Add support for FreeBSD/i386 ELF.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / TODO
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 requires GCC to build under IRIX
19
20 IRIX, being more pedantic than GCC reports as errors certain
21 assignments that GCC treats as warnings.
22
23 This can be worked around by building GDB with the GCC compiler.
24
25 --
26
27 The BFD directory requires bug-fixed AUTOMAKE et.al.
28
29 AUTOMAKE 1.4 incorrectly set the TEXINPUTS environment variable. It
30 contained the full path to texinfo.tex when it should have only
31 contained the directory. The bug has been fixed in the current
32 AUTOMAKE sources. Automake snapshots can be found in:
33 ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/gdb/snapshots
34 and ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/binutils
35
36 --
37
38 gdb-cvs fails to build on freebsd-elf
39 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00004.html
40
41 Either the FreeBSD group need to contribute their local GDB changes
42 back to the master sources or someone needs to provides a new
43 (clean-room) implementation. Since the former involves a fairly
44 complicated assignment the latter may be easier. [cagney]
45
46 --
47
48 Generic: lin-thread cannot handle thread exit (Mark Kettenis, Michael
49 Snyder) http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00525.html
50
51 The thread_db assisted debugging code doesn't handle exiting threads
52 properly, at least in combination with glibc 2.1.3 (the framework is
53 there, just not the actual code). There are at least two problems
54 that prevent this from working.
55
56 As an additional reference point, the pre thread_db code did not work
57 either.
58
59 --
60
61 Java (Anthony Green, David Taylor)
62
63 Anthony Green has a number of Java patches that did not make it into
64 the 5.0 release.
65
66 Patch: java tests
67 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00512.html
68
69 Patch: java booleans
70 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00515.html
71
72 Patch: handle N_MAIN stab
73 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00527.html
74
75 --
76
77 Pascal (Pierre Muller, David Taylor)
78
79 Pierre Muller has contributed patches for adding Pascal Language
80 support to GDB.
81
82 2 pascal language patches inserted in database
83 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00521.html
84
85 Indent -gnu ?
86 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00496.html
87
88 --
89
90 GNU/Linux/x86 and random thread signals (and Solaris/SPARC but not
91 Solaris/x86).
92 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00336.html
93
94 Christopher Blizzard writes:
95
96 So, I've done some more digging into this and it looks like Jim
97 Kingdon has reported this problem in the past:
98
99 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/bug-gdb/1999-10/msg00058.html
100
101 I can reproduce this problem both with and without Tom's patch. Has
102 anyone seen this before? Maybe have a solution for it hanging around?
103 :)
104
105 There's a test case for this documented at:
106
107 when debugging threaded applications you get extra SIGTRAPs
108 http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9565
109
110 [There should be a GDB testcase - cagney]
111
112 --
113
114 Possible regressions with some devel GCCs.
115 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00475.html
116
117 gcc-2.95.2 outputs a line note *before* the prologue (and one for the
118 closing brace after the epilogue, instead of before it, as it used to
119 be). By disabling the RTL-style prologue generating mechanism
120 (undocumented GCC option -mno-schedule-prologue), you get back the
121 traditional behaviour.
122 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00510.html
123
124 This should now be fixed.
125
126 --
127
128 RFD: infrun.c: No bpstat_stop_status call after proceed over break?
129 (Peter Schauer)
130 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00665.html
131
132 GDB misses watchpoint triggers after proceeding over a breakpoint on
133 x86 targets.
134
135 --
136
137 x86 linux GDB and SIGALRM (???)
138 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00803.html
139
140 I know there are problems with single stepping through signal
141 handlers. These problems were present in 4.18. They were just masked
142 because 4.18 failed to recognize signal handlers. Fixing it is not
143 easy, and will require changes to handle_inferior_event(), that I
144 prefer not to make before the 5.0 release.
145
146 Mark
147
148 --
149
150 Revised UDP support (was: Re: [Fwd: [patch] UDP transport support])
151 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00000.html
152
153 (Broken) support for GDB's remote protocol across UDP is to be
154 included in the follow-on release.
155
156 --
157
158 Can't build IRIX -> arm GDB.
159 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00356.html
160
161 David Whedon writes:
162 > Now I'm building for an embedded arm target. If there is a way of turning
163 > remote-rdi off, I couldn't find it. It looks like it gets built by default
164 > in gdb/configure.tgt(line 58) Anyway, the build dies in
165 > gdb/rdi-share/unixcomm.c. SERPORT1 et. al. never get defined because we
166 > aren't one of the architectures supported.
167
168 --
169
170 Problem with weak functions
171 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-05/msg00060.html
172
173 Dan Nicolaescu writes:
174 > It seems that gdb-4.95.1 does not display correctly the function when
175 > stoping in weak functions.
176 >
177 > It stops in a function that is defined as weak, not in the function
178 > that is actualy run...
179
180 --
181
182 GDB5 TOT on unixware 7
183 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00119.html
184
185 Robert Lipe writes:
186 > I just spun the top of tree of the GDB5 branch on UnixWare 7. As a
187 > practical matter, the current thread support is somewhat more annoying
188 > than when GDB was thread-unaware.
189
190 --
191
192 Code Cleanups
193 =============
194
195 The following are small cleanups that will hopefully be completed by
196 the follow on to 5.0.
197
198 --
199
200 ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED
201
202 The need for this as almost been eliminated. The next version of GCC
203 (assuming cagney gets the relevant patch committed) will be able to
204 supress unused parameter warnings.
205
206 --
207
208 Eliminate more compiler warnings.
209
210 Of course there also needs to be the usual debate over which warnings
211 are valid and how to best go about this.
212
213 One method: choose a single option; get agreement that it is
214 reasonable; try it out to see if there isn't anything silly about it
215 (-Wunused-parameters is an example of that) then incrementally hack
216 away.
217
218 The other method is to enable all warnings and eliminate them from one
219 file at a time.
220
221 --
222
223 Delete macro TARGET_BYTE_ORDER_SELECTABLE.
224
225 Patches in the database.
226
227 --
228
229 Updated readline
230
231 Readline 4.? is out. A merge wouldn't hurt.
232
233 --
234
235 Purge PARAMS
236
237 Eliminate all uses of PARAMS in GDB's source code.
238
239 --
240
241 Elimination of make_cleanup_func. (Andrew Cagney)
242
243 make_cleanup_func elimination
244 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00791.html
245 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00814.html
246
247 --
248
249 Elimination of ``(catch_errors_ftype *) func''.
250
251 Like make_cleanup_func it isn't portable.
252
253 --
254
255 Re: Various C++ things
256
257 value_headof/value_from_vtable_info are worthless, and should be removed.
258 The one place in printcmd.c that uses it should use the RTTI functions.
259
260 RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the vtables.
261 The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the beginning of the vtable,
262 and are always right. The vtables will have weird names like E::VB sometimes.
263 The typeinfo function will always be "E type_info function", or somesuch.
264
265 value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for virtual
266 functions for C++ using g++.
267
268 Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support, since i have
269 to make a lot of changes that could potentially break each other.
270
271 --
272
273 Fix ``set architecture <tab>''
274
275 This command should expand to a list of all supported architectures.
276 At present ``info architecture'' needs to be used. That is simply
277 wrong. It involves the use of add_set_enum_cmd().
278
279 --
280
281 GDBARCH cleanup (Andrew Cagney)
282
283 The non-generated parts of gdbarch.{sh,h,c} should be separated out
284 into arch-utils.[hc].
285
286 Document that gdbarch_init_ftype could easily fail because it didn't
287 identify an architecture.
288
289 --
290
291 Migrate qfThreadInfo packet -> qThreadInfo. (Andrew Cagney)
292
293 Add support for packet enable/disable commands with these thread
294 packets. General cleanup.
295
296 [PATCH] Document the ThreadInfo remote protocol queries
297 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00832.html
298
299 [PATCH] "info threads" queries for remote.c
300 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00831.html
301
302 --
303
304 General Cleanups / Fixes
305 ========================
306
307 The following are more general cleanups and fixes. They are not tied
308 to any specific release.
309
310 --
311
312 Nuke USG define.
313
314 --
315
316 Eliminate gdb/tui/Makefile.in.
317 Cleanup configury support for optional sub-directories.
318
319 Check how GCC handles multiple front ends for an example of how things
320 could work. A tentative first step is to rationalize things so that
321 all sub directories are handled in a fashion similar to gdb/mi.
322
323 --
324
325 [PATCH/5] src/intl/Makefile.in:distclean additions
326 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00363.html
327
328 Do not forget to merge the patch back into the trunk.
329
330 --
331
332 Update ALPHA so that it uses ``struct frame_extra_info'' instead of
333 EXTRA_FRAME_INFO.
334
335 This is a barrier to replacing mips_extra_func_info with something
336 that works with multi-arch.
337
338 --
339
340 Multi-arch mips_extra_func_info.
341
342 This first needs the alpha to be updated so that it uses ``struct
343 frame_extra_info''.
344
345 --
346
347 Send normal output to gdb_stdout.
348 Send error messages to gdb_stderror.
349 Send debug and log output log gdb_stdlog.
350
351 GDB still contains many cases where (f)printf or printf_filtered () is
352 used when it should be sending the messages to gdb_stderror or
353 gdb_stdlog. The thought of #defining printf to something has crossed
354 peoples minds ;-)
355
356 --
357
358 Rationalize the host-endian code (grep for HOST_BYTE_ORDER).
359
360 At present defs.h includes <endian.h> (which is linux specific) yet
361 almost nothing depends on it. Suggest "gdb_endian.h" which can also
362 handle <machine/endian.h> and only include that where it is really
363 needed.
364
365 --
366
367 Replace asprintf() calls with xasprintf() calls.
368
369 As with things like strdup() most calls to asprintf() don't check the
370 return value.
371
372 --
373
374 Rationaize savestring(), msavestring() and mstrsave().
375
376 In general libiberty's xstrdup () can be used.
377
378 --
379
380 Eliminate mmalloc() from GDB.
381
382 Also eliminate it from defs.h.
383
384 --
385
386 Check/cleanup MI documentation.
387
388 The list of commands specified in the documentation needs to be
389 checked against the mi-cmds.c table in a mechanical way (so that they
390 two can be kept up-to-date).
391
392 --
393
394 Eliminate error_begin().
395
396 With ui_file, there is no need for the statefull error_begin ()
397 function.
398
399 --
400
401 Add built-by, build-date, tm, xm, nm and anything else into gdb binary
402 so that you can see how the GDB was created.
403
404 Some of these (*m.h) would be added to the generated config.h. That
405 in turn would fix a long standing bug where by the build process many
406 not notice a changed tm.h file. Since everything depends on config.h,
407 a change to *m.h forces a change to config.h and, consequently forces
408 a rebuild.
409
410 --
411
412 Replace gdb_stdtarg with gdb_targout (and possibly gdb_targerr).
413
414 gdb_stdtarg is easily confused with gdb_stdarg.
415
416 --
417
418 Remote protocol doco feedback.
419
420 Too much feedback to mention needs to be merged in (901660). Search
421 for the word ``remote''.
422
423 --
424
425 set/show remote X-packet ...
426
427 ``(gdb) help set remote X-packet'' doesn't list the applicable
428 responses. The help message needs to be expanded.
429
430 --
431
432 Extra ui_file methods - dump.
433
434 These are for debugging / testing. An aside is to set up a whitebox
435 testsuite for key internals such as ui_file.
436
437 --
438
439 Add an "info bfd" command that displays supported object formats,
440 similarly to objdump -i.
441
442 Is there a command already?
443
444 --
445
446 Eliminate PTR. ISO-C allows ``void *''.
447
448 --
449
450 Eliminate abort ().
451
452 GDB should never abort. GDB should either throw ``error ()'' or
453 ``internal_error ()''. Better still GDB should naturally unwind with
454 an error status.
455
456 --
457
458 Architectural Changes
459 =====================
460
461 These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently
462 involve more work. Typically an Architectural Change will be broken
463 down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes.
464
465 --
466
467 Replace READ_FP() with FRAME_HANDLE().
468
469 READ_FP() is a hangover from the days of the vax when the ABI really
470 did have a frame pointer register. Modern architectures typically
471 construct a virtual frame-handle from the stack pointer and various
472 other bits of string.
473
474 Unfortunatly GDB still treats this synthetic FP register as though it
475 is real. That in turn really confuses users (arm and ``print $fp'' VS
476 ``info registers fp''). The synthetic FP should be separated out of
477 the true register set presented to the user.
478
479 --
480
481 MI's input does not use buffering.
482
483 At present the MI interface reads raw characters of from an unbuffered
484 FD. This is to avoid several nasty buffer/race conditions. That code
485 should be changed so that it registers its self with the event loop
486 (on the input FD) and then push commands up to MI as they arrive.
487
488 The serial code already does this.
489
490 --
491
492 Register Cache Cleanup (below from Andrew Cagney)
493
494 I would depict the current register architecture as something like:
495
496 High GDB --> Low GDB
497 | |
498 \|/ \|/
499 --- REG NR -----
500 |
501 register + REGISTER_BYTE(reg_nr)
502 |
503 \|/
504 -------------------------
505 | extern register[] |
506 -------------------------
507
508 where neither the high (valops.c et.al.) or low gdb (*-tdep.c) are
509 really clear on what mechanisms they should be using to manipulate that
510 buffer. Further, much code assumes, dangerously, that registers are
511 contigious. Having got mips-tdep.c to support multiple ABIs, believe
512 me, that is a bad assumption. Finally, that register cache layout is
513 determined by the current remote/local target and _not_ the less
514 specific target ISA. In fact, in many cases it is determined by the
515 somewhat arbitrary layout of the [gG] packets!
516
517
518 How I would like the register file to work is more like:
519
520
521 High GDB
522 |
523 \|/
524 pseudo reg-nr
525 |
526 map pseudo <->
527 random cache
528 bytes
529 |
530 \|/
531 ------------
532 | register |
533 | cache |
534 ------------
535 /|\
536 |
537 map random cache
538 bytes to target
539 dependant i-face
540 /|\
541 |
542 target dependant
543 such as [gG] packet
544 or ptrace buffer
545
546 The main objectives being:
547
548 o a clear separation between the low
549 level target and the high level GDB
550
551 o a mechanism that solves the general
552 problem of register aliases, overlaps
553 etc instead of treating them as optional
554 extras that can be wedged in as an after
555 thought (that is a reasonable description
556 of the current code).
557
558 Identify then solve the hard case and the
559 rest just falls out. GDB solved the easy
560 case and then tried to ignore the real
561 world :-)
562
563 o a removal of the assumption that the
564 mapping between the register cache
565 and virtual registers is largely static.
566 If you flip the USR/SSR stack register
567 select bit in the status-register then
568 the corresponding stack registers should
569 reflect the change.
570
571 o a mechanism that clearly separates the
572 gdb internal register cache from any
573 target (not architecture) dependant
574 specifics such as [gG] packets.
575
576 Of course, like anything, it sounds good in theory. In reality, it
577 would have to contend with many<->many relationships at both the
578 virt<->cache and cache<->target level. For instance:
579
580 virt<->cache
581 Modifying an mmx register may involve
582 scattering values across both FP and
583 mmpx specific parts of a buffer
584
585 cache<->target
586 When writing back a SP it may need to
587 both be written to both SP and USP.
588
589
590 Hmm,
591
592 Rather than let this like the last time it was discussed, just slip, I'm
593 first going to add this e-mail (+ references) to TODO. I'd then like to
594 sketch out a broad strategy I think could get us there.
595
596
597 First thing I'd suggest is separating out the ``extern registers[]''
598 code so that we can at least identify what is using it. At present
599 things are scattered across many files. That way we can at least
600 pretend that there is a cache instead of a global array :-)
601
602 I'd then suggest someone putting up a proposal for the pseudo-reg /
603 high-level side interface so that code can be adopted to it. For old
604 code, initially a blanket rename of write_register_bytes() to
605 deprecated_write_register_bytes() would help.
606
607 Following that would, finaly be the corresponding changes to the target.
608
609 --
610
611 Fix ``I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.'' from symfile.c.
612
613 This requires internationalization.
614
615 --
616
617 Check that GDB can handle all BFD architectures (Andrew Cagney)
618
619 There should be a test that checks that BFD/GDB are in sync with
620 regard to architecture changes. Something like a test that first
621 queries GDB for all supported architectures and then feeds each back
622 to GDB.. Anyone interested in learning how to write tests? :-)
623
624 --
625
626 Add support for Modula3
627
628 Get DEC/Compaq to contribute their Modula-3 support.
629
630 --
631
632 Convert ALL architectures to MULTI-ARCH.
633
634 --
635
636 Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE.
637
638 --
639
640 Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14
641 filename problems.
642
643 --
644
645 Can the xdep files be replaced by autoconf?
646 Can the tm.h and nm.h files be eliminated by multi-arch.
647
648 --
649
650 Add a transcript mechanism to GDB.
651
652 Such a mechanism might log all gdb input and output to a file in a
653 form that would allow it to be replayed. It could involve ``gdb
654 --transcript=FILE'' or it could involve ``(gdb) transcript file''.
655
656 --
657
658 Make MI interface accessable from existing CLI.
659
660 --
661
662 Select the initial multi-arch ISA / ABI based on --target or similar.
663
664 At present the default is based on what ever is first in the BFD
665 archures table. It should be determined based on the ``--target=...''
666 name.
667
668 --
669
670 Truly multi-arch.
671
672 Enable the code to recognize --enable-targets=.... like BINUTILS does.
673
674 --
675
676 Add a breakpoint-edit command to MI.
677
678 It would be similar to MI's breakpoint create but would apply to an
679 existing breakpoint. It saves the need to delete/create breakpoints
680 when ever they are changed.
681
682 --
683
684 Add directory path to MI breakpoint.
685
686 That way the GUI's task of finding the file within which the
687 breakpoint was set is simplified.
688
689 --
690
691 Re-do GDB's output pager.
692
693 GDB's output pager still relies on people correctly using *_filtered
694 for gdb_stdout and *_unfiltered for gdb_stdlog / gdb_stderr.
695 Hopefully, with all normal output going to gdb_stdout, the pager can
696 just look at the ui_file that the output is on and then use that to
697 decide what to do about paging. Sounds good in theory.
698
699 --
700
701 Add mechanism to reject expression classes to MI
702
703 There are situtations where you don't want GDB's expression
704 parser/evaluator to perform inferior function calls or variable
705 assignments.
706
707 --
708
709 Remove sideffects from libgdb breakpoint create function.
710
711 The user can use the CLI to create a breakpoint with partial
712 information - no file (gdb would use the file from the last
713 breakpoint).
714
715 The libgdb interface currently affects that environment which can lead
716 to confusion when a user is setting breakpoints via both the MI and
717 the CLI.
718
719 This is also a good example of how getting the CLI ``right'' will be
720 hard.
721
722 --
723
724 GDB doesn't recover gracefully from remote protocol errors.
725
726 GDB wasn't checking for NAKs from the remote target. Instead a NAK is
727 ignored and a timeout is required before GDB retries. A pre-cursor to
728 fixing this this is making GDB's remote protocol packet more robust.
729
730 While downloading to a remote protocol target, gdb ignores packet
731 errors in so far as it will continue to edownload with chunk N+1 even
732 if chunk N was not correctly sent. This causes gdb.base/remote.exp to
733 take a painfully long time to run. As a PS that test needs to be
734 fixed so that it builds on 16 bit machines.
735
736 --
737
738 Move gdb_lasterr to ui_out?
739
740 The way GDB throws errors and records them needs a re-think. ui_out
741 handles the correct output well. It doesn't resolve what to do with
742 output / error-messages when things go wrong.
743
744 --
745
746 Fix implementation of ``target xxx''.
747
748 At present when the user specifies ``target xxxx'', the CLI maps that
749 directly onto a target open method. It is then assumed that the
750 target open method should do all sorts of complicated things as this
751 is the only chance it has. Check how the various remote targets
752 duplicate the target operations. Check also how the various targets
753 behave differently for purely arbitrary reasons.
754
755 What should happen is that ``target xxxx'' should call a generic
756 ``target'' function and that should then co-ordinate the opening of
757 ``xxxx''. This becomes especially important when you're trying to
758 open an asynchronous target that may need to perform background tasks
759 as part of the ``attach'' phase.
760
761 Unfortunatly, due to limitations in the old/creaking command.h
762 interface, that isn't possible. The function being called isn't told
763 of the ``xxx'' or any other context information.
764
765 Consequently a precursor to fixing ``target xxxx'' is to clean up the
766 CLI code so that it passes to the callback function (attatched to a
767 command) useful information such as the actual command and a context
768 for that command. Other changes such as making ``struct command''
769 opaque may also help.
770
771 --
772
773 Document trace machinery
774
775 --
776
777 Document overlay machinery.
778
779 --
780
781 Legacy Wish List
782 ================
783
784 This list is not up to date, and opinions vary about the importance or
785 even desirability of some of the items. If you do fix something, it
786 always pays to check the below.
787
788 --
789
790 @c This does not work (yet if ever). FIXME.
791 @c @item --parse=@var{lang} @dots{}
792 @c Configure the @value{GDBN} expression parser to parse the listed languages.
793 @c @samp{all} configures @value{GDBN} for all supported languages. To get a
794 @c list of all supported languages, omit the argument. Without this
795 @c option, @value{GDBN} is configured to parse all supported languages.
796
797 --
798
799 START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED need never be defined to 2, since that
800 is its default value. Clean this up.
801
802 --
803
804 It should be possible to use symbols from shared libraries before we know
805 exactly where the libraries will be loaded. E.g. "b perror" before running
806 the program. This could maybe be done as an extension of the "breakpoint
807 re-evaluation" after new symbols are loaded.
808
809 --
810
811 Make single_step() insert and remove breakpoints in one operation.
812
813 --
814
815 Speed up single stepping by avoiding extraneous ptrace calls.
816
817 --
818
819 Speed up single stepping by not inserting and removing breakpoints
820 each time the inferior starts and stops.
821
822 Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the
823 one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support
824 breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them.
825
826 [this has resulted in numerous debates. The issue isn't clear cut]
827
828 --
829
830 Provide "voodoo" debugging of core files. This creates a zombie
831 process as a child of the debugger, and loads it up with the data,
832 stack, and regs of the core file. This allows you to call functions
833 in the executable, to manipulate the data in the core file.
834
835 [you wish]
836
837 --
838
839 GDB reopens the source file on every line, as you "next" through it.
840
841 [still true? I've a memory of this being fixed]
842
843 --
844
845 Perhaps "i source" should take an argument like that of "list".
846
847 --
848
849 Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if `print address off' and if
850 it matches the source line indicated.
851
852 --
853
854 The prompt at end of screen should accept space as well as CR.
855
856 --
857
858 Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in
859 its display, perhaps showing "@3 foo (bar, ...)" or ">3 foo (bar,
860 ...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)".
861
862 --
863
864 "i program" should work for core files, and display more info, like what
865 actually caused it to die.
866
867 --
868
869 "x/10i" should shorten the long name, if any, on subsequent lines.
870
871 --
872
873 "next" over a function that longjumps, never stops until next time you happen
874 to get to that spot by accident. E.g. "n" over execute_command which has
875 an error.
876
877 --
878
879 "set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which
880 are entirely zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful
881 members.
882
883 --
884
885 GDB does four ioctl's for every command, probably switching terminal modes
886 to/from inferior or for readline or something.
887
888 --
889
890 terminal_ours versus terminal_inferior: cache state. Switch should be a noop
891 if the state is the same, too.
892
893 --
894
895 "i frame" shows wrong "arglist at" location, doesn't show where the args
896 should be found, only their actual values.
897
898 --
899
900 There should be a way for "set" commands to validate the new setting
901 before it takes effect.
902
903 --
904
905 "ena d" is ambiguous, why? "ena delete" seems to think it is a command!
906
907 --
908
909 i line VAR produces "Line number not known for symbol ``var''.". I
910 thought we were stashing that info now!
911
912 --
913
914 We should be able to write to random files at hex offsets like adb.
915
916 --
917
918 Make "target xxx" command interruptible.
919
920 --
921
922 [elena - delete this]
923
924 Handle add_file with separate text, data, and bss addresses. Maybe
925 handle separate addresses for each segment in the object file?
926
927 --
928
929 [Jimb/Elena delete this one]
930
931 Handle free_named_symtab to cope with multiply-loaded object files
932 in a dynamic linking environment. Should remember the last copy loaded,
933 but not get too snowed if it finds references to the older copy.
934
935 --
936
937 [elena delete this also]
938
939 Remove all references to:
940 text_offset
941 data_offset
942 text_data_start
943 text_end
944 exec_data_offset
945 ...
946 now that we have BFD. All remaining are in machine dependent files.
947
948 --
949
950 Re-organize help categories into things that tend to fit on a screen
951 and hang together.
952
953 --
954
955 Add in commands like ADB's for searching for patterns, etc. We should
956 be able to examine and patch raw unsymboled binaries as well in gdb as
957 we can in adb. (E.g. increase the timeout in /bin/login without source).
958
959 [actually, add ADB interface :-]
960
961 --
962
963 When doing "step" or "next", if a few lines of source are skipped between
964 the previous line and the current one, print those lines, not just the
965 last line of a multiline statement.
966
967 --
968
969 Handling of "&" address-of operator needs some serious overhaul
970 for ANSI C and consistency on arrays and functions.
971 For "float point[15];":
972 ptype &point[4] ==> Attempt to take address of non-lvalue.
973 For "char *malloc();":
974 ptype malloc ==> "char *()"; should be same as
975 ptype &malloc ==> "char *(*)()"
976 call printf ("%x\n", malloc) ==> weird value, should be same as
977 call printf ("%x\n", &malloc) ==> correct value
978
979 --
980
981 Fix dbxread.c symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It
982 currently leaves a cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a
983 QUIT occurs. (What's wrong with that? -kingdon, 28 Oct 1993).
984
985 [I suspect that the grype was that, on a slow system, you might want
986 to cntrl-c and get just half the symbols and then load the rest later
987 - scary to be honest]
988
989 --
990
991 Mipsread.c reads include files depth-first, because the dependencies
992 in the psymtabs are way too inclusive (it seems to me). Figure out what
993 really depends on what, to avoid recursing 20 or 30 times while reading
994 real symtabs.
995
996 --
997
998 value_add() should be subtracting the lower bound of arrays, if known,
999 and possibly checking against the upper bound for error reporting.
1000
1001 --
1002
1003 When listing source lines, check for a preceding \n, to verify that
1004 the file hasn't changed out from under us.
1005
1006 [fixed by some other means I think. That hack wouldn't actually work
1007 reliably - the file might move such that another \n appears. ]
1008
1009 --
1010
1011 Get all the remote systems (where the protocol allows it) to be able to
1012 stop the remote system when the GDB user types ^C (like remote.c
1013 does). For ebmon, use ^Ak.
1014
1015 --
1016
1017 Possible feature: A version of the "disassemble" command which shows
1018 both source and assembly code ("set symbol-filename on" is a partial
1019 solution).
1020
1021 [has this been done? It was certainly done for MI and GDBtk]
1022
1023 --
1024
1025 investigate "x/s 0" (right now stops early) (I think maybe GDB is
1026 using a 0 address for bad purposes internally).
1027
1028 --
1029
1030 Make "info path" and path_command work again (but independent of the
1031 environment either of gdb or that we'll pass to the inferior).
1032
1033 --
1034
1035 Make GDB understand the GCC feature for putting octal constants in
1036 enums. Make it so overflow on an enum constant does not error_type
1037 the whole type. Allow arbitrarily large enums with type attributes.
1038 Put all this stuff in the testsuite.
1039
1040 --
1041
1042 Make TYPE_CODE_ERROR with a non-zero TYPE_LENGTH more useful (print
1043 the value in hex; process type attributes). Add this to the
1044 testsuite. This way future compilers can add new types and old
1045 versions of GDB can do something halfway reasonable.
1046
1047 --
1048
1049 Fix mdebugread.c:parse_type to do fundamental types right (see
1050 rs6000_builtin_type in stabsread.c for what "right" is--the point is
1051 that the debug format fixes the sizes of these things and it shouldn't
1052 depend on stuff like TARGET_PTR_BIT and so on. For mdebug, there seem
1053 to be separate bt* codes for 64 bit and 32 bit things, and GDB should
1054 be aware of that). Also use a switch statement for clarity and speed.
1055
1056 --
1057
1058 Investigate adding symbols in target_load--some targets do, some
1059 don't.
1060
1061 --
1062
1063 Put dirname in psymtabs and change lookup*symtab to use dirname (so
1064 /foo/bar.c works whether compiled by cc /foo/bar.c, or cd /foo; cc
1065 bar.c).
1066
1067 --
1068
1069 Merge xcoffread.c and coffread.c. Use breakpoint_re_set instead of
1070 fixup_breakpoints.
1071
1072 --
1073
1074 Make a watchpoint which contains a function call an error (it is
1075 broken now, making it work is probably not worth the effort).
1076
1077 --
1078
1079 New test case based on weird.exp but in which type numbers are not
1080 renumbered (thus multiply defining a type). This currently causes an
1081 infinite loop on "p v_comb".
1082
1083 --
1084
1085 [Hey! Hint Hint Delete Delete!!!]
1086
1087 Fix 386 floating point so that floating point registers are real
1088 registers (but code can deal at run-time if they are missing, like
1089 mips and 68k). This would clean up "info float" and related stuff.
1090
1091 --
1092
1093 gcc -g -c enummask.c then gdb enummask.o, then "p v". GDB complains
1094 about not being able to access memory location 0.
1095
1096 -------------------- enummask.c
1097 enum mask
1098 {
1099 ANIMAL = 0,
1100 VEGETABLE = 1,
1101 MINERAL = 2,
1102 BASIC_CATEGORY = 3,
1103
1104 WHITE = 0,
1105 BLUE = 4,
1106 GREEN = 8,
1107 BLACK = 0xc,
1108 COLOR = 0xc,
1109
1110 ALIVE = 0x10,
1111
1112 LARGE = 0x20
1113 } v;
1114
1115 --
1116
1117 If try to modify value in file with "set write off" should give
1118 appropriate error not "cannot access memory at address 0x65e0".
1119
1120 --
1121
1122 Allow core file without exec file on RS/6000.
1123
1124 --
1125
1126 Make sure "shell" with no arguments works right on DOS.
1127
1128 --
1129
1130 Make gdb.ini (as well as .gdbinit) be checked on all platforms, so
1131 the same directory can be NFS-mounted on unix or DOS, and work the
1132 same way.
1133
1134 --
1135
1136 [Is this another delete???]
1137
1138 Get SECT_OFF_TEXT stuff out of objfile_relocate (might be needed to
1139 get RS/6000 to work right, might not be immediately relevant).
1140
1141 --
1142
1143 Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as
1144 a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running
1145 the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require
1146 some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should
1147 probably be done in concert with the above.
1148
1149 --
1150
1151 Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions.
1152
1153 --
1154
1155 Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file,
1156 selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame
1157 line number, etc.
1158
1159 --
1160
1161 Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb
1162 while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are
1163 debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection
1164 to a server running under gdb.
1165
1166 [hey async!!]
1167
1168 --
1169
1170 Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to
1171 allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will
1172 seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence
1173 lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is
1174 accessed.
1175
1176 --
1177
1178 [Comming...]
1179
1180 Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal.
1181
1182 --
1183
1184 Add a command for searching memory, a la adb. It specifies size,
1185 mask, value, start address. ADB searches until it finds it or hits
1186 an error (or is interrupted).
1187
1188 --
1189
1190 Remove the range and type checking code and documentation, if not
1191 going to implement.
1192
1193 # Local Variables:
1194 # mode: text
1195 # End:
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