Gnat Programming Studio: Install gdb version 8.0.1 in parallel with GPS 2018 to sign gdb code. Experiences?

I'm having trouble using gdb (Debugger) on MacOS High Sierra. With the help of

and several others (thanks!!) I have already collected the information required to fix the problem:

The basic problem is that you have to sign the code with a certificate.
I already created a certificate
The gdb I'm currently using is 7.10. This version will not work, according to the sources, but it is not mentioned, why. The latest gdb version 8.1 is not working because of a bug, so version 8.0.1 is recommended.

I'm using Gnat Programming System (GNAT Community edition 2018 downloaded from AdaCore). The gdb version included in that package is 7.10.

Here is my specific problem: Before I even try myself, does anybody have experiences installing the gdb 8.0.1 in parallel with the GPS package? (Please note that I already had some trouble mixing GPS with separately installed gnat packages on my Linux System).

Or alternatively: Why does the gdb 7.10 version not work? To give it a try, I made the attempt to sign this version, but got the error message: "Already signed".

Solution

Not a definitive answer here! But .. running on 10.13.5 under sudo, to avoid code-signing issues (while admittedly running a slight risk),

The CE2018 edition starts the program but hangs,
GDB 8.1 built with GCC 8.1.0 crashes (I found a patch, but after applying it GDB failed, although less spectacularly),
The GNAT GPL 2017 edition rebuilt with GCC 8.1.0 hangs,
The GNAT GPL 2017 edition as downloaded works OK.

It might be possible to replace the CE2018 gdb with the GPL2017 version, code-signed of course, though there’s a raft of support code (in e.g. $prefix/share/gdb) that might not match too well. Worth a try.

An alternative to replacing might be to delete (or rename) the CE2018 $prefix/bin/gdb and arrange to have the GPL2017 suite on PATH after the CE2018 suite.

PS: I code-signed the CE2018 gdb and it worked OK! Colour me baffled.

There were several lines of reports on the lines of

warning: `/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Binaries/Libc_darwin/install/TempContent/Objects/Libc.build/libsystem_darwin.dylib.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/darwin_vers.o': can't open to read symbols: No such file or directory.

which are annoying but seem harmless. I’ve not seen this with the GPL2017 edition.