| 1 | If you find inaccuracies in this list, please send mail to |
| 2 | gdb-patches@sourceware.cygnus.com. If you would like to work on any |
| 3 | of these, you should consider sending mail to the same address, to |
| 4 | find out whether anyone else is working on it. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Known problems in GDB 5.0 |
| 8 | ========================= |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Below is a list of problems identified during the GDB 5.0 release |
| 11 | cycle. People hope to have these problems fixed in a follow-on |
| 12 | release. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | (The names in paren indicate people that posted the original problem.) |
| 15 | |
| 16 | -- |
| 17 | |
| 18 | GDB doesn't build under IRIX6.4 |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Benjamin Gamsa wrote: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Has anyone successfully built the latest (from cvs) gdb on IRIX6.4 or |
| 23 | later? The first problem I hit is that proc-api.c includes |
| 24 | sys/user.h, which no longer exists under IRIX6.4. If I comment out |
| 25 | that include, the next problem I hit is that PIOCGETPR and PIOCGETU |
| 26 | are no longer defined in IRIX6.4 (presumably related to the |
| 27 | disappearance of user.h). |
| 28 | |
| 29 | -- |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The BFD directory requires bug-fixed AUTOMAKE et.al. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | AUTOMAKE 1.4 incorrectly set the TEXINPUTS environment variable. It |
| 34 | contained the full path to texinfo.tex when it should have only |
| 35 | contained the directory. The bug has been fixed in the current |
| 36 | AUTOMAKE sources. Automake snapshots can be found in: |
| 37 | ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/gdb/snapshots |
| 38 | and ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/binutils |
| 39 | |
| 40 | -- |
| 41 | |
| 42 | gdb-cvs fails to build on freebsd-elf |
| 43 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00004.html |
| 44 | |
| 45 | Either the FreeBSD group need to contribute their local GDB changes |
| 46 | back to the master sources or someone needs to provides a new |
| 47 | (clean-room) implementation. Since the former involves a fairly |
| 48 | complicated assignment the latter may be easier. [cagney] |
| 49 | |
| 50 | -- |
| 51 | |
| 52 | Generic: lin-thread cannot handle thread exit (Mark Kettenis, Michael |
| 53 | Snyder) http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00525.html |
| 54 | |
| 55 | The thread_db assisted debugging code doesn't handle exiting threads |
| 56 | properly, at least in combination with glibc 2.1.3 (the framework is |
| 57 | there, just not the actual code). There are at least two problems |
| 58 | that prevent this from working. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | As an additional reference point, the pre thread_db code did not work |
| 61 | either. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | -- |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Java (Anthony Green, David Taylor) |
| 66 | |
| 67 | Anthony Green has a number of Java patches that did not make it into |
| 68 | the 5.0 release. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | Patch: java tests |
| 71 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00512.html |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Patch: java booleans |
| 74 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00515.html |
| 75 | |
| 76 | Patch: handle N_MAIN stab |
| 77 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00527.html |
| 78 | |
| 79 | -- |
| 80 | |
| 81 | Pascal (Pierre Muller, David Taylor) |
| 82 | |
| 83 | Pierre Muller has contributed patches for adding Pascal Language |
| 84 | support to GDB. |
| 85 | |
| 86 | 2 pascal language patches inserted in database |
| 87 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00521.html |
| 88 | |
| 89 | Indent -gnu ? |
| 90 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00496.html |
| 91 | |
| 92 | -- |
| 93 | |
| 94 | GNU/Linux/x86 and random thread signals (and Solaris/SPARC but not |
| 95 | Solaris/x86). |
| 96 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00336.html |
| 97 | |
| 98 | Christopher Blizzard writes: |
| 99 | |
| 100 | So, I've done some more digging into this and it looks like Jim |
| 101 | Kingdon has reported this problem in the past: |
| 102 | |
| 103 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/bug-gdb/1999-10/msg00058.html |
| 104 | |
| 105 | I can reproduce this problem both with and without Tom's patch. Has |
| 106 | anyone seen this before? Maybe have a solution for it hanging around? |
| 107 | :) |
| 108 | |
| 109 | There's a test case for this documented at: |
| 110 | |
| 111 | when debugging threaded applications you get extra SIGTRAPs |
| 112 | http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9565 |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [There should be a GDB testcase - cagney] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | -- |
| 117 | |
| 118 | Possible regressions with some devel GCCs. |
| 119 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00475.html |
| 120 | |
| 121 | gcc-2.95.2 outputs a line note *before* the prologue (and one for the |
| 122 | closing brace after the epilogue, instead of before it, as it used to |
| 123 | be). By disabling the RTL-style prologue generating mechanism |
| 124 | (undocumented GCC option -mno-schedule-prologue), you get back the |
| 125 | traditional behaviour. |
| 126 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00510.html |
| 127 | |
| 128 | This should now be fixed. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | -- |
| 131 | |
| 132 | RFD: infrun.c: No bpstat_stop_status call after proceed over break? |
| 133 | (Peter Schauer) |
| 134 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00665.html |
| 135 | |
| 136 | GDB misses watchpoint triggers after proceeding over a breakpoint on |
| 137 | x86 targets. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | -- |
| 140 | |
| 141 | x86 linux GDB and SIGALRM (???) |
| 142 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00803.html |
| 143 | |
| 144 | I know there are problems with single stepping through signal |
| 145 | handlers. These problems were present in 4.18. They were just masked |
| 146 | because 4.18 failed to recognize signal handlers. Fixing it is not |
| 147 | easy, and will require changes to handle_inferior_event(), that I |
| 148 | prefer not to make before the 5.0 release. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | Mark |
| 151 | |
| 152 | -- |
| 153 | |
| 154 | Revised UDP support (was: Re: [Fwd: [patch] UDP transport support]) |
| 155 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00000.html |
| 156 | |
| 157 | (Broken) support for GDB's remote protocol across UDP is to be |
| 158 | included in the follow-on release. |
| 159 | |
| 160 | -- |
| 161 | |
| 162 | Can't build IRIX -> arm GDB. |
| 163 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00356.html |
| 164 | |
| 165 | David Whedon writes: |
| 166 | > Now I'm building for an embedded arm target. If there is a way of turning |
| 167 | > remote-rdi off, I couldn't find it. It looks like it gets built by default |
| 168 | > in gdb/configure.tgt(line 58) Anyway, the build dies in |
| 169 | > gdb/rdi-share/unixcomm.c. SERPORT1 et. al. never get defined because we |
| 170 | > aren't one of the architectures supported. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | -- |
| 173 | |
| 174 | Problem with weak functions |
| 175 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-05/msg00060.html |
| 176 | |
| 177 | Dan Nicolaescu writes: |
| 178 | > It seems that gdb-4.95.1 does not display correctly the function when |
| 179 | > stoping in weak functions. |
| 180 | > |
| 181 | > It stops in a function that is defined as weak, not in the function |
| 182 | > that is actualy run... |
| 183 | |
| 184 | -- |
| 185 | |
| 186 | GDB5 TOT on unixware 7 |
| 187 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00119.html |
| 188 | |
| 189 | Robert Lipe writes: |
| 190 | > I just spun the top of tree of the GDB5 branch on UnixWare 7. As a |
| 191 | > practical matter, the current thread support is somewhat more annoying |
| 192 | > than when GDB was thread-unaware. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | -- |
| 195 | |
| 196 | Code Cleanups |
| 197 | ============= |
| 198 | |
| 199 | The following are small cleanups that will hopefully be completed by |
| 200 | the follow on to 5.0. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | -- |
| 203 | |
| 204 | ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED |
| 205 | |
| 206 | The need for this as almost been eliminated. The next version of GCC |
| 207 | (assuming cagney gets the relevant patch committed) will be able to |
| 208 | supress unused parameter warnings. |
| 209 | |
| 210 | -- |
| 211 | |
| 212 | Eliminate more compiler warnings. |
| 213 | |
| 214 | Of course there also needs to be the usual debate over which warnings |
| 215 | are valid and how to best go about this. |
| 216 | |
| 217 | One method: choose a single option; get agreement that it is |
| 218 | reasonable; try it out to see if there isn't anything silly about it |
| 219 | (-Wunused-parameters is an example of that) then incrementally hack |
| 220 | away. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | The other method is to enable all warnings and eliminate them from one |
| 223 | file at a time. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | -- |
| 226 | |
| 227 | Delete macro TARGET_BYTE_ORDER_SELECTABLE. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | Patches in the database. |
| 230 | |
| 231 | -- |
| 232 | |
| 233 | Updated readline |
| 234 | |
| 235 | Readline 4.? is out. A merge wouldn't hurt. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | -- |
| 238 | |
| 239 | Purge PARAMS |
| 240 | |
| 241 | Eliminate all uses of PARAMS in GDB's source code. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | -- |
| 244 | |
| 245 | Elimination of make_cleanup_func. (Andrew Cagney) |
| 246 | |
| 247 | make_cleanup_func elimination |
| 248 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00791.html |
| 249 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00814.html |
| 250 | |
| 251 | -- |
| 252 | |
| 253 | Elimination of ``(catch_errors_ftype *) func''. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | Like make_cleanup_func it isn't portable. |
| 256 | |
| 257 | -- |
| 258 | |
| 259 | Re: Various C++ things |
| 260 | |
| 261 | value_headof/value_from_vtable_info are worthless, and should be removed. |
| 262 | The one place in printcmd.c that uses it should use the RTTI functions. |
| 263 | |
| 264 | RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the vtables. |
| 265 | The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the beginning of the vtable, |
| 266 | and are always right. The vtables will have weird names like E::VB sometimes. |
| 267 | The typeinfo function will always be "E type_info function", or somesuch. |
| 268 | |
| 269 | value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for virtual |
| 270 | functions for C++ using g++. |
| 271 | |
| 272 | Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support, since i have |
| 273 | to make a lot of changes that could potentially break each other. |
| 274 | |
| 275 | -- |
| 276 | |
| 277 | Fix ``set architecture <tab>'' |
| 278 | |
| 279 | This command should expand to a list of all supported architectures. |
| 280 | At present ``info architecture'' needs to be used. That is simply |
| 281 | wrong. It involves the use of add_set_enum_cmd(). |
| 282 | |
| 283 | -- |
| 284 | |
| 285 | GDBARCH cleanup (Andrew Cagney) |
| 286 | |
| 287 | The non-generated parts of gdbarch.{sh,h,c} should be separated out |
| 288 | into arch-utils.[hc]. |
| 289 | |
| 290 | Document that gdbarch_init_ftype could easily fail because it didn't |
| 291 | identify an architecture. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | -- |
| 294 | |
| 295 | Migrate qfThreadInfo packet -> qThreadInfo. (Andrew Cagney) |
| 296 | |
| 297 | Add support for packet enable/disable commands with these thread |
| 298 | packets. General cleanup. |
| 299 | |
| 300 | [PATCH] Document the ThreadInfo remote protocol queries |
| 301 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00832.html |
| 302 | |
| 303 | [PATCH] "info threads" queries for remote.c |
| 304 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00831.html |
| 305 | |
| 306 | -- |
| 307 | |
| 308 | General Cleanups / Fixes |
| 309 | ======================== |
| 310 | |
| 311 | The following are more general cleanups and fixes. They are not tied |
| 312 | to any specific release. |
| 313 | |
| 314 | -- |
| 315 | |
| 316 | Nuke USG define. |
| 317 | |
| 318 | -- |
| 319 | |
| 320 | Eliminate gdb/tui/Makefile.in. |
| 321 | Cleanup configury support for optional sub-directories. |
| 322 | |
| 323 | Check how GCC handles multiple front ends for an example of how things |
| 324 | could work. A tentative first step is to rationalize things so that |
| 325 | all sub directories are handled in a fashion similar to gdb/mi. |
| 326 | |
| 327 | -- |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [PATCH/5] src/intl/Makefile.in:distclean additions |
| 330 | http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00363.html |
| 331 | |
| 332 | Do not forget to merge the patch back into the trunk. |
| 333 | |
| 334 | -- |
| 335 | |
| 336 | Update ALPHA so that it uses ``struct frame_extra_info'' instead of |
| 337 | EXTRA_FRAME_INFO. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | This is a barrier to replacing mips_extra_func_info with something |
| 340 | that works with multi-arch. |
| 341 | |
| 342 | -- |
| 343 | |
| 344 | Multi-arch mips_extra_func_info. |
| 345 | |
| 346 | This first needs the alpha to be updated so that it uses ``struct |
| 347 | frame_extra_info''. |
| 348 | |
| 349 | -- |
| 350 | |
| 351 | Send normal output to gdb_stdout. |
| 352 | Send error messages to gdb_stderror. |
| 353 | Send debug and log output log gdb_stdlog. |
| 354 | |
| 355 | GDB still contains many cases where (f)printf or printf_filtered () is |
| 356 | used when it should be sending the messages to gdb_stderror or |
| 357 | gdb_stdlog. The thought of #defining printf to something has crossed |
| 358 | peoples minds ;-) |
| 359 | |
| 360 | -- |
| 361 | |
| 362 | Rationalize the host-endian code (grep for HOST_BYTE_ORDER). |
| 363 | |
| 364 | At present defs.h includes <endian.h> (which is linux specific) yet |
| 365 | almost nothing depends on it. Suggest "gdb_endian.h" which can also |
| 366 | handle <machine/endian.h> and only include that where it is really |
| 367 | needed. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | -- |
| 370 | |
| 371 | Replace asprintf() calls with xasprintf() calls. |
| 372 | |
| 373 | As with things like strdup() most calls to asprintf() don't check the |
| 374 | return value. |
| 375 | |
| 376 | -- |
| 377 | |
| 378 | Rationaize savestring(), msavestring() and mstrsave(). |
| 379 | |
| 380 | In general libiberty's xstrdup () can be used. |
| 381 | |
| 382 | -- |
| 383 | |
| 384 | Eliminate mmalloc() from GDB. |
| 385 | |
| 386 | Also eliminate it from defs.h. |
| 387 | |
| 388 | -- |
| 389 | |
| 390 | Check/cleanup MI documentation. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | The list of commands specified in the documentation needs to be |
| 393 | checked against the mi-cmds.c table in a mechanical way (so that they |
| 394 | two can be kept up-to-date). |
| 395 | |
| 396 | -- |
| 397 | |
| 398 | Eliminate error_begin(). |
| 399 | |
| 400 | With ui_file, there is no need for the statefull error_begin () |
| 401 | function. |
| 402 | |
| 403 | -- |
| 404 | |
| 405 | Add built-by, build-date, tm, xm, nm and anything else into gdb binary |
| 406 | so that you can see how the GDB was created. |
| 407 | |
| 408 | Some of these (*m.h) would be added to the generated config.h. That |
| 409 | in turn would fix a long standing bug where by the build process many |
| 410 | not notice a changed tm.h file. Since everything depends on config.h, |
| 411 | a change to *m.h forces a change to config.h and, consequently forces |
| 412 | a rebuild. |
| 413 | |
| 414 | -- |
| 415 | |
| 416 | Replace gdb_stdtarg with gdb_targout (and possibly gdb_targerr). |
| 417 | |
| 418 | gdb_stdtarg is easily confused with gdb_stdarg. |
| 419 | |
| 420 | -- |
| 421 | |
| 422 | Remote protocol doco feedback. |
| 423 | |
| 424 | Too much feedback to mention needs to be merged in (901660). Search |
| 425 | for the word ``remote''. |
| 426 | |
| 427 | -- |
| 428 | |
| 429 | set/show remote X-packet ... |
| 430 | |
| 431 | ``(gdb) help set remote X-packet'' doesn't list the applicable |
| 432 | responses. The help message needs to be expanded. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | -- |
| 435 | |
| 436 | Extra ui_file methods - dump. |
| 437 | |
| 438 | These are for debugging / testing. An aside is to set up a whitebox |
| 439 | testsuite for key internals such as ui_file. |
| 440 | |
| 441 | -- |
| 442 | |
| 443 | Add an "info bfd" command that displays supported object formats, |
| 444 | similarly to objdump -i. |
| 445 | |
| 446 | Is there a command already? |
| 447 | |
| 448 | -- |
| 449 | |
| 450 | Eliminate PTR. ISO-C allows ``void *''. |
| 451 | |
| 452 | -- |
| 453 | |
| 454 | Eliminate abort (). |
| 455 | |
| 456 | GDB should never abort. GDB should either throw ``error ()'' or |
| 457 | ``internal_error ()''. Better still GDB should naturally unwind with |
| 458 | an error status. |
| 459 | |
| 460 | -- |
| 461 | |
| 462 | Architectural Changes |
| 463 | ===================== |
| 464 | |
| 465 | These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently |
| 466 | involve more work. Typically an Architectural Change will be broken |
| 467 | down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes. |
| 468 | |
| 469 | -- |
| 470 | |
| 471 | Replace READ_FP() with FRAME_HANDLE(). |
| 472 | |
| 473 | READ_FP() is a hangover from the days of the vax when the ABI really |
| 474 | did have a frame pointer register. Modern architectures typically |
| 475 | construct a virtual frame-handle from the stack pointer and various |
| 476 | other bits of string. |
| 477 | |
| 478 | Unfortunatly GDB still treats this synthetic FP register as though it |
| 479 | is real. That in turn really confuses users (arm and ``print $fp'' VS |
| 480 | ``info registers fp''). The synthetic FP should be separated out of |
| 481 | the true register set presented to the user. |
| 482 | |
| 483 | -- |
| 484 | |
| 485 | MI's input does not use buffering. |
| 486 | |
| 487 | At present the MI interface reads raw characters of from an unbuffered |
| 488 | FD. This is to avoid several nasty buffer/race conditions. That code |
| 489 | should be changed so that it registers its self with the event loop |
| 490 | (on the input FD) and then push commands up to MI as they arrive. |
| 491 | |
| 492 | The serial code already does this. |
| 493 | |
| 494 | -- |
| 495 | |
| 496 | Register Cache Cleanup (below from Andrew Cagney) |
| 497 | |
| 498 | I would depict the current register architecture as something like: |
| 499 | |
| 500 | High GDB --> Low GDB |
| 501 | | | |
| 502 | \|/ \|/ |
| 503 | --- REG NR ----- |
| 504 | | |
| 505 | register + REGISTER_BYTE(reg_nr) |
| 506 | | |
| 507 | \|/ |
| 508 | ------------------------- |
| 509 | | extern register[] | |
| 510 | ------------------------- |
| 511 | |
| 512 | where neither the high (valops.c et.al.) or low gdb (*-tdep.c) are |
| 513 | really clear on what mechanisms they should be using to manipulate that |
| 514 | buffer. Further, much code assumes, dangerously, that registers are |
| 515 | contigious. Having got mips-tdep.c to support multiple ABIs, believe |
| 516 | me, that is a bad assumption. Finally, that register cache layout is |
| 517 | determined by the current remote/local target and _not_ the less |
| 518 | specific target ISA. In fact, in many cases it is determined by the |
| 519 | somewhat arbitrary layout of the [gG] packets! |
| 520 | |
| 521 | |
| 522 | How I would like the register file to work is more like: |
| 523 | |
| 524 | |
| 525 | High GDB |
| 526 | | |
| 527 | \|/ |
| 528 | pseudo reg-nr |
| 529 | | |
| 530 | map pseudo <-> |
| 531 | random cache |
| 532 | bytes |
| 533 | | |
| 534 | \|/ |
| 535 | ------------ |
| 536 | | register | |
| 537 | | cache | |
| 538 | ------------ |
| 539 | /|\ |
| 540 | | |
| 541 | map random cache |
| 542 | bytes to target |
| 543 | dependant i-face |
| 544 | /|\ |
| 545 | | |
| 546 | target dependant |
| 547 | such as [gG] packet |
| 548 | or ptrace buffer |
| 549 | |
| 550 | The main objectives being: |
| 551 | |
| 552 | o a clear separation between the low |
| 553 | level target and the high level GDB |
| 554 | |
| 555 | o a mechanism that solves the general |
| 556 | problem of register aliases, overlaps |
| 557 | etc instead of treating them as optional |
| 558 | extras that can be wedged in as an after |
| 559 | thought (that is a reasonable description |
| 560 | of the current code). |
| 561 | |
| 562 | Identify then solve the hard case and the |
| 563 | rest just falls out. GDB solved the easy |
| 564 | case and then tried to ignore the real |
| 565 | world :-) |
| 566 | |
| 567 | o a removal of the assumption that the |
| 568 | mapping between the register cache |
| 569 | and virtual registers is largely static. |
| 570 | If you flip the USR/SSR stack register |
| 571 | select bit in the status-register then |
| 572 | the corresponding stack registers should |
| 573 | reflect the change. |
| 574 | |
| 575 | o a mechanism that clearly separates the |
| 576 | gdb internal register cache from any |
| 577 | target (not architecture) dependant |
| 578 | specifics such as [gG] packets. |
| 579 | |
| 580 | Of course, like anything, it sounds good in theory. In reality, it |
| 581 | would have to contend with many<->many relationships at both the |
| 582 | virt<->cache and cache<->target level. For instance: |
| 583 | |
| 584 | virt<->cache |
| 585 | Modifying an mmx register may involve |
| 586 | scattering values across both FP and |
| 587 | mmpx specific parts of a buffer |
| 588 | |
| 589 | cache<->target |
| 590 | When writing back a SP it may need to |
| 591 | both be written to both SP and USP. |
| 592 | |
| 593 | |
| 594 | Hmm, |
| 595 | |
| 596 | Rather than let this like the last time it was discussed, just slip, I'm |
| 597 | first going to add this e-mail (+ references) to TODO. I'd then like to |
| 598 | sketch out a broad strategy I think could get us there. |
| 599 | |
| 600 | |
| 601 | First thing I'd suggest is separating out the ``extern registers[]'' |
| 602 | code so that we can at least identify what is using it. At present |
| 603 | things are scattered across many files. That way we can at least |
| 604 | pretend that there is a cache instead of a global array :-) |
| 605 | |
| 606 | I'd then suggest someone putting up a proposal for the pseudo-reg / |
| 607 | high-level side interface so that code can be adopted to it. For old |
| 608 | code, initially a blanket rename of write_register_bytes() to |
| 609 | deprecated_write_register_bytes() would help. |
| 610 | |
| 611 | Following that would, finaly be the corresponding changes to the target. |
| 612 | |
| 613 | -- |
| 614 | |
| 615 | Fix ``I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.'' from symfile.c. |
| 616 | |
| 617 | This requires internationalization. |
| 618 | |
| 619 | -- |
| 620 | |
| 621 | Check that GDB can handle all BFD architectures (Andrew Cagney) |
| 622 | |
| 623 | There should be a test that checks that BFD/GDB are in sync with |
| 624 | regard to architecture changes. Something like a test that first |
| 625 | queries GDB for all supported architectures and then feeds each back |
| 626 | to GDB.. Anyone interested in learning how to write tests? :-) |
| 627 | |
| 628 | -- |
| 629 | |
| 630 | Add support for Modula3 |
| 631 | |
| 632 | Get DEC/Compaq to contribute their Modula-3 support. |
| 633 | |
| 634 | -- |
| 635 | |
| 636 | Convert ALL architectures to MULTI-ARCH. |
| 637 | |
| 638 | -- |
| 639 | |
| 640 | Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE. |
| 641 | |
| 642 | -- |
| 643 | |
| 644 | Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14 |
| 645 | filename problems. |
| 646 | |
| 647 | -- |
| 648 | |
| 649 | Can the xdep files be replaced by autoconf? |
| 650 | Can the tm.h and nm.h files be eliminated by multi-arch. |
| 651 | |
| 652 | -- |
| 653 | |
| 654 | Add a transcript mechanism to GDB. |
| 655 | |
| 656 | Such a mechanism might log all gdb input and output to a file in a |
| 657 | form that would allow it to be replayed. It could involve ``gdb |
| 658 | --transcript=FILE'' or it could involve ``(gdb) transcript file''. |
| 659 | |
| 660 | -- |
| 661 | |
| 662 | Make MI interface accessable from existing CLI. |
| 663 | |
| 664 | -- |
| 665 | |
| 666 | Select the initial multi-arch ISA / ABI based on --target or similar. |
| 667 | |
| 668 | At present the default is based on what ever is first in the BFD |
| 669 | archures table. It should be determined based on the ``--target=...'' |
| 670 | name. |
| 671 | |
| 672 | -- |
| 673 | |
| 674 | Truly multi-arch. |
| 675 | |
| 676 | Enable the code to recognize --enable-targets=.... like BINUTILS does. |
| 677 | |
| 678 | -- |
| 679 | |
| 680 | Add a breakpoint-edit command to MI. |
| 681 | |
| 682 | It would be similar to MI's breakpoint create but would apply to an |
| 683 | existing breakpoint. It saves the need to delete/create breakpoints |
| 684 | when ever they are changed. |
| 685 | |
| 686 | -- |
| 687 | |
| 688 | Add directory path to MI breakpoint. |
| 689 | |
| 690 | That way the GUI's task of finding the file within which the |
| 691 | breakpoint was set is simplified. |
| 692 | |
| 693 | -- |
| 694 | |
| 695 | Re-do GDB's output pager. |
| 696 | |
| 697 | GDB's output pager still relies on people correctly using *_filtered |
| 698 | for gdb_stdout and *_unfiltered for gdb_stdlog / gdb_stderr. |
| 699 | Hopefully, with all normal output going to gdb_stdout, the pager can |
| 700 | just look at the ui_file that the output is on and then use that to |
| 701 | decide what to do about paging. Sounds good in theory. |
| 702 | |
| 703 | -- |
| 704 | |
| 705 | Add mechanism to reject expression classes to MI |
| 706 | |
| 707 | There are situtations where you don't want GDB's expression |
| 708 | parser/evaluator to perform inferior function calls or variable |
| 709 | assignments. |
| 710 | |
| 711 | -- |
| 712 | |
| 713 | Remove sideffects from libgdb breakpoint create function. |
| 714 | |
| 715 | The user can use the CLI to create a breakpoint with partial |
| 716 | information - no file (gdb would use the file from the last |
| 717 | breakpoint). |
| 718 | |
| 719 | The libgdb interface currently affects that environment which can lead |
| 720 | to confusion when a user is setting breakpoints via both the MI and |
| 721 | the CLI. |
| 722 | |
| 723 | This is also a good example of how getting the CLI ``right'' will be |
| 724 | hard. |
| 725 | |
| 726 | -- |
| 727 | |
| 728 | GDB doesn't recover gracefully from remote protocol errors. |
| 729 | |
| 730 | GDB wasn't checking for NAKs from the remote target. Instead a NAK is |
| 731 | ignored and a timeout is required before GDB retries. A pre-cursor to |
| 732 | fixing this this is making GDB's remote protocol packet more robust. |
| 733 | |
| 734 | While downloading to a remote protocol target, gdb ignores packet |
| 735 | errors in so far as it will continue to edownload with chunk N+1 even |
| 736 | if chunk N was not correctly sent. This causes gdb.base/remote.exp to |
| 737 | take a painfully long time to run. As a PS that test needs to be |
| 738 | fixed so that it builds on 16 bit machines. |
| 739 | |
| 740 | -- |
| 741 | |
| 742 | Move gdb_lasterr to ui_out? |
| 743 | |
| 744 | The way GDB throws errors and records them needs a re-think. ui_out |
| 745 | handles the correct output well. It doesn't resolve what to do with |
| 746 | output / error-messages when things go wrong. |
| 747 | |
| 748 | -- |
| 749 | |
| 750 | Fix implementation of ``target xxx''. |
| 751 | |
| 752 | At present when the user specifies ``target xxxx'', the CLI maps that |
| 753 | directly onto a target open method. It is then assumed that the |
| 754 | target open method should do all sorts of complicated things as this |
| 755 | is the only chance it has. Check how the various remote targets |
| 756 | duplicate the target operations. Check also how the various targets |
| 757 | behave differently for purely arbitrary reasons. |
| 758 | |
| 759 | What should happen is that ``target xxxx'' should call a generic |
| 760 | ``target'' function and that should then co-ordinate the opening of |
| 761 | ``xxxx''. This becomes especially important when you're trying to |
| 762 | open an asynchronous target that may need to perform background tasks |
| 763 | as part of the ``attach'' phase. |
| 764 | |
| 765 | Unfortunatly, due to limitations in the old/creaking command.h |
| 766 | interface, that isn't possible. The function being called isn't told |
| 767 | of the ``xxx'' or any other context information. |
| 768 | |
| 769 | Consequently a precursor to fixing ``target xxxx'' is to clean up the |
| 770 | CLI code so that it passes to the callback function (attatched to a |
| 771 | command) useful information such as the actual command and a context |
| 772 | for that command. Other changes such as making ``struct command'' |
| 773 | opaque may also help. |
| 774 | |
| 775 | -- |
| 776 | |
| 777 | Document trace machinery |
| 778 | |
| 779 | -- |
| 780 | |
| 781 | Document overlay machinery. |
| 782 | |
| 783 | -- |
| 784 | |
| 785 | Legacy Wish List |
| 786 | ================ |
| 787 | |
| 788 | This list is not up to date, and opinions vary about the importance or |
| 789 | even desirability of some of the items. If you do fix something, it |
| 790 | always pays to check the below. |
| 791 | |
| 792 | -- |
| 793 | |
| 794 | @c This does not work (yet if ever). FIXME. |
| 795 | @c @item --parse=@var{lang} @dots{} |
| 796 | @c Configure the @value{GDBN} expression parser to parse the listed languages. |
| 797 | @c @samp{all} configures @value{GDBN} for all supported languages. To get a |
| 798 | @c list of all supported languages, omit the argument. Without this |
| 799 | @c option, @value{GDBN} is configured to parse all supported languages. |
| 800 | |
| 801 | -- |
| 802 | |
| 803 | START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED need never be defined to 2, since that |
| 804 | is its default value. Clean this up. |
| 805 | |
| 806 | -- |
| 807 | |
| 808 | It should be possible to use symbols from shared libraries before we know |
| 809 | exactly where the libraries will be loaded. E.g. "b perror" before running |
| 810 | the program. This could maybe be done as an extension of the "breakpoint |
| 811 | re-evaluation" after new symbols are loaded. |
| 812 | |
| 813 | -- |
| 814 | |
| 815 | Make single_step() insert and remove breakpoints in one operation. |
| 816 | |
| 817 | -- |
| 818 | |
| 819 | Speed up single stepping by avoiding extraneous ptrace calls. |
| 820 | |
| 821 | -- |
| 822 | |
| 823 | Speed up single stepping by not inserting and removing breakpoints |
| 824 | each time the inferior starts and stops. |
| 825 | |
| 826 | Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the |
| 827 | one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support |
| 828 | breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them. |
| 829 | |
| 830 | [this has resulted in numerous debates. The issue isn't clear cut] |
| 831 | |
| 832 | -- |
| 833 | |
| 834 | Provide "voodoo" debugging of core files. This creates a zombie |
| 835 | process as a child of the debugger, and loads it up with the data, |
| 836 | stack, and regs of the core file. This allows you to call functions |
| 837 | in the executable, to manipulate the data in the core file. |
| 838 | |
| 839 | [you wish] |
| 840 | |
| 841 | -- |
| 842 | |
| 843 | GDB reopens the source file on every line, as you "next" through it. |
| 844 | |
| 845 | [still true? I've a memory of this being fixed] |
| 846 | |
| 847 | -- |
| 848 | |
| 849 | Perhaps "i source" should take an argument like that of "list". |
| 850 | |
| 851 | -- |
| 852 | |
| 853 | Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if `print address off' and if |
| 854 | it matches the source line indicated. |
| 855 | |
| 856 | -- |
| 857 | |
| 858 | The prompt at end of screen should accept space as well as CR. |
| 859 | |
| 860 | -- |
| 861 | |
| 862 | Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in |
| 863 | its display, perhaps showing "@3 foo (bar, ...)" or ">3 foo (bar, |
| 864 | ...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)". |
| 865 | |
| 866 | -- |
| 867 | |
| 868 | "i program" should work for core files, and display more info, like what |
| 869 | actually caused it to die. |
| 870 | |
| 871 | -- |
| 872 | |
| 873 | "x/10i" should shorten the long name, if any, on subsequent lines. |
| 874 | |
| 875 | -- |
| 876 | |
| 877 | "next" over a function that longjumps, never stops until next time you happen |
| 878 | to get to that spot by accident. E.g. "n" over execute_command which has |
| 879 | an error. |
| 880 | |
| 881 | -- |
| 882 | |
| 883 | "set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which |
| 884 | are entirely zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful |
| 885 | members. |
| 886 | |
| 887 | -- |
| 888 | |
| 889 | GDB does four ioctl's for every command, probably switching terminal modes |
| 890 | to/from inferior or for readline or something. |
| 891 | |
| 892 | -- |
| 893 | |
| 894 | terminal_ours versus terminal_inferior: cache state. Switch should be a noop |
| 895 | if the state is the same, too. |
| 896 | |
| 897 | -- |
| 898 | |
| 899 | "i frame" shows wrong "arglist at" location, doesn't show where the args |
| 900 | should be found, only their actual values. |
| 901 | |
| 902 | -- |
| 903 | |
| 904 | There should be a way for "set" commands to validate the new setting |
| 905 | before it takes effect. |
| 906 | |
| 907 | -- |
| 908 | |
| 909 | "ena d" is ambiguous, why? "ena delete" seems to think it is a command! |
| 910 | |
| 911 | -- |
| 912 | |
| 913 | i line VAR produces "Line number not known for symbol ``var''.". I |
| 914 | thought we were stashing that info now! |
| 915 | |
| 916 | -- |
| 917 | |
| 918 | We should be able to write to random files at hex offsets like adb. |
| 919 | |
| 920 | -- |
| 921 | |
| 922 | Make "target xxx" command interruptible. |
| 923 | |
| 924 | -- |
| 925 | |
| 926 | [elena - delete this] |
| 927 | |
| 928 | Handle add_file with separate text, data, and bss addresses. Maybe |
| 929 | handle separate addresses for each segment in the object file? |
| 930 | |
| 931 | -- |
| 932 | |
| 933 | [Jimb/Elena delete this one] |
| 934 | |
| 935 | Handle free_named_symtab to cope with multiply-loaded object files |
| 936 | in a dynamic linking environment. Should remember the last copy loaded, |
| 937 | but not get too snowed if it finds references to the older copy. |
| 938 | |
| 939 | -- |
| 940 | |
| 941 | [elena delete this also] |
| 942 | |
| 943 | Remove all references to: |
| 944 | text_offset |
| 945 | data_offset |
| 946 | text_data_start |
| 947 | text_end |
| 948 | exec_data_offset |
| 949 | ... |
| 950 | now that we have BFD. All remaining are in machine dependent files. |
| 951 | |
| 952 | -- |
| 953 | |
| 954 | Re-organize help categories into things that tend to fit on a screen |
| 955 | and hang together. |
| 956 | |
| 957 | -- |
| 958 | |
| 959 | Add in commands like ADB's for searching for patterns, etc. We should |
| 960 | be able to examine and patch raw unsymboled binaries as well in gdb as |
| 961 | we can in adb. (E.g. increase the timeout in /bin/login without source). |
| 962 | |
| 963 | [actually, add ADB interface :-] |
| 964 | |
| 965 | -- |
| 966 | |
| 967 | When doing "step" or "next", if a few lines of source are skipped between |
| 968 | the previous line and the current one, print those lines, not just the |
| 969 | last line of a multiline statement. |
| 970 | |
| 971 | -- |
| 972 | |
| 973 | Handling of "&" address-of operator needs some serious overhaul |
| 974 | for ANSI C and consistency on arrays and functions. |
| 975 | For "float point[15];": |
| 976 | ptype &point[4] ==> Attempt to take address of non-lvalue. |
| 977 | For "char *malloc();": |
| 978 | ptype malloc ==> "char *()"; should be same as |
| 979 | ptype &malloc ==> "char *(*)()" |
| 980 | call printf ("%x\n", malloc) ==> weird value, should be same as |
| 981 | call printf ("%x\n", &malloc) ==> correct value |
| 982 | |
| 983 | -- |
| 984 | |
| 985 | Fix dbxread.c symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It |
| 986 | currently leaves a cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a |
| 987 | QUIT occurs. (What's wrong with that? -kingdon, 28 Oct 1993). |
| 988 | |
| 989 | [I suspect that the grype was that, on a slow system, you might want |
| 990 | to cntrl-c and get just half the symbols and then load the rest later |
| 991 | - scary to be honest] |
| 992 | |
| 993 | -- |
| 994 | |
| 995 | Mipsread.c reads include files depth-first, because the dependencies |
| 996 | in the psymtabs are way too inclusive (it seems to me). Figure out what |
| 997 | really depends on what, to avoid recursing 20 or 30 times while reading |
| 998 | real symtabs. |
| 999 | |
| 1000 | -- |
| 1001 | |
| 1002 | value_add() should be subtracting the lower bound of arrays, if known, |
| 1003 | and possibly checking against the upper bound for error reporting. |
| 1004 | |
| 1005 | -- |
| 1006 | |
| 1007 | When listing source lines, check for a preceding \n, to verify that |
| 1008 | the file hasn't changed out from under us. |
| 1009 | |
| 1010 | [fixed by some other means I think. That hack wouldn't actually work |
| 1011 | reliably - the file might move such that another \n appears. ] |
| 1012 | |
| 1013 | -- |
| 1014 | |
| 1015 | Get all the remote systems (where the protocol allows it) to be able to |
| 1016 | stop the remote system when the GDB user types ^C (like remote.c |
| 1017 | does). For ebmon, use ^Ak. |
| 1018 | |
| 1019 | -- |
| 1020 | |
| 1021 | Possible feature: A version of the "disassemble" command which shows |
| 1022 | both source and assembly code ("set symbol-filename on" is a partial |
| 1023 | solution). |
| 1024 | |
| 1025 | [has this been done? It was certainly done for MI and GDBtk] |
| 1026 | |
| 1027 | -- |
| 1028 | |
| 1029 | investigate "x/s 0" (right now stops early) (I think maybe GDB is |
| 1030 | using a 0 address for bad purposes internally). |
| 1031 | |
| 1032 | -- |
| 1033 | |
| 1034 | Make "info path" and path_command work again (but independent of the |
| 1035 | environment either of gdb or that we'll pass to the inferior). |
| 1036 | |
| 1037 | -- |
| 1038 | |
| 1039 | Make GDB understand the GCC feature for putting octal constants in |
| 1040 | enums. Make it so overflow on an enum constant does not error_type |
| 1041 | the whole type. Allow arbitrarily large enums with type attributes. |
| 1042 | Put all this stuff in the testsuite. |
| 1043 | |
| 1044 | -- |
| 1045 | |
| 1046 | Make TYPE_CODE_ERROR with a non-zero TYPE_LENGTH more useful (print |
| 1047 | the value in hex; process type attributes). Add this to the |
| 1048 | testsuite. This way future compilers can add new types and old |
| 1049 | versions of GDB can do something halfway reasonable. |
| 1050 | |
| 1051 | -- |
| 1052 | |
| 1053 | Fix mdebugread.c:parse_type to do fundamental types right (see |
| 1054 | rs6000_builtin_type in stabsread.c for what "right" is--the point is |
| 1055 | that the debug format fixes the sizes of these things and it shouldn't |
| 1056 | depend on stuff like TARGET_PTR_BIT and so on. For mdebug, there seem |
| 1057 | to be separate bt* codes for 64 bit and 32 bit things, and GDB should |
| 1058 | be aware of that). Also use a switch statement for clarity and speed. |
| 1059 | |
| 1060 | -- |
| 1061 | |
| 1062 | Investigate adding symbols in target_load--some targets do, some |
| 1063 | don't. |
| 1064 | |
| 1065 | -- |
| 1066 | |
| 1067 | Put dirname in psymtabs and change lookup*symtab to use dirname (so |
| 1068 | /foo/bar.c works whether compiled by cc /foo/bar.c, or cd /foo; cc |
| 1069 | bar.c). |
| 1070 | |
| 1071 | -- |
| 1072 | |
| 1073 | Merge xcoffread.c and coffread.c. Use breakpoint_re_set instead of |
| 1074 | fixup_breakpoints. |
| 1075 | |
| 1076 | -- |
| 1077 | |
| 1078 | Make a watchpoint which contains a function call an error (it is |
| 1079 | broken now, making it work is probably not worth the effort). |
| 1080 | |
| 1081 | -- |
| 1082 | |
| 1083 | New test case based on weird.exp but in which type numbers are not |
| 1084 | renumbered (thus multiply defining a type). This currently causes an |
| 1085 | infinite loop on "p v_comb". |
| 1086 | |
| 1087 | -- |
| 1088 | |
| 1089 | [Hey! Hint Hint Delete Delete!!!] |
| 1090 | |
| 1091 | Fix 386 floating point so that floating point registers are real |
| 1092 | registers (but code can deal at run-time if they are missing, like |
| 1093 | mips and 68k). This would clean up "info float" and related stuff. |
| 1094 | |
| 1095 | -- |
| 1096 | |
| 1097 | gcc -g -c enummask.c then gdb enummask.o, then "p v". GDB complains |
| 1098 | about not being able to access memory location 0. |
| 1099 | |
| 1100 | -------------------- enummask.c |
| 1101 | enum mask |
| 1102 | { |
| 1103 | ANIMAL = 0, |
| 1104 | VEGETABLE = 1, |
| 1105 | MINERAL = 2, |
| 1106 | BASIC_CATEGORY = 3, |
| 1107 | |
| 1108 | WHITE = 0, |
| 1109 | BLUE = 4, |
| 1110 | GREEN = 8, |
| 1111 | BLACK = 0xc, |
| 1112 | COLOR = 0xc, |
| 1113 | |
| 1114 | ALIVE = 0x10, |
| 1115 | |
| 1116 | LARGE = 0x20 |
| 1117 | } v; |
| 1118 | |
| 1119 | -- |
| 1120 | |
| 1121 | If try to modify value in file with "set write off" should give |
| 1122 | appropriate error not "cannot access memory at address 0x65e0". |
| 1123 | |
| 1124 | -- |
| 1125 | |
| 1126 | Allow core file without exec file on RS/6000. |
| 1127 | |
| 1128 | -- |
| 1129 | |
| 1130 | Make sure "shell" with no arguments works right on DOS. |
| 1131 | |
| 1132 | -- |
| 1133 | |
| 1134 | Make gdb.ini (as well as .gdbinit) be checked on all platforms, so |
| 1135 | the same directory can be NFS-mounted on unix or DOS, and work the |
| 1136 | same way. |
| 1137 | |
| 1138 | -- |
| 1139 | |
| 1140 | [Is this another delete???] |
| 1141 | |
| 1142 | Get SECT_OFF_TEXT stuff out of objfile_relocate (might be needed to |
| 1143 | get RS/6000 to work right, might not be immediately relevant). |
| 1144 | |
| 1145 | -- |
| 1146 | |
| 1147 | Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as |
| 1148 | a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running |
| 1149 | the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require |
| 1150 | some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should |
| 1151 | probably be done in concert with the above. |
| 1152 | |
| 1153 | -- |
| 1154 | |
| 1155 | Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions. |
| 1156 | |
| 1157 | -- |
| 1158 | |
| 1159 | Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file, |
| 1160 | selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame |
| 1161 | line number, etc. |
| 1162 | |
| 1163 | -- |
| 1164 | |
| 1165 | Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb |
| 1166 | while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are |
| 1167 | debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection |
| 1168 | to a server running under gdb. |
| 1169 | |
| 1170 | [hey async!!] |
| 1171 | |
| 1172 | -- |
| 1173 | |
| 1174 | Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to |
| 1175 | allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will |
| 1176 | seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence |
| 1177 | lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is |
| 1178 | accessed. |
| 1179 | |
| 1180 | -- |
| 1181 | |
| 1182 | [Comming...] |
| 1183 | |
| 1184 | Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal. |
| 1185 | |
| 1186 | -- |
| 1187 | |
| 1188 | Add a command for searching memory, a la adb. It specifies size, |
| 1189 | mask, value, start address. ADB searches until it finds it or hits |
| 1190 | an error (or is interrupted). |
| 1191 | |
| 1192 | -- |
| 1193 | |
| 1194 | Remove the range and type checking code and documentation, if not |
| 1195 | going to implement. |
| 1196 | |
| 1197 | # Local Variables: |
| 1198 | # mode: text |
| 1199 | # End: |