gdb-apple: notes tell user to edit an uneditable system file

[spencerandy]

Once installed with command sudo port on Terminal, the window returns a note about need to make sure a filename that don't exist. When entering into the path, the filename don't appear. I recommend to don't return any notes about this port.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The notes say:

--->  gdb-apple has the following notes:
  You will need to make sure /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.taskgated.plist has the '-p' option, e.g.
              <key>ProgramArguments</key>
              <array>
                      <string>/usr/libexec/taskgated</string>
                      <string>-sp</string>
              </array>

Editing this file presumably is still necessary on older systems for this port to work.

On my macOS High Sierra system, the file still exists, but of course cannot be edited due to System Integrity Protection. I do not know whether the port will work on these newer systems if this file is not edited.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Not sure what system you're on, but even on Big Sur, /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.taskgated.plist still exists.

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

I suspect the problem the OP complains about is not the absence of that file - but inability to edit it because SIP doesn't allow it.

[kencu (Ken)]

gdb-apple is so old we should block it from anything newer than about Leopard anyway.

people should be using the gdb port.

[ojfd]

In High Sierra, if you disable SIP, you can edit 'com.apple.taskgated.plist' and add -p option, but gdb-apple still produces

Unable to find Mach task port for process-id XXX: (os/kern) failure (0x5)

error and, of course, does not work. Creating certificate in KeyChain and codesigning gdb-apple with it doesn't help either. I've just spent a whole day trying to make it work with no success whatsoever. In Yosemite it works like a charm.

Someone, please look into this issue. I find this old gdb quite useful, mostly thanks to availability of ​https://github.com/gdbinit/Gdbinit

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Replying to kencu:

gdb-apple is so old we should block it from anything newer than about Leopard anyway.

people should be using the gdb port.

It's got code in it conditionalized for Lion; latest ChangeLog entry is from 2013, which was after Mountain Lion, so restricting it to Leopard seems to be going a bit too far... Also, there are features in the gdb-apple port that never got upstreamed back to the mainline FSF gdb, so there are still reasons people might want to use it instead. I tried combining them at one point, but only made a mess of things: ​https://github.com/cooljeanius/apple-gdb-1824 (help wanted)