| If you find inaccuracies in this list, please send mail to |
| gdb-patches@sourceware.cygnus.com. If you would like to work on any |
| of these, you should consider sending mail to the same address, to |
| find out whether anyone else is working on it. |
| |
| |
| Known problems in GDB 5.0 |
| ========================= |
| |
| Below is a list of problems identified during the GDB 5.0 release |
| cycle. People hope to have these problems fixed in a follow-on |
| release. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| The BFD directory requires bug-fixed AUTOMAKE et.al. |
| |
| AUTOMAKE 1.4 incorrectly set the TEXINPUTS environment variable. It |
| contained the full path to texinfo.tex when it should have only |
| contained the directory. The bug has been fixed in the current |
| AUTOMAKE sources. Automake snapshots can be found in: |
| ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/gdb/snapshots |
| and ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/binutils |
| |
| -- |
| |
| RFD: infrun.c: No bpstat_stop_status call after proceed over break? |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00665.html |
| |
| GDB misses watchpoint triggers after proceeding over a breakpoint on |
| x86 targets. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| x86 linux GDB and SIGALRM (???) |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00803.html |
| |
| I know there are problems with single stepping through signal |
| handlers. These problems were present in 4.18. They were just masked |
| because 4.18 failed to recognize signal handlers. Fixing it is not |
| easy, and will require changes to handle_inferior_event(), that I |
| prefer not to make before the 5.0 release. |
| |
| Mark |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Revised UDP support (was: Re: [Fwd: [patch] UDP transport support]) |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00000.html |
| |
| (Broken) support for GDB's remote protocol across UDP is to be |
| included in the follow-on release. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Can't build IRIX -> arm GDB. |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00356.html |
| |
| David Whedon writes: |
| > Now I'm building for an embedded arm target. If there is a way of turning |
| > remote-rdi off, I couldn't find it. It looks like it gets built by default |
| > in gdb/configure.tgt(line 58) Anyway, the build dies in |
| > gdb/rdi-share/unixcomm.c. SERPORT1 et. al. never get defined because we |
| > aren't one of the architectures supported. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Problem with weak functions |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-05/msg00060.html |
| |
| Dan Nicolaescu writes: |
| > It seems that gdb-4.95.1 does not display correctly the function when |
| > stoping in weak functions. |
| > |
| > It stops in a function that is defined as weak, not in the function |
| > that is actualy run... |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB 5.0 doesn't work on Linux/SPARC |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Code Cleanups: Next Release |
| =========================== |
| |
| The following are small cleanups that will hopefully be completed by |
| the follow on to 5.0. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Delete macro TARGET_BYTE_ORDER_SELECTABLE. |
| |
| Patches in the database. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Purge PARAMS. |
| |
| Eliminate all uses of PARAMS in GDB's source code. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Elimination of make_cleanup_func. (Andrew Cagney) |
| |
| make_cleanup_func elimination |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00791.html |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00814.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix copyright notices. |
| |
| Turns out that ``1998-2000'' isn't considered valid :-( |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00467.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Code Cleanups: General |
| ====================== |
| |
| The following are more general cleanups and fixes. They are not tied |
| to any specific release. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate more compiler warnings. |
| |
| Of course there also needs to be the usual debate over which warnings |
| are valid and how to best go about this. |
| |
| One method: choose a single option; get agreement that it is |
| reasonable; try it out to see if there isn't anything silly about it |
| (-Wunused-parameters is an example of that) then incrementally hack |
| away. |
| |
| The other method is to enable all warnings and eliminate them from one |
| file at a time. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Elimination of ``(catch_errors_ftype *) func''. |
| |
| Like make_cleanup_func it isn't portable. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Nuke USG define. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [PATCH/5] src/intl/Makefile.in:distclean additions |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00363.html |
| |
| Do not forget to merge the patch back into the trunk. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Rationalize the host-endian code (grep for HOST_BYTE_ORDER). |
| |
| At present defs.h includes <endian.h> (which is linux specific) yet |
| almost nothing depends on it. Suggest "gdb_endian.h" which can also |
| handle <machine/endian.h> and only include that where it is really |
| needed. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace asprintf() calls with xasprintf() calls. |
| |
| As with things like strdup() most calls to asprintf() don't check the |
| return value. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace strsave() + mstrsave() with libiberty:xstrdup(). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace savestring() with something from libiberty. |
| |
| An xstrldup()? but that would have different semantics. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Rationalize use of floatformat_unknown in GDB sources. |
| |
| Instead of defaulting to floatformat_unknown, should hosts/targets |
| specify the value explicitly? |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00447.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a ``name'' member to include/floatformat.h:struct floatformat. |
| Print that name in gdbarch.c. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Sort out the harris mess in include/floatformat.h (it hardwires two |
| different floating point formats). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| See of the GDB local floatformat_do_doublest() and libiberty's |
| floatformat_to_double (which was once GDB's ...) can be merged some |
| how. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate mmalloc() from GDB. |
| |
| Also eliminate it from defs.h. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate PTR. ISO-C allows ``void *''. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate abort (). |
| |
| GDB should never abort. GDB should either throw ``error ()'' or |
| ``internal_error ()''. Better still GDB should naturally unwind with |
| an error status. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB probably doesn't build on FreeBSD pre 2.2.x |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00378.html |
| |
| Fixes to get FreeBSD working on 2.2.x, 3.x and 4.x caused the code to |
| suffer bit rot. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Updated readline |
| |
| Readline 4.? is out. A merge wouldn't hurt. Patches are in: |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00436.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Deprecate "fg". Apparently ``fg'' is actually continue. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00417.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Deprecate current use of ``floatformat_unknown''. |
| |
| Require all targets to explicitly provide their float format instead |
| of defaulting to floatformat unknown. Doing the latter leads to nasty |
| bugs. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00447.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Rationalize floatformat_to_double() vs floatformat_to_doublest(). |
| |
| Looks like GDB migrated floatformat_to_double() to libiberty but then |
| turned around and created a ..._to_doublest() the latter containing |
| several bug fixes. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00472.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Move floatformat_ia64_ext to libiberty/include floatformat.[ch]. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00466.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Always build ser-tcp.c. |
| |
| The patch as submitted was just going to add ser-tcp.c to the Alpha's |
| makefile. A better patch is to instead add ser-tcp.c to SER_HARDWARE |
| and make it a standard part of all debuggers. |
| |
| If problems occure then configure.in can sort them out. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00544.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Follow through `make check' with --enable-shared. |
| |
| When the srcware tree is configured with --enable-shared, the `expect' |
| program won't run properly. Jim Wilson found out gdb has a local hack |
| to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but, AFAIK, no other project has been hacked |
| similarly. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00845.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| |
| New Features and Fixes |
| ====================== |
| |
| These are harder than cleanups but easier than work involving |
| fundamental architectural change. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add built-by, build-date, tm, xm, nm and anything else into gdb binary |
| so that you can see how the GDB was created. |
| |
| Some of these (*m.h) would be added to the generated config.h. That |
| in turn would fix a long standing bug where by the build process many |
| not notice a changed tm.h file. Since everything depends on config.h, |
| a change to *m.h forces a change to config.h and, consequently forces |
| a rebuild. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add an "info bfd" command that displays supported object formats, |
| similarly to objdump -i. |
| |
| Is there a command already? |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix ``I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.'' from symfile.c. |
| |
| This requires internationalization. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE. |
| |
| See also sub-directory configure below. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Cleanup configury support for optional sub-directories. |
| |
| Check how GCC handles multiple front ends for an example of how things |
| could work. A tentative first step is to rationalize things so that |
| all sub directories are handled in a fashion similar to gdb/mi. |
| |
| See also automake above. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14 |
| filename problems. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a transcript mechanism to GDB. |
| |
| Such a mechanism might log all gdb input and output to a file in a |
| form that would allow it to be replayed. It could involve ``gdb |
| --transcript=FILE'' or it could involve ``(gdb) transcript file''. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Can the xdep files be replaced by autoconf? |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Document trace machinery |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Document ui-out and ui-file. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00121.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Update texinfo.tex to latest? |
| |
| |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Incorporate agentexpr.texi into gdb.texinfo |
| |
| agentexpr.texi mostly describes the details of the byte code used for |
| tracepoints, not the internals of the support for this in GDB. So it |
| looks like gdb.texinfo is a better place for this information. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00566.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Document overlay machinery. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| ``(gdb) catch signal SIGNAL'' |
| |
| Overlaps with ``handle SIGNAL'' but the implied behavour is different. |
| You can attach commands to a catch but not a handle. A handle has a |
| limited number of hardwired actions. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Get the TUI working on all platforms. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add support for ``gdb --- PROGRAM ARGS ...''. |
| Add support for ``gdb -cmd=...'' |
| |
| Along with many variations. Check: |
| |
| ????? for a full discussion. |
| |
| for a discussion. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Implement ``(gdb) !ls''. |
| |
| Which is very different from ``(gdb) ! ls''. Implementing the latter |
| is trivial. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00034.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace the code that uses the host FPU with an emulator of the target |
| FPU. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Thread Support |
| ============== |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Generic: lin-thread cannot handle thread exit (Mark Kettenis, Michael |
| Snyder) http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00525.html |
| |
| The thread_db assisted debugging code doesn't handle exiting threads |
| properly, at least in combination with glibc 2.1.3 (the framework is |
| there, just not the actual code). There are at least two problems |
| that prevent this from working. |
| |
| As an additional reference point, the pre thread_db code did not work |
| either. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GNU/Linux/x86 and random thread signals (and Solaris/SPARC but not |
| Solaris/x86). |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00336.html |
| |
| Christopher Blizzard writes: |
| |
| So, I've done some more digging into this and it looks like Jim |
| Kingdon has reported this problem in the past: |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/bug-gdb/1999-10/msg00058.html |
| |
| I can reproduce this problem both with and without Tom's patch. Has |
| anyone seen this before? Maybe have a solution for it hanging around? |
| :) |
| |
| There's a test case for this documented at: |
| |
| when debugging threaded applications you get extra SIGTRAPs |
| http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9565 |
| |
| [There should be a GDB testcase - cagney] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB5 TOT on unixware 7 |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00119.html |
| |
| Robert Lipe writes: |
| > I just spun the top of tree of the GDB5 branch on UnixWare 7. As a |
| > practical matter, the current thread support is somewhat more annoying |
| > than when GDB was thread-unaware. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Migrate qfThreadInfo packet -> qThreadInfo. (Andrew Cagney) |
| |
| Add support for packet enable/disable commands with these thread |
| packets. General cleanup. |
| |
| [PATCH] Document the ThreadInfo remote protocol queries |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00832.html |
| |
| [PATCH] "info threads" queries for remote.c |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00831.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Language Support |
| ================ |
| |
| New languages come onto the scene all the time. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Pascal (Pierre Muller, David Taylor) |
| |
| Pierre Muller has contributed patches for adding Pascal Language |
| support to GDB. |
| |
| 2 pascal language patches inserted in database |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00521.html |
| |
| Indent -gnu ? |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00496.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Java (Anthony Green, David Taylor) |
| |
| Anthony Green has a number of Java patches that did not make it into |
| the 5.0 release. |
| |
| Patch: java tests |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00512.html |
| |
| Patch: java booleans |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00515.html |
| |
| Patch: handle N_MAIN stab |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00527.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [Comming...] |
| |
| Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Re: Various C++ things |
| |
| value_headof/value_from_vtable_info are worthless, and should be |
| removed. The one place in printcmd.c that uses it should use the RTTI |
| functions. |
| |
| RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the |
| vtables. The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the |
| beginning of the vtable, and are always right. The vtables will have |
| weird names like E::VB sometimes. The typeinfo function will always |
| be "E type_info function", or somesuch. |
| |
| value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for |
| virtual functions for C++ using g++. |
| |
| Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support, |
| since i have to make a lot of changes that could potentially break |
| each other. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add support for Modula3 |
| |
| Get DEC/Compaq to contribute their Modula-3 support. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Remote Protocol Support |
| ======================= |
| |
| -- |
| |
| set/show remote X-packet ... |
| |
| ``(gdb) help set remote X-packet'' doesn't list the applicable |
| responses. The help message needs to be expanded. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Remote protocol doco feedback. |
| |
| Too much feedback to mention needs to be merged in (901660). Search |
| for the word ``remote''. |
| |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00023.html |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00056.html |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00382.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB doesn't recover gracefully from remote protocol errors. |
| |
| GDB wasn't checking for NAKs from the remote target. Instead a NAK is |
| ignored and a timeout is required before GDB retries. A pre-cursor to |
| fixing this this is making GDB's remote protocol packet more robust. |
| |
| While downloading to a remote protocol target, gdb ignores packet |
| errors in so far as it will continue to edownload with chunk N+1 even |
| if chunk N was not correctly sent. This causes gdb.base/remote.exp to |
| take a painfully long time to run. As a PS that test needs to be |
| fixed so that it builds on 16 bit machines. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add the cycle step command. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00237.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Resolve how to scale things to support very large packets. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Resolve how to handle a target that changes things like its endianess |
| on the fly - should it be returned in the ``T'' packet? |
| |
| Underlying problem is that the register file is target endian. If the |
| target endianess changes gdb doesn't know. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Symbol Support |
| ============== |
| |
| If / when GDB starts to support the debugging of multi-processor |
| (rather than multi-thread) applications the symtab code will need to |
| be updated a little so that several independant symbol tables are |
| active at a given time. |
| |
| The other interesting change is a clarification of the exact meaning |
| of CORE_ADDR and that has had consequences for a few targets (that |
| were abusing that data type). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Investiagate ways of reducing memory. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Investigate ways of improving load time. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Get the d10v to use POINTER_TO_ADDRESS and ADDRESS_TO_POINTER. |
| |
| Consequence of recent symtab clarification. No marks for figuring out |
| who maintains the d10v. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Get the MIPS to correctly sign extend all address <-> pointer |
| conversions. |
| |
| Consequence of recent symtab clarification. No marks for figuring out |
| who maintains the MIPS. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Testsuite Support |
| ================= |
| |
| There are never to many testcases. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Better thread testsuite. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Better C++ testsuite. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Look at adding a GDB specific testsuite directory so that white box |
| tests of key internals can be added (eg ui_file). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Separate out tests that involve the floating point (FP). |
| |
| (Something for people brining up new targets). FP and non-fp tests |
| are combined. I think there should be set of basic tests that |
| exercise pure integer support and then a more expanded set that |
| exercise FP and FP/integer interactions. |
| |
| As an example, the MIPS, for n32 as problems with passing FP's and |
| structs. Since most inferior call tests include FP it is difficult to |
| determine of the integer tests are ok. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Architectural Changes: General |
| ============================== |
| |
| These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently |
| involve more work. Typically an Architectural Change will be broken |
| down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Cleanup software single step. |
| |
| At present many targets implement software single step by directly |
| blatting memory (see rs6000-tdep.c). Those targets should register |
| the applicable breakpoints using the breakpoint framework. Perhaphs a |
| new internal breakpoint class ``step'' is needed. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace READ_FP() with FRAME_HANDLE(). |
| |
| READ_FP() is a hangover from the days of the vax when the ABI really |
| did have a frame pointer register. Modern architectures typically |
| construct a virtual frame-handle from the stack pointer and various |
| other bits of string. |
| |
| Unfortunatly GDB still treats this synthetic FP register as though it |
| is real. That in turn really confuses users (arm and ``print $fp'' VS |
| ``info registers fp''). The synthetic FP should be separated out of |
| the true register set presented to the user. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Register Cache Cleanup (below from Andrew Cagney) |
| |
| I would depict the current register architecture as something like: |
| |
| High GDB --> Low GDB |
| | | |
| \|/ \|/ |
| --- REG NR ----- |
| | |
| register + REGISTER_BYTE(reg_nr) |
| | |
| \|/ |
| ------------------------- |
| | extern register[] | |
| ------------------------- |
| |
| where neither the high (valops.c et.al.) or low gdb (*-tdep.c) are |
| really clear on what mechanisms they should be using to manipulate that |
| buffer. Further, much code assumes, dangerously, that registers are |
| contigious. Having got mips-tdep.c to support multiple ABIs, believe |
| me, that is a bad assumption. Finally, that register cache layout is |
| determined by the current remote/local target and _not_ the less |
| specific target ISA. In fact, in many cases it is determined by the |
| somewhat arbitrary layout of the [gG] packets! |
| |
| |
| How I would like the register file to work is more like: |
| |
| |
| High GDB |
| | |
| \|/ |
| pseudo reg-nr |
| | |
| map pseudo <-> |
| random cache |
| bytes |
| | |
| \|/ |
| ------------ |
| | register | |
| | cache | |
| ------------ |
| /|\ |
| | |
| map random cache |
| bytes to target |
| dependant i-face |
| /|\ |
| | |
| target dependant |
| such as [gG] packet |
| or ptrace buffer |
| |
| The main objectives being: |
| |
| o a clear separation between the low |
| level target and the high level GDB |
| |
| o a mechanism that solves the general |
| problem of register aliases, overlaps |
| etc instead of treating them as optional |
| extras that can be wedged in as an after |
| thought (that is a reasonable description |
| of the current code). |
| |
| Identify then solve the hard case and the |
| rest just falls out. GDB solved the easy |
| case and then tried to ignore the real |
| world :-) |
| |
| o a removal of the assumption that the |
| mapping between the register cache |
| and virtual registers is largely static. |
| If you flip the USR/SSR stack register |
| select bit in the status-register then |
| the corresponding stack registers should |
| reflect the change. |
| |
| o a mechanism that clearly separates the |
| gdb internal register cache from any |
| target (not architecture) dependant |
| specifics such as [gG] packets. |
| |
| Of course, like anything, it sounds good in theory. In reality, it |
| would have to contend with many<->many relationships at both the |
| virt<->cache and cache<->target level. For instance: |
| |
| virt<->cache |
| Modifying an mmx register may involve |
| scattering values across both FP and |
| mmpx specific parts of a buffer |
| |
| cache<->target |
| When writing back a SP it may need to |
| both be written to both SP and USP. |
| |
| |
| Hmm, |
| |
| Rather than let this like the last time it was discussed, just slip, I'm |
| first going to add this e-mail (+ references) to TODO. I'd then like to |
| sketch out a broad strategy I think could get us there. |
| |
| |
| First thing I'd suggest is separating out the ``extern registers[]'' |
| code so that we can at least identify what is using it. At present |
| things are scattered across many files. That way we can at least |
| pretend that there is a cache instead of a global array :-) |
| |
| I'd then suggest someone putting up a proposal for the pseudo-reg / |
| high-level side interface so that code can be adopted to it. For old |
| code, initially a blanket rename of write_register_bytes() to |
| deprecated_write_register_bytes() would help. |
| |
| Following that would, finaly be the corresponding changes to the target. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Check that GDB can handle all BFD architectures (Andrew Cagney) |
| |
| There should be a test that checks that BFD/GDB are in sync with |
| regard to architecture changes. Something like a test that first |
| queries GDB for all supported architectures and then feeds each back |
| to GDB.. Anyone interested in learning how to write tests? :-) |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Architectural Change: Multi-arch et al. |
| ======================================= |
| |
| The long term objective is to remove all assumptions that there is a |
| single target with a single address space with a single instruction |
| set architecture and single application binary interface. |
| |
| This is an ongoing effort. The first milestone is to enable |
| ``multi-arch'' where by all architectural decisions are made at |
| runtime. |
| |
| It should be noted that ``gdbarch'' is really ``gdbabi'' and |
| ``gdbisa''. Once things are multi-arched breaking that down correctly |
| will become much easier. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDBARCH cleanup (Andrew Cagney) |
| |
| The non-generated parts of gdbarch.{sh,h,c} should be separated out |
| into arch-utils.[hc]. |
| |
| Document that gdbarch_init_ftype could easily fail because it didn't |
| identify an architecture. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix BELIEVE_PPC_PROMOTION. Change it to BELIEVE_PPC_PROMOTION_P? |
| |
| At present there is still #ifdef BELIEVE_PPC_PROMOTION code in the |
| symtab file. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix ``set architecture <tab>'' |
| |
| This command should expand to a list of all supported architectures. |
| At present ``info architecture'' needs to be used. That is simply |
| wrong. It involves the use of add_set_enum_cmd(). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix target_signal_from_host() etc. |
| |
| The name is wrong for starters. ``target_signal'' should probably be |
| ``gdb_signal''. ``from_host'' should be ``from_target_signal''. |
| After that it needs to be multi-arched and made independant of any |
| host signal numbering. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Update ALPHA so that it uses ``struct frame_extra_info'' instead of |
| EXTRA_FRAME_INFO. |
| |
| This is a barrier to replacing mips_extra_func_info with something |
| that works with multi-arch. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Multi-arch mips_extra_func_info. |
| |
| This first needs the alpha to be updated so that it uses ``struct |
| frame_extra_info''. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Rationalize TARGET_SINGLE_FORMAT and TARGET_SINGLE_BIT et al. |
| |
| Surely one of them is redundant. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Convert ALL architectures to MULTI-ARCH. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Select the initial multi-arch ISA / ABI based on --target or similar. |
| |
| At present the default is based on what ever is first in the BFD |
| archures table. It should be determined based on the ``--target=...'' |
| name. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Truly multi-arch. |
| |
| Enable the code to recognize --enable-targets=.... like BINUTILS does. |
| |
| Can the tm.h and nm.h files be eliminated by multi-arch. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Architectural Change: MI, LIBGDB and scripting languages |
| ======================================================== |
| |
| See also architectural changes related to the event loop. LIBGDB |
| can't be finished until there is a generic event loop being used by |
| all targets. |
| |
| The long term objective is it to be possible to integrate GDB into |
| scripting languages. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Implement generic ``(gdb) commmand > file'' |
| |
| Once everything is going through ui_file it should be come fairly |
| easy. |
| |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00104.html |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Replace gdb_stdtarg with gdb_targout (and possibly gdb_targerr). |
| |
| gdb_stdtarg is easily confused with gdb_stdarg. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Extra ui_file methods - dump. |
| |
| Very useful for whitebox testing. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate error_begin(). |
| |
| With ui_file, there is no need for the statefull error_begin () |
| function. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Send normal output to gdb_stdout. |
| Send error messages to gdb_stderror. |
| Send debug and log output log gdb_stdlog. |
| |
| GDB still contains many cases where (f)printf or printf_filtered () is |
| used when it should be sending the messages to gdb_stderror or |
| gdb_stdlog. The thought of #defining printf to something has crossed |
| peoples minds ;-) |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Re-do GDB's output pager. |
| |
| GDB's output pager still relies on people correctly using *_filtered |
| for gdb_stdout and *_unfiltered for gdb_stdlog / gdb_stderr. |
| Hopefully, with all normal output going to gdb_stdout, the pager can |
| just look at the ui_file that the output is on and then use that to |
| decide what to do about paging. Sounds good in theory. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Check/cleanup MI documentation. |
| |
| The list of commands specified in the documentation needs to be |
| checked against the mi-cmds.c table in a mechanical way (so that they |
| two can be kept up-to-date). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Convert MI into libgdb |
| |
| MI provides a text interface into what should be many of the libgdb |
| functions. The implementation of those functions should be separated |
| into the MI interface and the functions proper. Those functions being |
| moved to gdb/lib say. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Create libgdb.h |
| |
| The first part can already be found in defs.h. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| MI's input does not use buffering. |
| |
| At present the MI interface reads raw characters of from an unbuffered |
| FD. This is to avoid several nasty buffer/race conditions. That code |
| should be changed so that it registers its self with the event loop |
| (on the input FD) and then push commands up to MI as they arrive. |
| |
| The serial code already does this. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make MI interface accessable from existing CLI. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a breakpoint-edit command to MI. |
| |
| It would be similar to MI's breakpoint create but would apply to an |
| existing breakpoint. It saves the need to delete/create breakpoints |
| when ever they are changed. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add directory path to MI breakpoint. |
| |
| That way the GUI's task of finding the file within which the |
| breakpoint was set is simplified. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a mechanism to reject certain expression classes to MI |
| |
| There are situtations where you don't want GDB's expression |
| parser/evaluator to perform inferior function calls or variable |
| assignments. A way of restricting the expression parser so that such |
| operations are not accepted would be very helpful. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Remove sideffects from libgdb breakpoint create function. |
| |
| The user can use the CLI to create a breakpoint with partial |
| information - no file (gdb would use the file from the last |
| breakpoint). |
| |
| The libgdb interface currently affects that environment which can lead |
| to confusion when a user is setting breakpoints via both the MI and |
| the CLI. |
| |
| This is also a good example of how getting the CLI ``right'' will be |
| hard. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Move gdb_lasterr to ui_out? |
| |
| The way GDB throws errors and records them needs a re-think. ui_out |
| handles the correct output well. It doesn't resolve what to do with |
| output / error-messages when things go wrong. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Architectural Change: Async |
| =========================== |
| |
| While GDB uses an event loop when prompting the user for input. That |
| event loop is not exploited by targets when they allow the target |
| program to continue. Typically targets still block in (target_wait()) |
| until the program again halts. |
| |
| The closest a target comes to supporting full asynchronous mode are |
| the remote targets ``async'' and ``extended-async''. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Asynchronous expression evaluator |
| |
| Inferior function calls hang GDB. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix implementation of ``target xxx''. |
| |
| At present when the user specifies ``target xxxx'', the CLI maps that |
| directly onto a target open method. It is then assumed that the |
| target open method should do all sorts of complicated things as this |
| is the only chance it has. Check how the various remote targets |
| duplicate the target operations. Check also how the various targets |
| behave differently for purely arbitrary reasons. |
| |
| What should happen is that ``target xxxx'' should call a generic |
| ``target'' function and that should then co-ordinate the opening of |
| ``xxxx''. This becomes especially important when you're trying to |
| open an asynchronous target that may need to perform background tasks |
| as part of the ``attach'' phase. |
| |
| Unfortunatly, due to limitations in the old/creaking command.h |
| interface, that isn't possible. The function being called isn't told |
| of the ``xxx'' or any other context information. |
| |
| Consequently a precursor to fixing ``target xxxx'' is to clean up the |
| CLI code so that it passes to the callback function (attatched to a |
| command) useful information such as the actual command and a context |
| for that command. Other changes such as making ``struct command'' |
| opaque may also help. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make "target xxx" command interruptible. |
| |
| As things become async this becomes possible. A target would start |
| the connect and then return control to the event loop. A cntrl-c |
| would notify the target that the operation is to be abandoned and the |
| target code could respond. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb |
| while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are |
| debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection |
| to a server running under gdb. |
| |
| [hey async!!] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| TODO FAQ |
| ======== |
| |
| Frequently requested but not approved requests. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Eliminate unused argument warnings using ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED. |
| |
| The benefits on this one are thought to be marginal - GDBs design |
| means that unused parameters are very common. GCC 3.0 will also |
| include the option -Wno-unused-parameter which means that ``-Wall |
| -Wno-unused-parameters -Werror'' can be specified. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| |
| |
| Legacy Wish List |
| ================ |
| |
| This list is not up to date, and opinions vary about the importance or |
| even desirability of some of the items. If you do fix something, it |
| always pays to check the below. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| @c This does not work (yet if ever). FIXME. |
| @c @item --parse=@var{lang} @dots{} |
| @c Configure the @value{GDBN} expression parser to parse the listed languages. |
| @c @samp{all} configures @value{GDBN} for all supported languages. To get a |
| @c list of all supported languages, omit the argument. Without this |
| @c option, @value{GDBN} is configured to parse all supported languages. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED need never be defined to 2, since that |
| is its default value. Clean this up. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| It should be possible to use symbols from shared libraries before we know |
| exactly where the libraries will be loaded. E.g. "b perror" before running |
| the program. This could maybe be done as an extension of the "breakpoint |
| re-evaluation" after new symbols are loaded. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make single_step() insert and remove breakpoints in one operation. |
| |
| [If this is talking about having single_step() insert the breakpoints, |
| run the target then pull the breakpoints then it is wrong. The |
| function has to return as control has to eventually be passed back to |
| the main event loop.] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Speed up single stepping by avoiding extraneous ptrace calls. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Speed up single stepping by not inserting and removing breakpoints |
| each time the inferior starts and stops. |
| |
| Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the |
| one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support |
| breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them. |
| |
| [this has resulted in numerous debates. The issue isn't clear cut] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Provide "voodoo" debugging of core files. This creates a zombie |
| process as a child of the debugger, and loads it up with the data, |
| stack, and regs of the core file. This allows you to call functions |
| in the executable, to manipulate the data in the core file. |
| |
| [you wish] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB reopens the source file on every line, as you "next" through it. |
| |
| [still true? I've a memory of this being fixed] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Perhaps "i source" should take an argument like that of "list". |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if `print address off' and if |
| it matches the source line indicated. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| The prompt at end of screen should accept space as well as CR. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in |
| its display, perhaps showing "@3 foo (bar, ...)" or ">3 foo (bar, |
| ...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)". |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "i program" should work for core files, and display more info, like what |
| actually caused it to die. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "x/10i" should shorten the long name, if any, on subsequent lines. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "next" over a function that longjumps, never stops until next time you happen |
| to get to that spot by accident. E.g. "n" over execute_command which has |
| an error. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which |
| are entirely zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful |
| members. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| GDB does four ioctl's for every command, probably switching terminal modes |
| to/from inferior or for readline or something. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| terminal_ours versus terminal_inferior: cache state. Switch should be a noop |
| if the state is the same, too. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "i frame" shows wrong "arglist at" location, doesn't show where the args |
| should be found, only their actual values. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| There should be a way for "set" commands to validate the new setting |
| before it takes effect. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| "ena d" is ambiguous, why? "ena delete" seems to think it is a command! |
| |
| -- |
| |
| i line VAR produces "Line number not known for symbol ``var''.". I |
| thought we were stashing that info now! |
| |
| -- |
| |
| We should be able to write to random files at hex offsets like adb. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [elena - delete this] |
| |
| Handle add_file with separate text, data, and bss addresses. Maybe |
| handle separate addresses for each segment in the object file? |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [Jimb/Elena delete this one] |
| |
| Handle free_named_symtab to cope with multiply-loaded object files |
| in a dynamic linking environment. Should remember the last copy loaded, |
| but not get too snowed if it finds references to the older copy. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [elena delete this also] |
| |
| Remove all references to: |
| text_offset |
| data_offset |
| text_data_start |
| text_end |
| exec_data_offset |
| ... |
| now that we have BFD. All remaining are in machine dependent files. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Re-organize help categories into things that tend to fit on a screen |
| and hang together. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add in commands like ADB's for searching for patterns, etc. We should |
| be able to examine and patch raw unsymboled binaries as well in gdb as |
| we can in adb. (E.g. increase the timeout in /bin/login without source). |
| |
| [actually, add ADB interface :-] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| When doing "step" or "next", if a few lines of source are skipped between |
| the previous line and the current one, print those lines, not just the |
| last line of a multiline statement. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Handling of "&" address-of operator needs some serious overhaul |
| for ANSI C and consistency on arrays and functions. |
| For "float point[15];": |
| ptype &point[4] ==> Attempt to take address of non-lvalue. |
| For "char *malloc();": |
| ptype malloc ==> "char *()"; should be same as |
| ptype &malloc ==> "char *(*)()" |
| call printf ("%x\n", malloc) ==> weird value, should be same as |
| call printf ("%x\n", &malloc) ==> correct value |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix dbxread.c symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It |
| currently leaves a cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a |
| QUIT occurs. (What's wrong with that? -kingdon, 28 Oct 1993). |
| |
| [I suspect that the grype was that, on a slow system, you might want |
| to cntrl-c and get just half the symbols and then load the rest later |
| - scary to be honest] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Mipsread.c reads include files depth-first, because the dependencies |
| in the psymtabs are way too inclusive (it seems to me). Figure out what |
| really depends on what, to avoid recursing 20 or 30 times while reading |
| real symtabs. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| value_add() should be subtracting the lower bound of arrays, if known, |
| and possibly checking against the upper bound for error reporting. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| When listing source lines, check for a preceding \n, to verify that |
| the file hasn't changed out from under us. |
| |
| [fixed by some other means I think. That hack wouldn't actually work |
| reliably - the file might move such that another \n appears. ] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Get all the remote systems (where the protocol allows it) to be able to |
| stop the remote system when the GDB user types ^C (like remote.c |
| does). For ebmon, use ^Ak. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Possible feature: A version of the "disassemble" command which shows |
| both source and assembly code ("set symbol-filename on" is a partial |
| solution). |
| |
| [has this been done? It was certainly done for MI and GDBtk] |
| |
| -- |
| |
| investigate "x/s 0" (right now stops early) (I think maybe GDB is |
| using a 0 address for bad purposes internally). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make "info path" and path_command work again (but independent of the |
| environment either of gdb or that we'll pass to the inferior). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make GDB understand the GCC feature for putting octal constants in |
| enums. Make it so overflow on an enum constant does not error_type |
| the whole type. Allow arbitrarily large enums with type attributes. |
| Put all this stuff in the testsuite. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make TYPE_CODE_ERROR with a non-zero TYPE_LENGTH more useful (print |
| the value in hex; process type attributes). Add this to the |
| testsuite. This way future compilers can add new types and old |
| versions of GDB can do something halfway reasonable. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Fix mdebugread.c:parse_type to do fundamental types right (see |
| rs6000_builtin_type in stabsread.c for what "right" is--the point is |
| that the debug format fixes the sizes of these things and it shouldn't |
| depend on stuff like TARGET_PTR_BIT and so on. For mdebug, there seem |
| to be separate bt* codes for 64 bit and 32 bit things, and GDB should |
| be aware of that). Also use a switch statement for clarity and speed. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Investigate adding symbols in target_load--some targets do, some |
| don't. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Put dirname in psymtabs and change lookup*symtab to use dirname (so |
| /foo/bar.c works whether compiled by cc /foo/bar.c, or cd /foo; cc |
| bar.c). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Merge xcoffread.c and coffread.c. Use breakpoint_re_set instead of |
| fixup_breakpoints. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make a watchpoint which contains a function call an error (it is |
| broken now, making it work is probably not worth the effort). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| New test case based on weird.exp but in which type numbers are not |
| renumbered (thus multiply defining a type). This currently causes an |
| infinite loop on "p v_comb". |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [Hey! Hint Hint Delete Delete!!!] |
| |
| Fix 386 floating point so that floating point registers are real |
| registers (but code can deal at run-time if they are missing, like |
| mips and 68k). This would clean up "info float" and related stuff. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| gcc -g -c enummask.c then gdb enummask.o, then "p v". GDB complains |
| about not being able to access memory location 0. |
| |
| -------------------- enummask.c |
| enum mask |
| { |
| ANIMAL = 0, |
| VEGETABLE = 1, |
| MINERAL = 2, |
| BASIC_CATEGORY = 3, |
| |
| WHITE = 0, |
| BLUE = 4, |
| GREEN = 8, |
| BLACK = 0xc, |
| COLOR = 0xc, |
| |
| ALIVE = 0x10, |
| |
| LARGE = 0x20 |
| } v; |
| |
| -- |
| |
| If try to modify value in file with "set write off" should give |
| appropriate error not "cannot access memory at address 0x65e0". |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Allow core file without exec file on RS/6000. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make sure "shell" with no arguments works right on DOS. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Make gdb.ini (as well as .gdbinit) be checked on all platforms, so |
| the same directory can be NFS-mounted on unix or DOS, and work the |
| same way. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| [Is this another delete???] |
| |
| Get SECT_OFF_TEXT stuff out of objfile_relocate (might be needed to |
| get RS/6000 to work right, might not be immediately relevant). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as |
| a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running |
| the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require |
| some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should |
| probably be done in concert with the above. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file, |
| selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame |
| line number, etc. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to |
| allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will |
| seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence |
| lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is |
| accessed. |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Add a command for searching memory, a la adb. It specifies size, |
| mask, value, start address. ADB searches until it finds it or hits |
| an error (or is interrupted). |
| |
| -- |
| |
| Remove the range and type checking code and documentation, if not |
| going to implement. |
| |
| # Local Variables: |
| # mode: text |
| # End: |