Re: [PATCH] meson.build: Add --enable-use-pdb option

> On 18. Mar 2026, at 20:18, Steve Aarnio <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> This option will (attempt to) modify the QEMU compile and link flags to
> emit PDB symbol files rather than the standard (DWARF?) symbol output
> from gcc/clang.
> 
> This enables using native Windows debug tools (Windbg/Visual Studio) for
> debugging QEMU.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Steve Aarnio <[email protected]>


Reviewed-by: Mohamed Mediouni <[email protected]>

Already used something like this, it makes Windows debugging substantially easier.
> ---
>  meson.build       | 5 +++++
>  meson_options.txt | 2 ++
>  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
> index d7c4095b39..d27581e0c2 100644
> --- a/meson.build
> +++ b/meson.build
> @@ -692,6 +692,11 @@ endif
>   qemu_common_flags += hardening_flags
>  +if get_option('debug') and get_option('use_pdb')
> +  qemu_common_flags += cc.get_supported_arguments('-g','-gcodeview','-gcolumn-info','-fno-omit-frame-pointer')
> +  qemu_ldflags += cc.get_supported_link_arguments('-g','-Wl,--pdb=')
> +endif
> +
>  # Collect warning flags we want to set, sorted alphabetically
>  warn_flags = [
>    # First enable interesting warnings
> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
> index 31d5916cfc..b1f3250d5c 100644
> --- a/meson_options.txt
> +++ b/meson_options.txt
> @@ -372,6 +372,8 @@ option('debug_stack_usage', type: 'boolean', value: false,
>         description: 'measure coroutine stack usage')
>  option('qom_cast_debug', type: 'boolean', value: true,
>         description: 'cast debugging support')
> +option('use_pdb', type: 'boolean', value: false,
> +       description: 'use pdb symbol format on debug windows builds')
>  option('slirp_smbd', type : 'feature', value : 'auto',
>         description: 'use smbd (at path --smbd=*) in slirp networking')
>  -- 
> 2.53.0