Bug 2446155 - drop or adjust "Requires: gdb"
Summary: drop or adjust "Requires: gdb"
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: anaconda
Version: rawhide
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Martin Kolman
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-03-10 18:55 UTC by Frank Ch. Eigler
Modified: 2026-03-13 20:28 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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Description Frank Ch. Eigler 2026-03-10 18:55:08 UTC
$subject dependency arrived in 2018, as "# install time crash handling".

With https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Restrict_ptrace_by_default in play,
it's not desirable to install full gdb if anything lesser, like gdb-headless
is sufficient.  For what it's worth, I can't see any references in anaconda's
source code to gdb at all, so maybe this dependency is obsolete.

Please investigate whether the dependency can be removed or downgraded to
gdb-headless.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Martin Kolman 2026-03-13 14:12:38 UTC
We have gdb on the installation image for manual debugging purposes - while Anaconda does not call it, it is very useful when something crashes & we need to debug it. It would be hard to add it to an already running environment as we currently don't have an RPM database (for space saving purposes) not to mention external RPM repositories not being (easily) available in many uses cases that still can crash. So I think we want to keep the full gdb there for now.

Comment 2 Brian Lane 2026-03-13 16:31:21 UTC
It's worth noting that gdb was essential in tracking down https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2439813 (great work by adamw) so it should be kept in the installer iso.

Comment 3 Frank Ch. Eigler 2026-03-13 17:02:31 UTC
OK, just because it's in the installer image, that doesn't imply that the installed machine OS gets it, correct?  If so, then this is irrelevant to the Change and can close NOTABUG.

Comment 4 Brian Lane 2026-03-13 20:28:46 UTC
(In reply to Frank Ch. Eigler from comment #3)
> OK, just because it's in the installer image, that doesn't imply that the
> installed machine OS gets it, correct?  If so, then this is irrelevant to
> the Change and can close NOTABUG.

It depends :) If the system is installed from the netinst/dvd iso then it won't be included. But if it is a live install then yes, it will be included since it just copies the installer environment to system.


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