all packages by default please?
cc @kevincox