Debug packages in OpenBSD by Marc Espie

A year and a half ago, Paul Irofti and I we implemented debug packages in the ports system of OpenBSD. Our goal was to be as unintrusive to the normal ports building process as possible. The basics are rather simple: modern toolchains allow debugging information to be held in separate files in a straightforward manner, but plugging this somewhere in the package system so that porters do not need to be aware of any details was another matter. Through several fast iterations, we quickly made some debug packages available. A year later, we have activated debug packages for most relevant ports, and activating it for new ports is most often trivial.

Marc Espie
Researcher/Teacher in development security at Epita
Architect of the OpenBSD packages and ports system