Maintaining Debug Information Separate from an Executable

Because debug information embedded in an executable can be very large, some versions of Linux support stripping this information from the executable and placing it into a separate file. This file is then referenced within the executable using either a build ID section or a debug link section (or both) to identify the location and name of the separate debug file. The stripped image file will normally take up less space on the disk, and if you want the debug information, you can also install the corresponding .debug file.

The way this works with TotalView is controlled by a series of state variables and command line options discussed in Controlling Separate Debug Files.

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