The developers of the Ubuntu distribution have introduced the debuginfod.ubuntu.com service, allowing users to debug the programs included in the distribution without installing separate packages containing debugging information from the debuginfo repository. With this new service, users can dynamically download debugging symbols from an external server directly during debugging. This capability has been supported since the release of GDB 10 and Binutils 2.34. Debugging information is provided for packages from the main, universe, restricted, and multiverse repositories across all supported releases of Ubuntu.
The process powering the debuginfod service is an HTTP server that delivers ELF/DWARF debugging information and source texts. When built with debuginfod support, GDB can automatically connect to debuginfod servers to load missing debugging information about the files being processed or to separate debugging files and source texts for the executable being debugged. To enable this, server the debuginfod URL should be set to ‘DEBUGINFOD_URLS="https://debuginfod.ubuntu.com"’ before running GDB.
Source: opennet.ru
