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List:       kde-commits
Subject:    valgrind
From:       Nicholas Nethercote <njn25 () cam ! ac ! uk>
Date:       2003-12-02 15:30:28
[Download RAW message or body]

CVS commit by nethercote: 

Whoops... back out changes accidentally made to this file with the last,
unrelated, commit.  Sorry.


  M +59 -21    README   1.14


--- valgrind/README  #1.13:1.14
@@ -2,15 +2,14 @@
 Release notes for Valgrind, version 1.0.0
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-> We're well past 1.0.0.  I propose removing the version number here;
-> it doesn't contribute anything, and just gets out-of-date.
-
 KDE3 developers: please read also README_KDE3_FOLKS for guidance
 about how to debug KDE3 applications with Valgrind.
 
-> I propose removing README_KDE3_FOLKS, and this reference to it;  I
-> think Valgrind has been around long enough that KDE developers don't
-> need separate instructions.
+If you are building a binary package of Valgrind for distribution,
+please read README_PACKAGERS.  It contains some important information.
+
+If you are developing Valgrind, please read README_DEVELOPERS.  It contains
+some useful information.
 
-[snip]
+For instructions on how to build/install, see the end of this file.
 
 Valgrind works best on systems with glibc-2.1.X or 2.2.X, and with gcc
@@ -20,13 +19,28 @@
 optimisation.  Valgrind-1.0.X also can't handle glibc-2.3.X systems.
 
-> Out of date:  I think glibc-2.3.X is ok, right?  Also gcc-3.1 is ok?
 
 Executive Summary
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Valgrind is a tool to help you find memory-management problems in your
+programs. When a program is run under Valgrind's supervision, all
+reads and writes of memory are checked, and calls to
+malloc/new/free/delete are intercepted. As a result, Valgrind can
+detect problems such as:
+
+   Use of uninitialised memory 
+   Reading/writing memory after it has been free'd 
+   Reading/writing off the end of malloc'd blocks 
+   Reading/writing inappropriate areas on the stack 
+   Memory leaks -- where pointers to malloc'd blocks are lost forever
+   Passing of uninitialised and/or unaddressible memory to system calls
+   Mismatched use of malloc/new/new [] vs free/delete/delete [] 
+   Some abuses of the POSIX pthread API
+
+Problems like these can be difficult to find by other means, often
+lying undetected for long periods, then causing occasional,
+difficult-to-diagnose crashes.
 
-> This summary doesn't account for the core/tool split.  Should be
-> similar to the overview on the website.
-
-[snip]
+When Valgrind detects such a problem, it can, if you like, attach GDB
+to your program, so you can poke around and see what's going on.
 
 Valgrind is closely tied to details of the CPU, operating system and
@@ -40,7 +54,4 @@
 least.
 
-> Out of date... could make more generic, eg. works on most/all common
-> Linux distros
-
 Valgrind is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2. 
 Read the file COPYING in the source distribution for details.
@@ -55,12 +66,39 @@
 docs/techdocs.html.
 
-> These paths are incorrect.
 
-[snip]
+Building and installing it
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+To install from CVS :
 
-Julian Seward (jseward@acm.org)
-1 July 2002
+  0. Check out the code from CVS, following the instructions at
+     http://developer.kde.org/source/anoncvs.html. The 'modulename' is
+     "valgrind".
+
+  1. cd into the source directory.
+
+  2. Run ./autogen.sh to setup the environment (you need the standard
+     autoconf tools to do so).
 
-> out of date, I suggest removing the date, and saying "report bugs to
-> valgrind.kde.org" or similar.
+To install from a tar.gz archive:
 
+  3. Run ./configure, with some options if you wish. The standard
+     options are documented in the INSTALL file.  The only interesting
+     one is the usual --prefix=/where/you/want/it/installed.
+
+  4. Do "make".
+
+  5. Do "make install", possibly as root if the destination permissions
+     require that.
+
+  6. See if it works.  Try "valgrind ls -l".  Either this works,
+     or it bombs out complaining it can't find argc/argv/envp.
+     In that case, mail me a bug report.
+
+Important!  Do not move the valgrind installation into a place
+different from that specified by --prefix at build time.  This will
+cause things to break in subtle ways, mostly when Valgrind handles
+fork/exec calls.
+
+
+Julian Seward (jseward@acm.org)
+1 July 2002


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