Re: [Evolution-hackers] Introduction and Questions

[Ross Boylan <ross biostat ucsf edu>]

On Thu, 2007-05-31 at 23:14 +0530, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, 2007-05-31 at 07:58 -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> > Hi.  I've been getting into the code of evolution recently, and am thinking of 
> > doing a bit more to see if I can get it working OK for my situation.  I have 
> > an IMAP mailbox which is very large, both in terms of folders (over 100) and 
> > messages (the largest folder has >300,000 messages; my INBOX has about 
> > 22,000).
> > 
> > None of the email clients I've tried cope with this very well.  Since I've 
> > been using evo at work in a similar setup (cyrus server, though not quite as 
> > big), I thought it might be the best to try to tweak.  The problems I've had 
> > so far involve setup activities rather than core functionaility.  First, 
> > evolution couldn't create the account (solved); second I've had problems 
> > getting it to show all of my subfolders.
> > 
> > My narrow question is how to debug evolution.  When I launched evolution in 
> > gdb evolution (the GUI) came up, and then the debugger told me the process 
> > had exited (though the GUI was up and running).  I believe the initial 
> > process does some kind of activation of the "real" process and then exits.
> 
> Hmm, doesn't it give you a point to do 'bt' to get the traces? 
I don't think there's anything to trace, since the action is happening
in another process.
When I begin I am at the gdb command line.  I was able to insert a
breakpoint at what seemed like a good spot (this was a future
breakpoint, since the relevant library hadn't loaded).  Then when I did
'run' the GUI came up, and the program I was debugging exited.  There
was no error, and I didn't hit the breakpoint, so I don't think bt would
be meaningful.

Or perhaps I'm misunderstanding and it is only one thread that has
exited.  But I see in main.c a lot of IDL code, and I know GNOME apps
are supposed to be able to discover if they've already launched.  I
guessed (mostly by analogy with MS COM) that the initial program simply
requests a service, and that is either conveyed to an existing instance
of the app or a new  instance is created.
> 
> > 
> > I know I can attach to the second process, but I think the stuff I need to see 
> > happens at startup.  So how can I get a debugger on the startup process of 
> > the "real" evolution?
> > 

> 
-- 
Ross Boylan                                      wk:  (415) 514-8146
185 Berry St #5700                               ross biostat ucsf edu
Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics           fax: (415) 514-8150
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94107-1739                     hm:  (415) 550-1062