     [file gdb-cfg.texi not included]

This file documents the internals of the GNU debugger GDBN. Copyright 1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1996,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Contributed by Cygnus Solutions.  Written by John Gilmore. Second Edition by Stan Shebs.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,'' and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.

(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software.  Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''

Scope of this Document
**********************

This document documents the internals of the GNU debugger, GDBN.  It includes description of GDBN's key algorithms and operations, as well as the mechanisms that adapt GDBN to specific hosts and targets.

Requirements
************

Before diving into the internals, you should understand the formal requirements and other expectations for GDBN.  Although some of these may seem obvious, there have been proposals for GDBN that have run counter to these requirements.

First of all, GDBN is a debugger.  It's not designed to be a front panel for embedded systems.  It's not a text editor.  It's not a shell.  It's not a programming environment.

GDBN is an interactive tool.  Although a batch mode is available, GDBN's primary role is to interact with a human programmer.

GDBN should be responsive to the user.  A programmer hot on the trail of a nasty bug, and operating under a looming deadline, is going to be very impatient of everything, including the response time to debugger commands.

GDBN should be relatively permissive, such as for expressions. While the compiler should be picky (or have the option to be made picky), since source code lives for a long time usually, the programmer doing debugging shouldn't be spending time figuring out to mollify the debugger.

GDBN will be called upon to deal with really large programs. Executable sizes of 50 to 100 megabytes occur regularly, and we've heard reports of programs approaching 1 gigabyte in size.

GDBN should be able to run everywhere.  No other debugger is available for even half as many configurations as GDBN supports.

Overall Structure
*****************

GDBN consists of three major subsystems: user interface, symbol handling (the symbol side), and target system handling (the target side).

The user interface consists of several actual interfaces, plus supporting code.

The symbol side consists of object file readers, debugging info interpreters, symbol table management, source language expression parsing, type and value printing.

The target side consists of execution control, stack frame analysis, and physical target manipulation.

The target side/symbol side division is not formal, and there are a number of exceptions.  For instance, core file support involves symbolic elements (the basic core file reader is in BFD) and target elements (it supplies the contents of memory and the values of registers).  Instead, this division is useful for understanding how the minor subsystems should fit together.

The Symbol Side
===============

The symbolic side of GDBN can be thought of as ``everything you can do in GDBN without having a live program running''. For instance, you can look at the types of variables, and evaluate many kinds of expressions.

The Target Side
===============

The target side of GDBN is the ``bits and bytes manipulator''. Although it may make reference to symbolic info here and there, most of the target side will run with only a stripped executable available---or even no executable at all, in remote debugging cases.

Operations such as disassembly, stack frame crawls, and register display, are able to work with no symbolic info at all.  In some cases, such as disassembly, GDBN will use symbolic info to present addresses relative to symbols rather than as raw numbers, but it will work either way.

Configurations
==============

Host refers to attributes of the system where GDBN runs. Target refers to the system where the program being debugged executes.  In most cases they are the same machine, in which case a third type of Native attributes come into play.

Defines and include files needed to build on the host are host support. Examples are tty support, system defined types, host byte order, host float format.

Defines and information needed to handle the target format are target dependent.  Examples are the stack frame format, instruction set, breakpoint instruction, registers, and how to set up and tear down the stack to call a function.

Information that is only needed when the host and target are the same, is native dependent.  One example is Unix child process support; if the host and target are not the same, doing a fork to start the target process is a bad idea.  The various macros needed for finding the registers in the upage, running ptrace, and such are all in the native-dependent files.

Another example of native-dependent code is support for features that are really part of the target environment, but which require #include files that are only available on the host system.  Core file handling and setjmp handling are two common cases.

When you want to make GDBN work ``native'' on a particular machine, you have to include all three kinds of information.

Algorithms
**********

GDBN uses a number of debugging-specific algorithms.  They are often not very complicated, but get lost in the thicket of special cases and real-world issues.  This chapter describes the basic algorithms and mentions some of the specific target definitions that they use.

Frames
======

A frame is a construct that GDBN uses to keep track of calling and called functions.

FRAME_FP in the machine description has no meaning to the machine-independent part of GDBN, except that it is used when setting up a new frame from scratch, as follows:

     create_new_frame (read_register (DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM), read_pc ()));

Other than that, all the meaning imparted to DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM is imparted by the machine-dependent code.  So, DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM can have any value that is convenient for the code that creates new frames.  (create_new_frame calls DEPRECATED_INIT_EXTRA_FRAME_INFO if it is defined; that is where you should use the DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM value, if your frames are nonstandard.)

Given a GDBN frame, define DEPRECATED_FRAME_CHAIN to determine the address of the calling function's frame.  This will be used to create a new GDBN frame struct, and then DEPRECATED_INIT_EXTRA_FRAME_INFO and DEPRECATED_INIT_FRAME_PC will be called for the new frame.

Breakpoint Handling
===================

In general, a breakpoint is a user-designated location in the program where the user wants to regain control if program execution ever reaches that location.

There are two main ways to implement breakpoints; either as ``hardware'' breakpoints or as ``software'' breakpoints.

Hardware breakpoints are sometimes available as a builtin debugging features with some chips.  Typically these work by having dedicated register into which the breakpoint address may be stored.  If the PC (shorthand for program counter) ever matches a value in a breakpoint registers, the CPU raises an exception and reports it to GDBN.

Another possibility is when an emulator is in use; many emulators include circuitry that watches the address lines coming out from the processor, and force it to stop if the address matches a breakpoint's address.

A third possibility is that the target already has the ability to do breakpoints somehow; for instance, a ROM monitor may do its own software breakpoints.  So although these are not literally ``hardware breakpoints'', from GDBN's point of view they work the same; GDBN need not do anything more than set the breakpoint and wait for something to happen.

Since they depend on hardware resources, hardware breakpoints may be limited in number; when the user asks for more, GDBN will start trying to set software breakpoints.  (On some architectures, notably the 32-bit x86 platforms, GDBN cannot always know whether there's enough hardware resources to insert all the hardware breakpoints and watchpoints.  On those platforms, GDBN prints an error message only when the program being debugged is continued.)

Software breakpoints require GDBN to do somewhat more work. The basic theory is that GDBN will replace a program instruction with a trap, illegal divide, or some other instruction that will cause an exception, and then when it's encountered, GDBN will take the exception and stop the program.  When the user says to continue, GDBN will restore the original instruction, single-step, re-insert the trap, and continue on.

Since it literally overwrites the program being tested, the program area must be writable, so this technique won't work on programs in ROM.  It can also distort the behavior of programs that examine themselves, although such a situation would be highly unusual.

Also, the software breakpoint instruction should be the smallest size of instruction, so it doesn't overwrite an instruction that might be a jump target, and cause disaster when the program jumps into the middle of the breakpoint instruction.  (Strictly speaking, the breakpoint must be no larger than the smallest interval between instructions that may be jump targets; perhaps there is an architecture where only even-numbered instructions may jumped to.)  Note that it's possible for an instruction set not to have any instructions usable for a software breakpoint, although in practice only the ARC has failed to define such an instruction.

The basic definition of the software breakpoint is the macro BREAKPOINT.

Basic breakpoint object handling is in breakpoint.c.  However, much of the interesting breakpoint action is in infrun.c.

Single Stepping
===============

Signal Handling
===============

Thread Handling
===============

Inferior Function Calls
=======================

Longjmp Support
===============

GDBN has support for figuring out that the target is doing a longjmp and for stopping at the target of the jump, if we are stepping.  This is done with a few specialized internal breakpoints, which are visible in the output of the maint info breakpoint command.

To make this work, you need to define a macro called GET_LONGJMP_TARGET, which will examine the jmp_buf structure and extract the longjmp target address.  Since jmp_buf is target specific, you will need to define it in the appropriate tm-TARGET.h file.  Look in tm-sun4os4.h and sparc-tdep.c for examples of how to do this.

Watchpoints
===========

Watchpoints are a special kind of breakpoints (see breakpoints) which break when data is accessed rather than when some instruction is executed.  When you have data which changes without your knowing what code does that, watchpoints are the silver bullet to hunt down and kill such bugs.

Watchpoints can be either hardware-assisted or not; the latter type is known as ``software watchpoints.''  GDBN always uses hardware-assisted watchpoints if they are available, and falls back on software watchpoints otherwise.  Typical situations where GDBN will use software watchpoints are:

  * The watched memory region is too large for the underlying hardware watchpoint support.  For example, each x86 debug register can watch up to 4 bytes of memory, so trying to watch data structures whose size is more than 16 bytes will cause GDBN to use software watchpoints.

  * The value of the expression to be watched depends on data held in registers (as opposed to memory).

  * Too many different watchpoints requested.  (On some architectures, this situation is impossible to detect until the debugged program is resumed.)  Note that x86 debug registers are used both for hardware breakpoints and for watchpoints, so setting too many hardware breakpoints might cause watchpoint insertion to fail.

  * No hardware-assisted watchpoints provided by the target implementation.

Software watchpoints are very slow, since GDBN needs to single-step the program being debugged and test the value of the watched expression(s) after each instruction.  The rest of this section is mostly irrelevant for software watchpoints.

GDBN uses several macros and primitives to support hardware watchpoints:

TARGET_HAS_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINTS
     If defined, the target supports hardware watchpoints.

TARGET_CAN_USE_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT (TYPE, COUNT, OTHER)
     Return the number of hardware watchpoints of type TYPE that are possible to be set.  The value is positive if COUNT watchpoints of this type can be set, zero if setting watchpoints of this type is not supported, and negative if COUNT is more than the maximum number of watchpoints of type TYPE that can be set.  OTHER is non-zero if other types of watchpoints are currently enabled (there are architectures which cannot set watchpoints of different types at the same time).

TARGET_REGION_OK_FOR_HW_WATCHPOINT (ADDR, LEN)
     Return non-zero if hardware watchpoints can be used to watch a region whose address is ADDR and whose length in bytes is LEN.

TARGET_REGION_SIZE_OK_FOR_HW_WATCHPOINT (SIZE)
     Return non-zero if hardware watchpoints can be used to watch a region whose size is SIZE.  GDBN only uses this macro as a fall-back, in case TARGET_REGION_OK_FOR_HW_WATCHPOINT is not defined.

TARGET_DISABLE_HW_WATCHPOINTS (PID)
     Disables watchpoints in the process identified by PID.  This is used, e.g., on HP-UX which provides operations to disable and enable the page-level memory protection that implements hardware watchpoints on that platform.

TARGET_ENABLE_HW_WATCHPOINTS (PID)
     Enables watchpoints in the process identified by PID.  This is used, e.g., on HP-UX which provides operations to disable and enable the page-level memory protection that implements hardware watchpoints on that platform.

target_insert_watchpoint (ADDR, LEN, TYPE)
target_remove_watchpoint (ADDR, LEN, TYPE)
     Insert or remove a hardware watchpoint starting at ADDR, for LEN bytes.  TYPE is the watchpoint type, one of the possible values of the enumerated data type target_hw_bp_type, defined by breakpoint.h as follows:

           enum target_hw_bp_type
             {
               hw_write   = 0, /* Common (write) HW watchpoint */
               hw_read    = 1, /* Read    HW watchpoint */
               hw_access  = 2, /* Access (read or write) HW watchpoint */
               hw_execute = 3  /* Execute HW breakpoint */
             };

     These two macros should return 0 for success, non-zero for failure.

target_remove_hw_breakpoint (ADDR, SHADOW)
target_insert_hw_breakpoint (ADDR, SHADOW)
     Insert or remove a hardware-assisted breakpoint at address ADDR. Returns zero for success, non-zero for failure.  SHADOW is the real contents of the byte where the breakpoint has been inserted; it is generally not valid when hardware breakpoints are used, but since no other code touches these values, the implementations of the above two macros can use them for their internal purposes.

target_stopped_data_address ()
     If the inferior has some watchpoint that triggered, return the address associated with that watchpoint.  Otherwise, return zero.

DECR_PC_AFTER_HW_BREAK
     If defined, GDBN decrements the program counter by the value of DECR_PC_AFTER_HW_BREAK after a hardware break-point.  This overrides the value of DECR_PC_AFTER_BREAK when a breakpoint that breaks is a hardware-assisted breakpoint.

HAVE_STEPPABLE_WATCHPOINT
     If defined to a non-zero value, it is not necessary to disable a watchpoint to step over it.

HAVE_NONSTEPPABLE_WATCHPOINT
     If defined to a non-zero value, GDBN should disable a watchpoint to step the inferior over it.

HAVE_CONTINUABLE_WATCHPOINT
     If defined to a non-zero value, it is possible to continue the inferior after a watchpoint has been hit.

CANNOT_STEP_HW_WATCHPOINTS
     If this is defined to a non-zero value, GDBN will remove all watchpoints before stepping the inferior.

STOPPED_BY_WATCHPOINT (WAIT_STATUS)
     Return non-zero if stopped by a watchpoint.  WAIT_STATUS is of the type struct target_waitstatus, defined by target.h.

x86 Watchpoints
---------------

The 32-bit Intel x86 (a.k.a. ia32) processors feature special debug registers designed to facilitate debugging.  GDBN provides a generic library of functions that x86-based ports can use to implement support for watchpoints and hardware-assisted breakpoints.  This subsection documents the x86 watchpoint facilities in GDBN.

To use the generic x86 watchpoint support, a port should do the following:

  * Define the macro I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS somewhere in the target-dependent headers.

  * Include the config/i386/nm-i386.h header file after defining I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS.

  * Add i386-nat.o to the value of the Make variable NATDEPFILES (see NATDEPFILES) or TDEPFILES (see TDEPFILES).

  * Provide implementations for the I386_DR_LOW_* macros described below.  Typically, each macro should call a target-specific function which does the real work.

The x86 watchpoint support works by maintaining mirror images of the debug registers.  Values are copied between the mirror images and the real debug registers via a set of macros which each target needs to provide:

I386_DR_LOW_SET_CONTROL (VAL)
     Set the Debug Control (DR7) register to the value VAL.

I386_DR_LOW_SET_ADDR (IDX, ADDR)
     Put the address ADDR into the debug register number IDX.

I386_DR_LOW_RESET_ADDR (IDX)
     Reset (i.e. zero out) the address stored in the debug register number IDX.

I386_DR_LOW_GET_STATUS
     Return the value of the Debug Status (DR6) register.  This value is used immediately after it is returned by I386_DR_LOW_GET_STATUS, so as to support per-thread status register values.

For each one of the 4 debug registers (whose indices are from 0 to 3) that store addresses, a reference count is maintained by GDBN, to allow sharing of debug registers by several watchpoints.  This allows users to define several watchpoints that watch the same expression, but with different conditions and/or commands, without wasting debug registers which are in short supply.  GDBN maintains the reference counts internally, targets don't have to do anything to use this feature.

The x86 debug registers can each watch a region that is 1, 2, or 4 bytes long.  The ia32 architecture requires that each watched region be appropriately aligned: 2-byte region on 2-byte boundary, 4-byte region on 4-byte boundary.  However, the x86 watchpoint support in GDBN can watch unaligned regions and regions larger than 4 bytes (up to 16 bytes) by allocating several debug registers to watch a single region.  This allocation of several registers per a watched region is also done automatically without target code intervention.

The generic x86 watchpoint support provides the following API for the GDBN's application code:

i386_region_ok_for_watchpoint (ADDR, LEN)
     The macro TARGET_REGION_OK_FOR_HW_WATCHPOINT is set to call this function.  It counts the number of debug registers required to watch a given region, and returns a non-zero value if that number is less than 4, the number of debug registers available to x86 processors.

i386_stopped_data_address (void)
     The macros STOPPED_BY_WATCHPOINT and target_stopped_data_address are set to call this function.  The argument passed to STOPPED_BY_WATCHPOINT is ignored.  This function examines the breakpoint condition bits in the DR6 Debug Status register, as returned by the I386_DR_LOW_GET_STATUS macro, and returns the address associated with the first bit that is set in DR6.

i386_insert_watchpoint (ADDR, LEN, TYPE)
i386_remove_watchpoint (ADDR, LEN, TYPE)
     Insert or remove a watchpoint.  The macros target_insert_watchpoint and target_remove_watchpoint are set to call these functions.  i386_insert_watchpoint first looks for a debug register which is already set to watch the same region for the same access types; if found, it just increments the reference count of that debug register, thus implementing debug register sharing between watchpoints.  If no such register is found, the function looks for a vacant debug register, sets its mirrored value to ADDR, sets the mirrored value of DR7 Debug Control register as appropriate for the LEN and TYPE parameters, and then passes the new values of the debug register and DR7 to the inferior by calling I386_DR_LOW_SET_ADDR and I386_DR_LOW_SET_CONTROL.  If more than one debug register is required to cover the given region, the above process is repeated for each debug register.

     i386_remove_watchpoint does the opposite: it resets the address in the mirrored value of the debug register and its read/write and length bits in the mirrored value of DR7, then passes these new values to the inferior via I386_DR_LOW_RESET_ADDR and I386_DR_LOW_SET_CONTROL.  If a register is shared by several watchpoints, each time a i386_remove_watchpoint is called, it decrements the reference count, and only calls I386_DR_LOW_RESET_ADDR and I386_DR_LOW_SET_CONTROL when the count goes to zero.

i386_insert_hw_breakpoint (ADDR, SHADOW
i386_remove_hw_breakpoint (ADDR, SHADOW)
     These functions insert and remove hardware-assisted breakpoints.  The macros target_insert_hw_breakpoint and target_remove_hw_breakpoint are set to call these functions. These functions work like i386_insert_watchpoint and i386_remove_watchpoint, respectively, except that they set up the debug registers to watch instruction execution, and each hardware-assisted breakpoint always requires exactly one debug register.

i386_stopped_by_hwbp (void)
     This function returns non-zero if the inferior has some watchpoint or hardware breakpoint that triggered.  It works like i386_stopped_data_address, except that it doesn't return the address whose watchpoint triggered.

i386_cleanup_dregs (void)
     This function clears all the reference counts, addresses, and control bits in the mirror images of the debug registers.  It doesn't affect the actual debug registers in the inferior process.

Notes:

 1. x86 processors support setting watchpoints on I/O reads or writes. However, since no target supports this (as of March 2001), and since enum target_hw_bp_type doesn't even have an enumeration for I/O watchpoints, this feature is not yet available to GDBN running on x86.

 2. x86 processors can enable watchpoints locally, for the current task only, or globally, for all the tasks.  For each debug register, there's a bit in the DR7 Debug Control register that determines whether the associated address is watched locally or globally.  The current implementation of x86 watchpoint support in GDBN always sets watchpoints to be locally enabled, since global watchpoints might interfere with the underlying OS and are probably unavailable in many platforms.

Observing changes in GDBN internals
===================================

In order to function properly, several modules need to be notified when some changes occur in the GDBN internals.  Traditionally, these modules have relied on several paradigms, the most common ones being hooks and gdb-events.  Unfortunately, none of these paradigms was versatile enough to become the standard notification mechanism in GDBN.  The fact that they only supported one ``client'' was also a strong limitation.

A new paradigm, based on the Observer pattern of the Design Patterns book, has therefore been implemented.  The goal was to provide a new interface overcoming the issues with the notification mechanisms previously available.  This new interface needed to be strongly typed, easy to extend, and versatile enough to be used as the standard interface when adding new notifications.

See GDB Observers for a brief description of the observers currently implemented in GDB. The rationale for the current implementation is also briefly discussed.

User Interface
**************

GDBN has several user interfaces.  Although the command-line interface is the most common and most familiar, there are others.

Command Interpreter
===================

The command interpreter in GDBN is fairly simple.  It is designed to allow for the set of commands to be augmented dynamically, and also has a recursive subcommand capability, where the first argument to a command may itself direct a lookup on a different command list.

For instance, the set command just starts a lookup on the setlist command list, while set thread recurses to the set_thread_cmd_list.

To add commands in general, use add_cmd.  add_com adds to the main command list, and should be used for those commands.  The usual place to add commands is in the _initialize_XYZ routines at the ends of most source files.

To add paired set and show commands, use add_setshow_cmd or add_setshow_cmd_full.  The former is a slightly simpler interface which is useful when you don't need to further modify the new command structures, while the latter returns the new command structures for manipulation.

Before removing commands from the command set it is a good idea to deprecate them for some time.  Use deprecate_cmd on commands or aliases to set the deprecated flag.  deprecate_cmd takes a struct cmd_list_element as it's first argument.  You can use the return value from add_com or add_cmd to deprecate the command immediately after it is created.

The first time a command is used the user will be warned and offered a replacement (if one exists). Note that the replacement string passed to deprecate_cmd should be the full name of the command, i.e. the entire string the user should type at the command line.

UI-Independent Output---the ui_out Functions
============================================

The ui_out functions present an abstraction level for the GDBN output code.  They hide the specifics of different user interfaces supported by GDBN, and thus free the programmer from the need to write several versions of the same code, one each for every UI, to produce output.

Overview and Terminology
------------------------

In general, execution of each GDBN command produces some sort of output, and can even generate an input request.

Output can be generated for the following purposes:

  * to display a result of an operation;

  * to convey info or produce side-effects of a requested operation;

  * to provide a notification of an asynchronous event (including progress indication of a prolonged asynchronous operation);

  * to display error messages (including warnings);

  * to show debug data;

  * to query or prompt a user for input (a special case).

This section mainly concentrates on how to build result output, although some of it also applies to other kinds of output.

Generation of output that displays the results of an operation involves one or more of the following:

  * output of the actual data

  * formatting the output as appropriate for console output, to make it easily readable by humans

  * machine oriented formatting--a more terse formatting to allow for easy parsing by programs which read GDBN's output

  * annotation, whose purpose is to help legacy GUIs to identify interesting parts in the output

The ui_out routines take care of the first three aspects. Annotations are provided by separate annotation routines.  Note that use of annotations for an interface between a GUI and GDBN is deprecated.

Output can be in the form of a single item, which we call a field; a list consisting of identical fields; a tuple consisting of non-identical fields; or a table, which is a tuple consisting of a header and a body.  In a BNF-like form:

<table> ==>
     <header> <body>

<header> ==>
     { <column> }

<column> ==>
     <width> <alignment> <title>

<body> ==>
     {<row>}

General Conventions
-------------------

Most ui_out routines are of type void, the exceptions are ui_out_stream_new (which returns a pointer to the newly created object) and the make_cleanup routines.

The first parameter is always the ui_out vector object, a pointer to a struct ui_out.

The FORMAT parameter is like in printf family of functions. When it is present, there must also be a variable list of arguments sufficient used to satisfy the % specifiers in the supplied format.

When a character string argument is not used in a ui_out function call, a NULL pointer has to be supplied instead.

Table, Tuple and List Functions
-------------------------------

This section introduces ui_out routines for building lists, tuples and tables.  The routines to output the actual data items (fields) are presented in the next section.

To recap: A tuple is a sequence of fields, each field containing information about an object; a list is a sequence of fields where each field describes an identical object.

Use the table functions when your output consists of a list of rows (tuples) and the console output should include a heading.  Use this even when you are listing just one object but you still want the header.

Tables can not be nested.  Tuples and lists can be nested up to a maximum of five levels.

The overall structure of the table output code is something like this:

       ui_out_table_begin
         ui_out_table_header
         ...
         ui_out_table_body
           ui_out_tuple_begin
             ui_out_field_*
             ...
           ui_out_tuple_end
           ...
       ui_out_table_end

Here is the description of table-, tuple- and list-related ui_out functions:

 -- Function: void ui_out_table_begin (struct ui_out *UIOUT, int NBROFCOLS, int NR_ROWS, const char *TBLID)
     The function ui_out_table_begin marks the beginning of the output of a table.  It should always be called before any other ui_out function for a given table.  NBROFCOLS is the number of columns in the table. NR_ROWS is the number of rows in the table. TBLID is an optional string identifying the table.  The string pointed to by TBLID is copied by the implementation of ui_out_table_begin, so the application can free the string if it was malloced.

     The companion function ui_out_table_end, described below, marks the end of the table's output.

 -- Function: void ui_out_table_header (struct ui_out *UIOUT, int WIDTH, enum ui_align ALIGNMENT, const char *COLHDR)
     ui_out_table_header provides the header information for a single table column.  You call this function several times, one each for every column of the table, after ui_out_table_begin, but before ui_out_table_body.

     The value of WIDTH gives the column width in characters.  The value of ALIGNMENT is one of left, center, and right, and it specifies how to align the header: left-justify, center, or right-justify it.  COLHDR points to a string that specifies the column header; the implementation copies that string, so column header strings in malloced storage can be freed after the call.

 -- Function: void ui_out_table_body (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function delimits the table header from the table body.

 -- Function: void ui_out_table_end (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function signals the end of a table's output.  It should be called after the table body has been produced by the list and field output functions.

     There should be exactly one call to ui_out_table_end for each call to ui_out_table_begin, otherwise the ui_out functions will signal an internal error.

The output of the tuples that represent the table rows must follow the call to ui_out_table_body and precede the call to ui_out_table_end.  You build a tuple by calling ui_out_tuple_begin and ui_out_tuple_end, with suitable calls to functions which actually output fields between them.

 -- Function: void ui_out_tuple_begin (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *ID)
     This function marks the beginning of a tuple output.  ID points to an optional string that identifies the tuple; it is copied by the implementation, and so strings in malloced storage can be freed after the call.

 -- Function: void ui_out_tuple_end (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function signals an end of a tuple output.  There should be exactly one call to ui_out_tuple_end for each call to ui_out_tuple_begin, otherwise an internal GDBN error will be signaled.

 -- Function: struct cleanup *make_cleanup_ui_out_tuple_begin_end (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *ID)
     This function first opens the tuple and then establishes a cleanup (see Cleanups) to close the tuple.  It provides a convenient and correct implementation of the non-portable (The function cast is not portable ISO C.) code sequence:

          struct cleanup *old_cleanup;
          ui_out_tuple_begin (uiout, "...");
          old_cleanup = make_cleanup ((void(*)(void *)) ui_out_tuple_end,
                                      uiout);

 -- Function: void ui_out_list_begin (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *ID)
     This function marks the beginning of a list output.  ID points to an optional string that identifies the list; it is copied by the implementation, and so strings in malloced storage can be freed after the call.

 -- Function: void ui_out_list_end (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function signals an end of a list output.  There should be exactly one call to ui_out_list_end for each call to ui_out_list_begin, otherwise an internal GDBN error will be signaled.

 -- Function: struct cleanup *make_cleanup_ui_out_list_begin_end (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *ID)
     Similar to make_cleanup_ui_out_tuple_begin_end, this function opens a list and then establishes cleanup (see Cleanups) that will close the list.list.

Item Output Functions
---------------------

The functions described below produce output for the actual data items, or fields, which contain information about the object.

Choose the appropriate function accordingly to your particular needs.

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_fmt (struct ui_out *UIOUT, char *FLDNAME, char *FORMAT, ...)
     This is the most general output function.  It produces the representation of the data in the variable-length argument list according to formatting specifications in FORMAT, a printf-like format string.  The optional argument FLDNAME supplies the name of the field.  The data items themselves are supplied as additional arguments after FORMAT.

     This generic function should be used only when it is not possible to use one of the specialized versions (see below).

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_int (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *FLDNAME, int VALUE)
     This function outputs a value of an int variable.  It uses the "%d" output conversion specification.  FLDNAME specifies the name of the field.

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_fmt_int (struct ui_out *UIOUT, int WIDTH, enum ui_align ALIGNMENT, const char *FLDNAME, int VALUE)
     This function outputs a value of an int variable.  It differs from ui_out_field_int in that the caller specifies the desired WIDTH and ALIGNMENT of the output. FLDNAME specifies the name of the field.

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_core_addr (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *FLDNAME, CORE_ADDR ADDRESS)
     This function outputs an address.

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_string (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *FLDNAME, const char *STRING)
     This function outputs a string using the "%s" conversion specification.

Sometimes, there's a need to compose your output piece by piece using functions that operate on a stream, such as value_print or fprintf_symbol_filtered.  These functions accept an argument of the type struct ui_file *, a pointer to a ui_file object used to store the data stream used for the output.  When you use one of these functions, you need a way to pass their results stored in a ui_file object to the ui_out functions.  To this end, you first create a ui_stream object by calling ui_out_stream_new, pass the stream member of that ui_stream object to value_print and similar functions, and finally call ui_out_field_stream to output the field you constructed.  When the ui_stream object is no longer needed, you should destroy it and free its memory by calling ui_out_stream_delete.

 -- Function: struct ui_stream *ui_out_stream_new (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function creates a new ui_stream object which uses the same output methods as the ui_out object whose pointer is passed in UIOUT.  It returns a pointer to the newly created ui_stream object.

 -- Function: void ui_out_stream_delete (struct ui_stream *STREAMBUF)
     This functions destroys a ui_stream object specified by STREAMBUF.

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_stream (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *FIELDNAME, struct ui_stream *STREAMBUF)
     This function consumes all the data accumulated in streambuf->stream and outputs it like ui_out_field_string does.  After a call to ui_out_field_stream, the accumulated data no longer exists, but the stream is still valid and may be used for producing more fields.

Important: If there is any chance that your code could bail out before completing output generation and reaching the point where ui_out_stream_delete is called, it is necessary to set up a cleanup, to avoid leaking memory and other resources.  Here's a skeleton code to do that:

      struct ui_stream *mybuf = ui_out_stream_new (uiout);
      struct cleanup *old = make_cleanup (ui_out_stream_delete, mybuf);
      ...
      do_cleanups (old);

If the function already has the old cleanup chain set (for other kinds of cleanups), you just have to add your cleanup to it:

       mybuf = ui_out_stream_new (uiout);
       make_cleanup (ui_out_stream_delete, mybuf);

Note that with cleanups in place, you should not call ui_out_stream_delete directly, or you would attempt to free the same buffer twice.

Utility Output Functions
------------------------

 -- Function: void ui_out_field_skip (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *FLDNAME)
     This function skips a field in a table.  Use it if you have to leave an empty field without disrupting the table alignment.  The argument FLDNAME specifies a name for the (missing) filed.

 -- Function: void ui_out_text (struct ui_out *UIOUT, const char *STRING)
     This function outputs the text in STRING in a way that makes it easy to be read by humans.  For example, the console implementation of this method filters the text through a built-in pager, to prevent it from scrolling off the visible portion of the screen.

     Use this function for printing relatively long chunks of text around the actual field data: the text it produces is not aligned according to the table's format.  Use ui_out_field_string to output a string field, and use ui_out_message, described below, to output short messages.

 -- Function: void ui_out_spaces (struct ui_out *UIOUT, int NSPACES)
     This function outputs NSPACES spaces.  It is handy to align the text produced by ui_out_text with the rest of the table or list.

 -- Function: void ui_out_message (struct ui_out *UIOUT, int VERBOSITY, const char *FORMAT, ...)
     This function produces a formatted message, provided that the current verbosity level is at least as large as given by VERBOSITY.  The current verbosity level is specified by the user with the set verbositylevel command. (As of this writing (April 2001), setting verbosity level is not yet implemented, and is always returned as zero.  So calling ui_out_message with a VERBOSITY argument more than zero will cause the message to never be printed.)

 -- Function: void ui_out_wrap_hint (struct ui_out *UIOUT, char *INDENT)
     This function gives the console output filter (a paging filter) a hint of where to break lines which are too long.  Ignored for all other output consumers.  INDENT, if non-NULL, is the string to be printed to indent the wrapped text on the next line; it must remain accessible until the next call to ui_out_wrap_hint, or until an explicit newline is produced by one of the other functions.  If INDENT is NULL, the wrapped text will not be indented.

 -- Function: void ui_out_flush (struct ui_out *UIOUT)
     This function flushes whatever output has been accumulated so far, if the UI buffers output.

Examples of Use of ui_out functions
-----------------------------------

This section gives some practical examples of using the ui_out functions to generalize the old console-oriented code in GDBN.  The examples all come from functions defined on the breakpoints.c file.

This example, from the breakpoint_1 function, shows how to produce a table.

The original code was:

      if (!found_a_breakpoint++)
        {
          annotate_breakpoints_headers ();

          annotate_field (0);
          printf_filtered ("Num ");
          annotate_field (1);
          printf_filtered ("Type           ");
          annotate_field (2);
          printf_filtered ("Disp ");
          annotate_field (3);
          printf_filtered ("Enb ");
          if (addressprint)
            {
              annotate_field (4);
              printf_filtered ("Address    ");
            }
          annotate_field (5);
          printf_filtered ("What\n");

          annotate_breakpoints_table ();
        }

Here's the new version:

       nr_printable_breakpoints = ...;

       if (addressprint)
         ui_out_table_begin (ui, 6, nr_printable_breakpoints, "BreakpointTable");
       else
         ui_out_table_begin (ui, 5, nr_printable_breakpoints, "BreakpointTable");

       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_breakpoints_headers ();
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_field (0);
       ui_out_table_header (uiout, 3, ui_left, "number", "Num");		/* 1 */
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_field (1);
       ui_out_table_header (uiout, 14, ui_left, "type", "Type");		/* 2 */
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_field (2);
       ui_out_table_header (uiout, 4, ui_left, "disp", "Disp");		/* 3 */
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_field (3);
       ui_out_table_header (uiout, 3, ui_left, "enabled", "Enb");	/* 4 */
       if (addressprint)
         {
          if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
            annotate_field (4);
          if (TARGET_ADDR_BIT <= 32)
            ui_out_table_header (uiout, 10, ui_left, "addr", "Address");/* 5 */
          else
            ui_out_table_header (uiout, 18, ui_left, "addr", "Address");/* 5 */
         }
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_field (5);
       ui_out_table_header (uiout, 40, ui_noalign, "what", "What");	/* 6 */
       ui_out_table_body (uiout);
       if (nr_printable_breakpoints > 0)
         annotate_breakpoints_table ();

This example, from the print_one_breakpoint function, shows how to produce the actual data for the table whose structure was defined in the above example.  The original code was:

        annotate_record ();
        annotate_field (0);
        printf_filtered ("%-3d ", b->number);
        annotate_field (1);
        if ((int)b->type > (sizeof(bptypes)/sizeof(bptypes[0]))
            || ((int) b->type != bptypes[(int) b->type].type))
          internal_error ("bptypes table does not describe type #%d.",
                          (int)b->type);
        printf_filtered ("%-14s ", bptypes[(int)b->type].description);
        annotate_field (2);
        printf_filtered ("%-4s ", bpdisps[(int)b->disposition]);
        annotate_field (3);
        printf_filtered ("%-3c ", bpenables[(int)b->enable]);
        ...

This is the new version:

        annotate_record ();
        ui_out_tuple_begin (uiout, "bkpt");
        annotate_field (0);
        ui_out_field_int (uiout, "number", b->number);
        annotate_field (1);
        if (((int) b->type > (sizeof (bptypes) / sizeof (bptypes[0])))
            || ((int) b->type != bptypes[(int) b->type].type))
          internal_error ("bptypes table does not describe type #%d.",
                          (int) b->type);
        ui_out_field_string (uiout, "type", bptypes[(int)b->type].description);
        annotate_field (2);
        ui_out_field_string (uiout, "disp", bpdisps[(int)b->disposition]);
        annotate_field (3);
        ui_out_field_fmt (uiout, "enabled", "%c", bpenables[(int)b->enable]);
        ...

This example, also from print_one_breakpoint, shows how to produce a complicated output field using the print_expression functions which requires a stream to be passed.  It also shows how to automate stream destruction with cleanups.  The original code was:

         annotate_field (5);
         print_expression (b->exp, gdb_stdout);

The new version is:

       struct ui_stream *stb = ui_out_stream_new (uiout);
       struct cleanup *old_chain = make_cleanup_ui_out_stream_delete (stb);
       ...
       annotate_field (5);
       print_expression (b->exp, stb->stream);
       ui_out_field_stream (uiout, "what", local_stream);

This example, also from print_one_breakpoint, shows how to use ui_out_text and ui_out_field_string.  The original code was:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->dll_pathname == NULL)
         printf_filtered ("<any library> ");
       else
         printf_filtered ("library \"%s\" ", b->dll_pathname);

It became:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->dll_pathname == NULL)
         {
           ui_out_field_string (uiout, "what", "<any library>");
           ui_out_spaces (uiout, 1);
         }
       else
         {
           ui_out_text (uiout, "library \"");
           ui_out_field_string (uiout, "what", b->dll_pathname);
           ui_out_text (uiout, "\" ");
         }

The following example from print_one_breakpoint shows how to use ui_out_field_int and ui_out_spaces.  The original code was:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->forked_inferior_pid != 0)
         printf_filtered ("process %d ", b->forked_inferior_pid);

It became:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->forked_inferior_pid != 0)
         {
           ui_out_text (uiout, "process ");
           ui_out_field_int (uiout, "what", b->forked_inferior_pid);
           ui_out_spaces (uiout, 1);
         }

Here's an example of using ui_out_field_string.  The original code was:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->exec_pathname != NULL)
         printf_filtered ("program \"%s\" ", b->exec_pathname);

It became:

       annotate_field (5);
       if (b->exec_pathname != NULL)
         {
           ui_out_text (uiout, "program \"");
           ui_out_field_string (uiout, "what", b->exec_pathname);
           ui_out_text (uiout, "\" ");
         }

Finally, here's an example of printing an address.  The original code:

       annotate_field (4);
       printf_filtered ("%s ",
             local_hex_string_custom ((unsigned long) b->address, "08l"));

It became:

       annotate_field (4);
       ui_out_field_core_addr (uiout, "Address", b->address);

Console Printing
================

TUI
===

libgdb
******

libgdb 1.0
==========

libgdb 1.0 was an abortive project of years ago.  The theory was to provide an API to GDBN's functionality.

libgdb 2.0
==========

libgdb 2.0 is an ongoing effort to update GDBN so that is better able to support graphical and other environments.

Since libgdb development is on-going, its architecture is still evolving.  The following components have so far been identified:

  * Observer - gdb-events.h.

  * Builder - ui-out.h

  * Event Loop - event-loop.h

  * Library - gdb.h

The model that ties these components together is described below.

The libgdb Model
================

A client of libgdb interacts with the library in two ways.

  * As an observer (using gdb-events) receiving notifications from libgdb of any internal state changes (break point changes, run state, etc).

  * As a client querying libgdb (using the ui-out builder) to obtain various status values from GDBN.

Since libgdb could have multiple clients (e.g. a GUI supporting the existing GDBN CLI), those clients must co-operate when controlling libgdb.  In particular, a client must ensure that libgdb is idle (i.e. no other client is using libgdb) before responding to a gdb-event by making a query.

CLI support
===========

At present GDBN's CLI is very much entangled in with the core of libgdb.  Consequently, a client wishing to include the CLI in their interface needs to carefully co-ordinate its own and the CLI's requirements.

It is suggested that the client set libgdb up to be bi-modal (alternate between CLI and client query modes).  The notes below sketch out the theory:

  * The client registers itself as an observer of libgdb.

  * The client create and install cli-out builder using its own versions of the ui-file gdb_stderr, gdb_stdtarg and gdb_stdout streams.

  * The client creates a separate custom ui-out builder that is only used while making direct queries to libgdb.

When the client receives input intended for the CLI, it simply passes it along.  Since the cli-out builder is installed by default, all the CLI output in response to that command is routed (pronounced rooted) through to the client controlled gdb_stdout et. al. streams. At the same time, the client is kept abreast of internal changes by virtue of being a libgdb observer.

The only restriction on the client is that it must wait until libgdb becomes idle before initiating any queries (using the client's custom builder).

libgdb components
=================

Observer - gdb-events.h
-----------------------

gdb-events provides the client with a very raw mechanism that can be used to implement an observer.  At present it only allows for one observer and that observer must, internally, handle the need to delay the processing of any event notifications until after libgdb has finished the current command.

Builder - ui-out.h
------------------

ui-out provides the infrastructure necessary for a client to create a builder.  That builder is then passed down to libgdb when doing any queries.

Event Loop - event-loop.h
-------------------------

event-loop, currently non-re-entrant, provides a simple event loop.  A client would need to either plug its self into this loop or, implement a new event-loop that GDB would use.

The event-loop will eventually be made re-entrant.  This is so that GDB can better handle the problem of some commands blocking instead of returning.

Library - gdb.h
---------------

libgdb is the most obvious component of this system.  It provides the query interface.  Each function is parameterized by a ui-out builder.  The result of the query is constructed using that builder before the query function returns.

Symbol Handling
***************

Symbols are a key part of GDBN's operation.  Symbols include variables, functions, and types.

Symbol Reading
==============

GDBN reads symbols from symbol files.  The usual symbol file is the file containing the program which GDBN is debugging.  GDBN can be directed to use a different file for symbols (with the symbol-file command), and it can also read more symbols via the add-file and load commands, or while reading symbols from shared libraries.

Symbol files are initially opened by code in symfile.c using the BFD library (see Support Libraries).  BFD identifies the type of the file by examining its header.  find_sym_fns then uses this identification to locate a set of symbol-reading functions.

Symbol-reading modules identify themselves to GDBN by calling add_symtab_fns during their module initialization.  The argument to add_symtab_fns is a struct sym_fns which contains the name (or name prefix) of the symbol format, the length of the prefix, and pointers to four functions.  These functions are called at various times to process symbol files whose identification matches the specified prefix.

The functions supplied by each module are:

XYZ_symfile_init(struct sym_fns *sf)

     Called from symbol_file_add when we are about to read a new symbol file.  This function should clean up any internal state (possibly resulting from half-read previous files, for example) and prepare to read a new symbol file.  Note that the symbol file which we are reading might be a new ``main'' symbol file, or might be a secondary symbol file whose symbols are being added to the existing symbol table.

     The argument to XYZ_symfile_init is a newly allocated struct sym_fns whose bfd field contains the BFD for the new symbol file being read.  Its private field has been zeroed, and can be modified as desired.  Typically, a struct of private information will be malloc'd, and a pointer to it will be placed in the private field.

     There is no result from XYZ_symfile_init, but it can call error if it detects an unavoidable problem.

XYZ_new_init()

     Called from symbol_file_add when discarding existing symbols. This function needs only handle the symbol-reading module's internal state; the symbol table data structures visible to the rest of GDBN will be discarded by symbol_file_add.  It has no arguments and no result.  It may be called after XYZ_symfile_init, if a new symbol table is being read, or may be called alone if all symbols are simply being discarded.

XYZ_symfile_read(struct sym_fns *sf, CORE_ADDR addr, int mainline)

     Called from symbol_file_add to actually read the symbols from a symbol-file into a set of psymtabs or symtabs.

     sf points to the struct sym_fns originally passed to XYZ_sym_init for possible initialization.  addr is the offset between the file's specified start address and its true address in memory.  mainline is 1 if this is the main symbol table being read, and 0 if a secondary symbol file (e.g. shared library or dynamically loaded file) is being read.

In addition, if a symbol-reading module creates psymtabs when XYZ_symfile_read is called, these psymtabs will contain a pointer to a function XYZ_psymtab_to_symtab, which can be called from any point in the GDBN symbol-handling code.

XYZ_psymtab_to_symtab (struct partial_symtab *pst)

     Called from psymtab_to_symtab (or the PSYMTAB_TO_SYMTAB macro) if the psymtab has not already been read in and had its pst->symtab pointer set.  The argument is the psymtab to be fleshed-out into a symtab.  Upon return, pst->readin should have been set to 1, and pst->symtab should contain a pointer to the new corresponding symtab, or zero if there were no symbols in that part of the symbol file.

Partial Symbol Tables
=====================

GDBN has three types of symbol tables:

  * Full symbol tables (symtabs).  These contain the main information about symbols and addresses.

  * Partial symbol tables (psymtabs).  These contain enough information to know when to read the corresponding part of the full symbol table.

  * Minimal symbol tables (msymtabs).  These contain information gleaned from non-debugging symbols.

This section describes partial symbol tables.

A psymtab is constructed by doing a very quick pass over an executable file's debugging information.  Small amounts of information are extracted---enough to identify which parts of the symbol table will need to be re-read and fully digested later, when the user needs the information.  The speed of this pass causes GDBN to start up very quickly.  Later, as the detailed rereading occurs, it occurs in small pieces, at various times, and the delay therefrom is mostly invisible to the user.

The symbols that show up in a file's psymtab should be, roughly, those visible to the debugger's user when the program is not running code from that file.  These include external symbols and types, static symbols and types, and enum values declared at file scope.

The psymtab also contains the range of instruction addresses that the full symbol table would represent.

The idea is that there are only two ways for the user (or much of the code in the debugger) to reference a symbol:

  * By its address (e.g. execution stops at some address which is inside a function in this file).  The address will be noticed to be in the range of this psymtab, and the full symtab will be read in. find_pc_function, find_pc_line, and other find_pc_... functions handle this.

  * By its name (e.g. the user asks to print a variable, or set a breakpoint on a function).  Global names and file-scope names will be found in the psymtab, which will cause the symtab to be pulled in.  Local names will have to be qualified by a global name, or a file-scope name, in which case we will have already read in the symtab as we evaluated the qualifier.  Or, a local symbol can be referenced when we are ``in'' a local scope, in which case the first case applies.  lookup_symbol does most of the work here.

The only reason that psymtabs exist is to cause a symtab to be read in at the right moment.  Any symbol that can be elided from a psymtab, while still causing that to happen, should not appear in it.  Since psymtabs don't have the idea of scope, you can't put local symbols in them anyway.  Psymtabs don't have the idea of the type of a symbol, either, so types need not appear, unless they will be referenced by name.

It is a bug for GDBN to behave one way when only a psymtab has been read, and another way if the corresponding symtab has been read in.  Such bugs are typically caused by a psymtab that does not contain all the visible symbols, or which has the wrong instruction address ranges.

The psymtab for a particular section of a symbol file (objfile) could be thrown away after the symtab has been read in.  The symtab should always be searched before the psymtab, so the psymtab will never be used (in a bug-free environment).  Currently, psymtabs are allocated on an obstack, and all the psymbols themselves are allocated in a pair of large arrays on an obstack, so there is little to be gained by trying to free them unless you want to do a lot more work.

Types
=====

Fundamental Types (e.g., FT_VOID, FT_BOOLEAN).
----------------------------------------------

These are the fundamental types that GDBN uses internally.  Fundamental types from the various debugging formats (stabs, ELF, etc) are mapped into one of these.  They are basically a union of all fundamental types that GDBN knows about for all the languages that GDBN knows about.

Type Codes (e.g., TYPE_CODE_PTR, TYPE_CODE_ARRAY).
--------------------------------------------------

Each time GDBN builds an internal type, it marks it with one of these types.  The type may be a fundamental type, such as TYPE_CODE_INT, or a derived type, such as TYPE_CODE_PTR which is a pointer to another type.  Typically, several FT_* types map to one TYPE_CODE_* type, and are distinguished by other members of the type struct, such as whether the type is signed or unsigned, and how many bits it uses.

Builtin Types (e.g., builtin_type_void, builtin_type_char).
-----------------------------------------------------------

These are instances of type structs that roughly correspond to fundamental types and are created as global types for GDBN to use for various ugly historical reasons.  We eventually want to eliminate these.  Note for example that builtin_type_int initialized in gdbtypes.c is basically the same as a TYPE_CODE_INT type that is initialized in c-lang.c for an FT_INTEGER fundamental type.  The difference is that the builtin_type is not associated with any particular objfile, and only one instance exists, while c-lang.c builds as many TYPE_CODE_INT types as needed, with each one associated with some particular objfile.

Object File Formats
===================

a.out
-----

The a.out format is the original file format for Unix.  It consists of three sections: text, data, and bss, which are for program code, initialized data, and uninitialized data, respectively.

The a.out format is so simple that it doesn't have any reserved place for debugging information.  (Hey, the original Unix hackers used adb, which is a machine-language debugger!)  The only debugging format for a.out is stabs, which is encoded as a set of normal symbols with distinctive attributes.

The basic a.out reader is in dbxread.c.

COFF
----

The COFF format was introduced with System V Release 3 (SVR3) Unix. COFF files may have multiple sections, each prefixed by a header.  The number of sections is limited.

The COFF specification includes support for debugging.  Although this was a step forward, the debugging information was woefully limited.  For instance, it was not possible to represent code that came from an included file.

The COFF reader is in coffread.c.

ECOFF
-----

ECOFF is an extended COFF originally introduced for Mips and Alpha workstations.

The basic ECOFF reader is in mipsread.c.

XCOFF
-----

The IBM RS/6000 running AIX uses an object file format called XCOFF. The COFF sections, symbols, and line numbers are used, but debugging symbols are dbx-style stabs whose strings are located in the .debug section (rather than the string table).  For more information, see The Stabs Debugging Format.

The shared library scheme has a clean interface for figuring out what shared libraries are in use, but the catch is that everything which refers to addresses (symbol tables and breakpoints at least) needs to be relocated for both shared libraries and the main executable.  At least using the standard mechanism this can only be done once the program has been run (or the core file has been read).

PE
--

Windows 95 and NT use the PE (Portable Executable) format for their executables.  PE is basically COFF with additional headers.

While BFD includes special PE support, GDBN needs only the basic COFF reader.

ELF
---

The ELF format came with System V Release 4 (SVR4) Unix.  ELF is similar to COFF in being organized into a number of sections, but it removes many of COFF's limitations.

The basic ELF reader is in elfread.c.

SOM
---

SOM is HP's object file and debug format (not to be confused with IBM's SOM, which is a cross-language ABI).

The SOM reader is in hpread.c.

Other File Formats
------------------

Other file formats that have been supported by GDBN include Netware Loadable Modules (nlmread.c).

Debugging File Formats
======================

This section describes characteristics of debugging information that are independent of the object file format.

stabs
-----

stabs started out as special symbols within the a.out format.  Since then, it has been encapsulated into other file formats, such as COFF and ELF.

While dbxread.c does some of the basic stab processing, including for encapsulated versions, stabsread.c does the real work.

COFF
----

The basic COFF definition includes debugging information.  The level of support is minimal and non-extensible, and is not often used.

Mips debug (Third Eye)
----------------------

ECOFF includes a definition of a special debug format.

The file mdebugread.c implements reading for this format.

DWARF 1
-------

DWARF 1 is a debugging format that was originally designed to be used with ELF in SVR4 systems.

The DWARF 1 reader is in dwarfread.c.

DWARF 2
-------

DWARF 2 is an improved but incompatible version of DWARF 1.

The DWARF 2 reader is in dwarf2read.c.

SOM
---

Like COFF, the SOM definition includes debugging information.

Adding a New Symbol Reader to GDBN
==================================

If you are using an existing object file format (a.out, COFF, ELF, etc), there is probably little to be done.

If you need to add a new object file format, you must first add it to BFD.  This is beyond the scope of this document.

You must then arrange for the BFD code to provide access to the debugging symbols.  Generally GDBN will have to call swapping routines from BFD and a few other BFD internal routines to locate the debugging information.  As much as possible, GDBN should not depend on the BFD internal data structures.

For some targets (e.g., COFF), there is a special transfer vector used to call swapping routines, since the external data structures on various platforms have different sizes and layouts.  Specialized routines that will only ever be implemented by one object file format may be called directly.  This interface should be described in a file bfd/libXYZ.h, which is included by GDBN.

Language Support
****************

GDBN's language support is mainly driven by the symbol reader, although it is possible for the user to set the source language manually.

GDBN chooses the source language by looking at the extension of the file recorded in the debug info; .c means C, .f means Fortran, etc.  It may also use a special-purpose language identifier if the debug format supports it, like with DWARF.

Adding a Source Language to GDBN
================================

To add other languages to GDBN's expression parser, follow the following steps:

Create the expression parser.

     This should reside in a file LANG-exp.y.  Routines for building parsed expressions into a union exp_element list are in parse.c.

     Since we can't depend upon everyone having Bison, and YACC produces parsers that define a bunch of global names, the following lines must be included at the top of the YACC parser, to prevent the various parsers from defining the same global names:

          #define yyparse         LANG_parse
          #define yylex           LANG_lex
          #define yyerror         LANG_error
          #define yylval          LANG_lval
          #define yychar          LANG_char
          #define yydebug         LANG_debug
          #define yypact          LANG_pact
          #define yyr1            LANG_r1
          #define yyr2            LANG_r2
          #define yydef           LANG_def
          #define yychk           LANG_chk
          #define yypgo           LANG_pgo
          #define yyact           LANG_act
          #define yyexca          LANG_exca
          #define yyerrflag       LANG_errflag
          #define yynerrs         LANG_nerrs

     At the bottom of your parser, define a struct language_defn and initialize it with the right values for your language.  Define an initialize_LANG routine and have it call add_language(LANG_language_defn) to tell the rest of GDBN that your language exists.  You'll need some other supporting variables and functions, which will be used via pointers from your LANG_language_defn.  See the declaration of struct language_defn in language.h, and the other *-exp.y files, for more information.

Add any evaluation routines, if necessary

     If you need new opcodes (that represent the operations of the language), add them to the enumerated type in expression.h.  Add support code for these operations in the evaluate_subexp function defined in the file eval.c.  Add cases for new opcodes in two functions from parse.c: prefixify_subexp and length_of_subexp.  These compute the number of exp_elements that a given operation takes up.

Update some existing code

     Add an enumerated identifier for your language to the enumerated type enum language in defs.h.

     Update the routines in language.c so your language is included. These routines include type predicates and such, which (in some cases) are language dependent.  If your language does not appear in the switch statement, an error is reported.

     Also included in language.c is the code that updates the variable current_language, and the routines that translate the language_LANG enumerated identifier into a printable string.

     Update the function _initialize_language to include your language.  This function picks the default language upon startup, so is dependent upon which languages that GDBN is built for.

     Update allocate_symtab in symfile.c and/or symbol-reading code so that the language of each symtab (source file) is set properly. This is used to determine the language to use at each stack frame level. Currently, the language is set based upon the extension of the source file.  If the language can be better inferred from the symbol information, please set the language of the symtab in the symbol-reading code.

     Add helper code to print_subexp (in expprint.c) to handle any new expression opcodes you have added to expression.h.  Also, add the printed representations of your operators to op_print_tab.

Add a place of call

     Add a call to LANG_parse() and LANG_error in parse_exp_1 (defined in parse.c).

Use macros to trim code

     The user has the option of building GDBN for some or all of the languages.  If the user decides to build GDBN for the language LANG, then every file dependent on language.h will have the macro _LANG_LANG defined in it.  Use #ifdefs to leave out large routines that the user won't need if he or she is not using your language.

     Note that you do not need to do this in your YACC parser, since if GDBN is not build for LANG, then LANG-exp.tab.o (the compiled form of your parser) is not linked into GDBN at all.

     See the file configure.in for how GDBN is configured for different languages.

Edit Makefile.in

     Add dependencies in Makefile.in.  Make sure you update the macro variables such as HFILES and OBJS, otherwise your code may not get linked in, or, worse yet, it may not get tarred into the distribution!

Host Definition
***************

With the advent of Autoconf, it's rarely necessary to have host definition machinery anymore.  The following information is provided, mainly, as an historical reference.

Adding a New Host
=================

GDBN's host configuration support normally happens via Autoconf. New host-specific definitions should not be needed.  Older hosts GDBN still use the host-specific definitions and files listed below, but these mostly exist for historical reasons, and will eventually disappear.

gdb/config/ARCH/XYZ.mh
     This file once contained both host and native configuration information (see Native Debugging) for the machine XYZ.  The host configuration information is now handed by Autoconf.

     Host configuration information included a definition of XM_FILE=xm-XYZ.h and possibly definitions for CC, SYSV_DEFINE, XM_CFLAGS, XM_ADD_FILES, XM_CLIBS, XM_CDEPS, etc.; see Makefile.in.

     New host only configurations do not need this file.

gdb/config/ARCH/xm-XYZ.h
     This file once contained definitions and includes required when hosting gdb on machine XYZ.  Those definitions and includes are now handled by Autoconf.

     New host and native configurations do not need this file.

     Maintainer's note: Some hosts continue to use the xm-xyz.h file to define the macros HOST_FLOAT_FORMAT, HOST_DOUBLE_FORMAT and HOST_LONG_DOUBLE_FORMAT.  That code also needs to be replaced with either an Autoconf or run-time test.

Generic Host Support Files
--------------------------

There are some ``generic'' versions of routines that can be used by various systems.  These can be customized in various ways by macros defined in your xm-XYZ.h file.  If these routines work for the XYZ host, you can just include the generic file's name (with .o, not .c) in XDEPFILES.

Otherwise, if your machine needs custom support routines, you will need to write routines that perform the same functions as the generic file. Put them into XYZ-xdep.c, and put XYZ-xdep.o into XDEPFILES.

ser-unix.c
     This contains serial line support for Unix systems.  This is always included, via the makefile variable SER_HARDWIRE; override this variable in the .mh file to avoid it.

ser-go32.c
     This contains serial line support for 32-bit programs running under DOS, using the DJGPP (a.k.a. GO32) execution environment.

ser-tcp.c
     This contains generic TCP support using sockets.

Host Conditionals
=================

When GDBN is configured and compiled, various macros are defined or left undefined, to control compilation based on the attributes of the host system.  These macros and their meanings (or if the meaning is not documented here, then one of the source files where they are used is indicated) are:

GDBNINIT_FILENAME
     The default name of GDBN's initialization file (normally .gdbinit).

NO_STD_REGS
     This macro is deprecated.

NO_SYS_FILE
     Define this if your system does not have a <sys/file.h>.

SIGWINCH_HANDLER
     If your host defines SIGWINCH, you can define this to be the name of a function to be called if SIGWINCH is received.

SIGWINCH_HANDLER_BODY
     Define this to expand into code that will define the function named by the expansion of SIGWINCH_HANDLER.

ALIGN_STACK_ON_STARTUP
     Define this if your system is of a sort that will crash in tgetent if the stack happens not to be longword-aligned when main is called.  This is a rare situation, but is known to occur on several different types of systems.

CRLF_SOURCE_FILES
     Define this if host files use \r\n rather than \n as a line terminator.  This will cause source file listings to omit \r characters when printing and it will allow \r\n line endings of files which are ``sourced'' by gdb.  It must be possible to open files in binary mode using O_BINARY or, for fopen, "rb".

DEFAULT_PROMPT
     The default value of the prompt string (normally "(gdb) ").

DEV_TTY
     The name of the generic TTY device, defaults to "/dev/tty".

FCLOSE_PROVIDED
     Define this if the system declares fclose in the headers included in defs.h.  This isn't needed unless your compiler is unusually anal.

FOPEN_RB
     Define this if binary files are opened the same way as text files.

GETENV_PROVIDED
     Define this if the system declares getenv in its headers included in defs.h.  This isn't needed unless your compiler is unusually anal.

HAVE_MMAP
     In some cases, use the system call mmap for reading symbol tables.  For some machines this allows for sharing and quick updates.

HAVE_TERMIO
     Define this if the host system has termio.h.

INT_MAX
INT_MIN
LONG_MAX
UINT_MAX
ULONG_MAX
     Values for host-side constants.

ISATTY
     Substitute for isatty, if not available.

LONGEST
     This is the longest integer type available on the host.  If not defined, it will default to long long or long, depending on CC_HAS_LONG_LONG.

CC_HAS_LONG_LONG
     Define this if the host C compiler supports long long.  This is set by the configure script.

PRINTF_HAS_LONG_LONG
     Define this if the host can handle printing of long long integers via the printf format conversion specifier ll.  This is set by the configure script.

HAVE_LONG_DOUBLE
     Define this if the host C compiler supports long double.  This is set by the configure script.

PRINTF_HAS_LONG_DOUBLE
     Define this if the host can handle printing of long double float-point numbers via the printf format conversion specifier Lg.  This is set by the configure script.

SCANF_HAS_LONG_DOUBLE
     Define this if the host can handle the parsing of long double float-point numbers via the scanf format conversion specifier Lg.  This is set by the configure script.

LSEEK_NOT_LINEAR
     Define this if lseek (n) does not necessarily move to byte number n in the file.  This is only used when reading source files.  It is normally faster to define CRLF_SOURCE_FILES when possible.

L_SET
     This macro is used as the argument to lseek (or, most commonly, bfd_seek).  FIXME, should be replaced by SEEK_SET instead, which is the POSIX equivalent.

MMAP_BASE_ADDRESS
     When using HAVE_MMAP, the first mapping should go at this address.

MMAP_INCREMENT
     when using HAVE_MMAP, this is the increment between mappings.

NORETURN
     If defined, this should be one or more tokens, such as volatile, that can be used in both the declaration and definition of functions to indicate that they never return.  The default is already set correctly if compiling with GCC.  This will almost never need to be defined.

ATTR_NORETURN
     If defined, this should be one or more tokens, such as __attribute__ ((noreturn)), that can be used in the declarations of functions to indicate that they never return.  The default is already set correctly if compiling with GCC.  This will almost never need to be defined.

USE_MMALLOC
     GDBN will use the mmalloc library for memory allocation for symbol reading if this symbol is defined.  Be careful defining it since there are systems on which mmalloc does not work for some reason.  One example is the DECstation, where its RPC library can't cope with our redefinition of malloc to call mmalloc. When defining USE_MMALLOC, you will also have to set MMALLOC in the Makefile, to point to the mmalloc library.  This define is set when you configure with --with-mmalloc.

NO_MMCHECK
     Define this if you are using mmalloc, but don't want the overhead of checking the heap with mmcheck.  Note that on some systems, the C runtime makes calls to malloc prior to calling main, and if free is ever called with these pointers after calling mmcheck to enable checking, a memory corruption abort is certain to occur.  These systems can still use mmalloc, but must define NO_MMCHECK.

MMCHECK_FORCE
     Define this to 1 if the C runtime allocates memory prior to mmcheck being called, but that memory is never freed so we don't have to worry about it triggering a memory corruption abort.  The default is 0, which means that mmcheck will only install the heap checking functions if there has not yet been any memory allocation calls, and if it fails to install the functions, GDBN will issue a warning.  This is currently defined if you configure using --with-mmalloc.

NO_SIGINTERRUPT
     Define this to indicate that siginterrupt is not available.

SEEK_CUR
SEEK_SET
     Define these to appropriate value for the system lseek, if not already defined.

STOP_SIGNAL
     This is the signal for stopping GDBN.  Defaults to SIGTSTP.  (Only redefined for the Convex.)

USE_O_NOCTTY
     Define this if the interior's tty should be opened with the O_NOCTTY flag.  (FIXME: This should be a native-only flag, but inflow.c is always linked in.)

USG
     Means that System V (prior to SVR4) include files are in use.  (FIXME: This symbol is abused in infrun.c, regex.c, and utils.c for other things, at the moment.)

lint
     Define this to help placate lint in some situations.

volatile
     Define this to override the defaults of __volatile__ or /**/.

Target Architecture Definition
******************************

GDBN's target architecture defines what sort of machine-language programs GDBN can work with, and how it works with them.

The target architecture object is implemented as the C structure struct gdbarch *.  The structure, and its methods, are generated using the Bourne shell script gdbarch.sh.

Operating System ABI Variant Handling
=====================================

GDBN provides a mechanism for handling variations in OS ABIs.  An OS ABI variant may have influence over any number of variables in the target architecture definition.  There are two major components in the OS ABI mechanism: sniffers and handlers.

A sniffer examines a file matching a BFD architecture/flavour pair (the architecture may be wildcarded) in an attempt to determine the OS ABI of that file.  Sniffers with a wildcarded architecture are considered to be generic, while sniffers for a specific architecture are considered to be specific.  A match from a specific sniffer overrides a match from a generic sniffer.  Multiple sniffers for an architecture/flavour may exist, in order to differentiate between two different operating systems which use the same basic file format.  The OS ABI framework provides a generic sniffer for ELF-format files which examines the EI_OSABI field of the ELF header, as well as note sections known to be used by several operating systems.

A handler is used to fine-tune the gdbarch structure for the selected OS ABI.  There may be only one handler for a given OS ABI for each BFD architecture.

The following OS ABI variants are defined in osabi.h:

GDB_OSABI_UNKNOWN
     The ABI of the inferior is unknown.  The default gdbarch settings for the architecture will be used.

GDB_OSABI_SVR4
     UNIX System V Release 4

GDB_OSABI_HURD
     GNU using the Hurd kernel

GDB_OSABI_SOLARIS
     Sun Solaris

GDB_OSABI_OSF1
     OSF/1, including Digital UNIX and Compaq Tru64 UNIX

GDB_OSABI_LINUX
     GNU using the Linux kernel

GDB_OSABI_FREEBSD_AOUT
     FreeBSD using the a.out executable format

GDB_OSABI_FREEBSD_ELF
     FreeBSD using the ELF executable format

GDB_OSABI_NETBSD_AOUT
     NetBSD using the a.out executable format

GDB_OSABI_NETBSD_ELF
     NetBSD using the ELF executable format

GDB_OSABI_WINCE
     Windows CE

GDB_OSABI_GO32
     DJGPP

GDB_OSABI_NETWARE
     Novell NetWare

GDB_OSABI_ARM_EABI_V1
     ARM Embedded ABI version 1

GDB_OSABI_ARM_EABI_V2
     ARM Embedded ABI version 2

GDB_OSABI_ARM_APCS
     Generic ARM Procedure Call Standard

Here are the functions that make up the OS ABI framework:

 -- Function: const char *gdbarch_osabi_name (enum gdb_osabi OSABI)
     Return the name of the OS ABI corresponding to OSABI.

 -- Function: void gdbarch_register_osabi (enum bfd_architecture ARCH, unsigned long MACHINE, enum gdb_osabi OSABI, void (*INIT_OSABI)(struct gdbarch_info INFO, struct gdbarch *GDBARCH))
     Register the OS ABI handler specified by INIT_OSABI for the architecture, machine type and OS ABI specified by ARCH, MACHINE and OSABI.  In most cases, a value of zero for the machine type, which implies the architecture's default machine type, will suffice.

 -- Function: void gdbarch_register_osabi_sniffer (enum bfd_architecture ARCH, enum bfd_flavour FLAVOUR, enum gdb_osabi (*SNIFFER)(bfd *ABFD))
     Register the OS ABI file sniffer specified by SNIFFER for the BFD architecture/flavour pair specified by ARCH and FLAVOUR. If ARCH is bfd_arch_unknown, the sniffer is considered to be generic, and is allowed to examine FLAVOUR-flavoured files for any architecture.

 -- Function: enum gdb_osabi gdbarch_lookup_osabi (bfd *ABFD)
     Examine the file described by ABFD to determine its OS ABI. The value GDB_OSABI_UNKNOWN is returned if the OS ABI cannot be determined.

 -- Function: void gdbarch_init_osabi (struct gdbarch info INFO, struct gdbarch *GDBARCH, enum gdb_osabi OSABI)
     Invoke the OS ABI handler corresponding to OSABI to fine-tune the gdbarch structure specified by GDBARCH.  If a handler corresponding to OSABI has not been registered for GDBARCH's architecture, a warning will be issued and the debugging session will continue with the defaults already established for GDBARCH.

Registers and Memory
====================

GDBN's model of the target machine is rather simple. GDBN assumes the machine includes a bank of registers and a block of memory.  Each register may have a different size.

GDBN does not have a magical way to match up with the compiler's idea of which registers are which; however, it is critical that they do match up accurately.  The only way to make this work is to get accurate information about the order that the compiler uses, and to reflect that in the REGISTER_NAME and related macros.

GDBN can handle big-endian, little-endian, and bi-endian architectures.

Pointers Are Not Always Addresses
=================================

On almost all 32-bit architectures, the representation of a pointer is indistinguishable from the representation of some fixed-length number whose value is the byte address of the object pointed to.  On such machines, the words ``pointer'' and ``address'' can be used interchangeably. However, architectures with smaller word sizes are often cramped for address space, so they may choose a pointer representation that breaks this identity, and allows a larger code address space.

For example, the Mitsubishi D10V is a 16-bit VLIW processor whose instructions are 32 bits long (Some D10V instructions are actually pairs of 16-bit sub-instructions.  However, since you can't jump into the middle of such a pair, code addresses can only refer to full 32 bit instructions, which is what matters in this explanation.). If the D10V used ordinary byte addresses to refer to code locations, then the processor would only be able to address 64kb of instructions. However, since instructions must be aligned on four-byte boundaries, the low two bits of any valid instruction's byte address are always zero---byte addresses waste two bits.  So instead of byte addresses, the D10V uses word addresses---byte addresses shifted right two bits---to refer to code.  Thus, the D10V can use 16-bit words to address 256kb of code space.

However, this means that code pointers and data pointers have different forms on the D10V.  The 16-bit word 0xC020 refers to byte address 0xC020 when used as a data address, but refers to byte address 0x30080 when used as a code address.

(The D10V also uses separate code and data address spaces, which also affects the correspondence between pointers and addresses, but we're going to ignore that here; this example is already too long.)

To cope with architectures like this---the D10V is not the only one!---GDBN tries to distinguish between addresses, which are byte numbers, and pointers, which are the target's representation of an address of a particular type of data.  In the example above, 0xC020 is the pointer, which refers to one of the addresses 0xC020 or 0x30080, depending on the type imposed upon it. GDBN provides functions for turning a pointer into an address and vice versa, in the appropriate way for the current architecture.

Unfortunately, since addresses and pointers are identical on almost all processors, this distinction tends to bit-rot pretty quickly.  Thus, each time you port GDBN to an architecture which does distinguish between pointers and addresses, you'll probably need to clean up some architecture-independent code.

Here are functions which convert between pointers and addresses:

 -- Function: CORE_ADDR extract_typed_address (void *BUF, struct type *TYPE)
     Treat the bytes at BUF as a pointer or reference of type TYPE, and return the address it represents, in a manner appropriate for the current architecture.  This yields an address GDBN can use to read target memory, disassemble, etc.  Note that BUF refers to a buffer in GDBN's memory, not the inferior's.

     For example, if the current architecture is the Intel x86, this function extracts a little-endian integer of the appropriate length from BUF and returns it.  However, if the current architecture is the D10V, this function will return a 16-bit integer extracted from BUF, multiplied by four if TYPE is a pointer to a function.

     If TYPE is not a pointer or reference type, then this function will signal an internal error.

 -- Function: CORE_ADDR store_typed_address (void *BUF, struct type *TYPE, CORE_ADDR ADDR)
     Store the address ADDR in BUF, in the proper format for a pointer of type TYPE in the current architecture.  Note that BUF refers to a buffer in GDBN's memory, not the inferior's.

     For example, if the current architecture is the Intel x86, this function stores ADDR unmodified as a little-endian integer of the appropriate length in BUF.  However, if the current architecture is the D10V, this function divides ADDR by four if TYPE is a pointer to a function, and then stores it in BUF.

     If TYPE is not a pointer or reference type, then this function will signal an internal error.

 -- Function: CORE_ADDR value_as_address (struct value *VAL)
     Assuming that VAL is a pointer, return the address it represents, as appropriate for the current architecture.

     This function actually works on integral values, as well as pointers. For pointers, it performs architecture-specific conversions as described above for extract_typed_address.

 -- Function: CORE_ADDR value_from_pointer (struct type *TYPE, CORE_ADDR ADDR)
     Create and return a value representing a pointer of type TYPE to the address ADDR, as appropriate for the current architecture. This function performs architecture-specific conversions as described above for store_typed_address.

GDBN also provides functions that do the same tasks, but assume that pointers are simply byte addresses; they aren't sensitive to the current architecture, beyond knowing the appropriate endianness.

 -- Function: CORE_ADDR extract_address (void *ADDR, int len)
     Extract a LEN-byte number from ADDR in the appropriate endianness for the current architecture, and return it.  Note that ADDR refers to GDBN's memory, not the inferior's.

     This function should only be used in architecture-specific code; it doesn't have enough information to turn bits into a true address in the appropriate way for the current architecture.  If you can, use extract_typed_address instead.

 -- Function: void store_address (void *ADDR, int LEN, LONGEST VAL)
     Store VAL at ADDR as a LEN-byte integer, in the appropriate endianness for the current architecture.  Note that ADDR refers to a buffer in GDBN's memory, not the inferior's.

     This function should only be used in architecture-specific code; it doesn't have enough information to turn a true address into bits in the appropriate way for the current architecture.  If you can, use store_typed_address instead.

Here are some macros which architectures can define to indicate the relationship between pointers and addresses.  These have default definitions, appropriate for architectures on which all pointers are simple unsigned byte addresses.

 -- Target Macro: CORE_ADDR POINTER_TO_ADDRESS (struct type *TYPE, char *BUF)
     Assume that BUF holds a pointer of type TYPE, in the appropriate format for the current architecture.  Return the byte address the pointer refers to.

     This function may safely assume that TYPE is either a pointer or a C++ reference type.

 -- Target Macro: void ADDRESS_TO_POINTER (struct type *TYPE, char *BUF, CORE_ADDR ADDR)
     Store in BUF a pointer of type TYPE representing the address ADDR, in the appropriate format for the current architecture.

     This function may safely assume that TYPE is either a pointer or a C++ reference type.

Address Classes
===============

Sometimes information about different kinds of addresses is available via the debug information.  For example, some programming environments define addresses of several different sizes.  If the debug information distinguishes these kinds of address classes through either the size info (e.g, DW_AT_byte_size in DWARF 2) or through an explicit address class attribute (e.g, DW_AT_address_class in DWARF 2), the following macros should be defined in order to disambiguate these types within GDBN as well as provide the added information to a GDBN user when printing type expressions.

 -- Target Macro: int ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS (int BYTE_SIZE, int DWARF2_ADDR_CLASS)
     Returns the type flags needed to construct a pointer type whose size is BYTE_SIZE and whose address class is DWARF2_ADDR_CLASS. This function is normally called from within a symbol reader.  See dwarf2read.c.

 -- Target Macro: char *ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS_TO_NAME (int TYPE_FLAGS)
     Given the type flags representing an address class qualifier, return its name.

 -- Target Macro: int ADDRESS_CLASS_NAME_to_TYPE_FLAGS (int NAME, int *vartype_flags_ptr)
     Given an address qualifier name, set the int refererenced by TYPE_FLAGS_PTR to the type flags for that address class qualifier.

Since the need for address classes is rather rare, none of the address class macros defined by default.  Predicate macros are provided to detect when they are defined.

Consider a hypothetical architecture in which addresses are normally 32-bits wide, but 16-bit addresses are also supported.  Furthermore, suppose that the DWARF 2 information for this architecture simply uses a DW_AT_byte_size value of 2 to indicate the use of one of these "short" pointers.  The following functions could be defined to implement the address class macros:

     somearch_address_class_type_flags (int byte_size,
                                        int dwarf2_addr_class)
     {
       if (byte_size == 2)
         return TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_1;
       else
         return 0;
     }

     static char *
     somearch_address_class_type_flags_to_name (int type_flags)
     {
       if (type_flags & TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_1)
         return "short";
       else
         return NULL;
     }

     int
     somearch_address_class_name_to_type_flags (char *name,
                                                int *type_flags_ptr)
     {
       if (strcmp (name, "short") == 0)
         {
           *type_flags_ptr = TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_1;
           return 1;
         }
       else
         return 0;
     }

The qualifier @short is used in GDBN's type expressions to indicate the presence of one of these "short" pointers.  E.g, if the debug information indicates that short_ptr_var is one of these short pointers, GDBN might show the following behavior:

     (gdb) ptype short_ptr_var
     type = int * @short

Raw and Virtual Register Representations
========================================

Maintainer note: This section is pretty much obsolete.  The functionality described here has largely been replaced by pseudo-registers and the mechanisms described in Using Different Register and Memory Data Representations.  See also Bug Tracking Database (http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/) and ARI Index (http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/current/ari/) for more up-to-date information.

Some architectures use one representation for a value when it lives in a register, but use a different representation when it lives in memory. In GDBN's terminology, the raw representation is the one used in the target registers, and the virtual representation is the one used in memory, and within GDBN struct value objects.

Maintainer note: Notice that the same mechanism is being used to both convert a register to a struct value and alternative register forms.

For almost all data types on almost all architectures, the virtual and raw representations are identical, and no special handling is needed. However, they do occasionally differ.  For example:

  * The x86 architecture supports an 80-bit long double type.  However, when we store those values in memory, they occupy twelve bytes: the floating-point number occupies the first ten, and the final two bytes are unused.  This keeps the values aligned on four-byte boundaries, allowing more efficient access.  Thus, the x86 80-bit floating-point type is the raw representation, and the twelve-byte loosely-packed arrangement is the virtual representation.

  * Some 64-bit MIPS targets present 32-bit registers to GDBN as 64-bit registers, with garbage in their upper bits.  GDBN ignores the top 32 bits.  Thus, the 64-bit form, with garbage in the upper 32 bits, is the raw representation, and the trimmed 32-bit representation is the virtual representation.

In general, the raw representation is determined by the architecture, or GDBN's interface to the architecture, while the virtual representation can be chosen for GDBN's convenience.  GDBN's register file, registers, holds the register contents in raw format, and the GDBN remote protocol transmits register values in raw format.

Your architecture may define the following macros to request conversions between the raw and virtual format:

 -- Target Macro: int REGISTER_CONVERTIBLE (int REG)
     Return non-zero if register number REG's value needs different raw and virtual formats.

     You should not use REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL for a register unless this macro returns a non-zero value for that register.

 -- Target Macro: int REGISTER_RAW_SIZE (int REG)
     The size of register number REG's raw value.  This is the number of bytes the register will occupy in registers, or in a GDBN remote protocol packet.

 -- Target Macro: int REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE (int REG)
     The size of register number REG's value, in its virtual format. This is the size a struct value's buffer will have, holding that register's value.

 -- Target Macro: struct type *REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE (int REG)
     This is the type of the virtual representation of register number REG.  Note that there is no need for a macro giving a type for the register's raw form; once the register's value has been obtained, GDBN always uses the virtual form.

 -- Target Macro: void REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL (int REG, struct type *TYPE, char *FROM, char *TO)
     Convert the value of register number REG to TYPE, which should always be REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE (REG).  The buffer at FROM holds the register's value in raw format; the macro should convert the value to virtual format, and place it at TO.

     Note that REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL and REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW take their REG and TYPE arguments in different orders.

     You should only use REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL with registers for which the REGISTER_CONVERTIBLE macro returns a non-zero value.

 -- Target Macro: void REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW (struct type *TYPE, int REG, char *FROM, char *TO)
     Convert the value of register number REG to TYPE, which should always be REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE (REG).  The buffer at FROM holds the register's value in raw format; the macro should convert the value to virtual format, and place it at TO.

     Note that REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL and REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW take their REG and TYPE arguments in different orders.

Using Different Register and Memory Data Representations
========================================================

Maintainer's note: The way GDB manipulates registers is undergoing significant change.  Many of the macros and functions refered to in this section are likely to be subject to further revision.  See A.R. Index (http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/current/ari/) and Bug Tracking Database (http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs) for further information.  cagney/2002-05-06.

Some architectures can represent a data object in a register using a form that is different to the objects more normal memory representation. For example:

  * The Alpha architecture can represent 32 bit integer values in floating-point registers.

  * The x86 architecture supports 80-bit floating-point registers.  The long double data type occupies 96 bits in memory but only 80 bits when stored in a register.

In general, the register representation of a data type is determined by the architecture, or GDBN's interface to the architecture, while the memory representation is determined by the Application Binary Interface.

For almost all data types on almost all architectures, the two representations are identical, and no special handling is needed. However, they do occasionally differ.  Your architecture may define the following macros to request conversions between the register and memory representations of a data type:

 -- Target Macro: int CONVERT_REGISTER_P (int REG)
     Return non-zero if the representation of a data value stored in this register may be different to the representation of that same data value when stored in memory.

     When non-zero, the macros REGISTER_TO_VALUE and VALUE_TO_REGISTER are used to perform any necessary conversion.

 -- Target Macro: void REGISTER_TO_VALUE (int REG, struct type *TYPE, char *FROM, char *TO)
     Convert the value of register number REG to a data object of type TYPE.  The buffer at FROM holds the register's value in raw format; the converted value should be placed in the buffer at TO.

     Note that REGISTER_TO_VALUE and VALUE_TO_REGISTER take their REG and TYPE arguments in different orders.

     You should only use REGISTER_TO_VALUE with registers for which the CONVERT_REGISTER_P macro returns a non-zero value.

 -- Target Macro: void VALUE_TO_REGISTER (struct type *TYPE, int REG, char *FROM, char *TO)
     Convert a data value of type TYPE to register number REG' raw format.

     Note that REGISTER_TO_VALUE and VALUE_TO_REGISTER take their REG and TYPE arguments in different orders.

     You should only use VALUE_TO_REGISTER with registers for which the CONVERT_REGISTER_P macro returns a non-zero value.

 -- Target Macro: void REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_TYPE (int REGNUM, struct type *TYPE, char *BUF)
     See mips-tdep.c.  It does not do what you want.

Frame Interpretation
====================

Inferior Call Setup
===================

Compiler Characteristics
========================

Target Conditionals
===================

This section describes the macros that you can use to define the target machine.

ADDR_BITS_REMOVE (addr)
     If a raw machine instruction address includes any bits that are not really part of the address, then define this macro to expand into an expression that zeroes those bits in ADDR.  This is only used for addresses of instructions, and even then not in all contexts.

     For example, the two low-order bits of the PC on the Hewlett-Packard PA 2.0 architecture contain the privilege level of the corresponding instruction.  Since instructions must always be aligned on four-byte boundaries, the processor masks out these bits to generate the actual address of the instruction.  ADDR_BITS_REMOVE should filter out these bits with an expression such as ((addr) & ~3).

ADDRESS_CLASS_NAME_TO_TYPE_FLAGS (NAME, TYPE_FLAGS_PTR)
     If NAME is a valid address class qualifier name, set the int referenced by TYPE_FLAGS_PTR to the mask representing the qualifier and return 1.  If NAME is not a valid address class qualifier name, return 0.

     The value for TYPE_FLAGS_PTR should be one of TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_1, TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_2, or possibly some combination of these values or'd together. See Address Classes.

ADDRESS_CLASS_NAME_TO_TYPE_FLAGS_P ()
     Predicate which indicates whether ADDRESS_CLASS_NAME_TO_TYPE_FLAGS has been defined.

ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS (BYTE_SIZE, DWARF2_ADDR_CLASS)
     Given a pointers byte size (as described by the debug information) and the possible DW_AT_address_class value, return the type flags used by GDBN to represent this address class.  The value returned should be one of TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_1, TYPE_FLAG_ADDRESS_CLASS_2, or possibly some combination of these values or'd together. See Address Classes.

ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS_P ()
     Predicate which indicates whether ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS has been defined.

ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS_TO_NAME (TYPE_FLAGS)
     Return the name of the address class qualifier associated with the type flags given by TYPE_FLAGS.

ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS_TO_NAME_P ()
     Predicate which indicates whether ADDRESS_CLASS_TYPE_FLAGS_TO_NAME has been defined. See Address Classes.

ADDRESS_TO_POINTER (TYPE, BUF, ADDR)
     Store in BUF a pointer of type TYPE representing the address ADDR, in the appropriate format for the current architecture. This macro may safely assume that TYPE is either a pointer or a C++ reference type. See Pointers Are Not Always Addresses.

BELIEVE_PCC_PROMOTION
     Define if the compiler promotes a short or char parameter to an int, but still reports the parameter as its original type, rather than the promoted type.

BELIEVE_PCC_PROMOTION_TYPE
     Define this if GDBN should believe the type of a short argument when compiled by pcc, but look within a full int space to get its value.  Only defined for Sun-3 at present.

BITS_BIG_ENDIAN
     Define this if the numbering of bits in the targets does not match the endianness of the target byte order.  A value of 1 means that the bits are numbered in a big-endian bit order, 0 means little-endian.

BREAKPOINT
     This is the character array initializer for the bit pattern to put into memory where a breakpoint is set.  Although it's common to use a trap instruction for a breakpoint, it's not required; for instance, the bit pattern could be an invalid instruction.  The breakpoint must be no longer than the shortest instruction of the architecture.

     BREAKPOINT has been deprecated in favor of BREAKPOINT_FROM_PC.

BIG_BREAKPOINT
LITTLE_BREAKPOINT
     Similar to BREAKPOINT, but used for bi-endian targets.

     BIG_BREAKPOINT and LITTLE_BREAKPOINT have been deprecated in favor of BREAKPOINT_FROM_PC.

REMOTE_BREAKPOINT
LITTLE_REMOTE_BREAKPOINT
BIG_REMOTE_BREAKPOINT
     Similar to BREAKPOINT, but used for remote targets.

     BIG_REMOTE_BREAKPOINT and LITTLE_REMOTE_BREAKPOINT have been deprecated in favor of BREAKPOINT_FROM_PC.

BREAKPOINT_FROM_PC (PCPTR, LENPTR)
     Use the program counter to determine the contents and size of a breakpoint instruction.  It returns a pointer to a string of bytes that encode a breakpoint instruction, stores the length of the string to *LENPTR, and adjusts pc (if necessary) to point to the actual memory location where the breakpoint should be inserted.

     Although it is common to use a trap instruction for a breakpoint, it's not required; for instance, the bit pattern could be an invalid instruction.  The breakpoint must be no longer than the shortest instruction of the architecture.

     Replaces all the other BREAKPOINT macros.

MEMORY_INSERT_BREAKPOINT (ADDR, CONTENTS_CACHE)
MEMORY_REMOVE_BREAKPOINT (ADDR, CONTENTS_CACHE)
     Insert or remove memory based breakpoints.  Reasonable defaults (default_memory_insert_breakpoint and default_memory_remove_breakpoint respectively) have been provided so that it is not necessary to define these for most architectures.  Architectures which may want to define MEMORY_INSERT_BREAKPOINT and MEMORY_REMOVE_BREAKPOINT will likely have instructions that are oddly sized or are not stored in a conventional manner.

     It may also be desirable (from an efficiency standpoint) to define custom breakpoint insertion and removal routines if BREAKPOINT_FROM_PC needs to read the target's memory for some reason.

DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS
     Pointer to an array of LONGEST words of data containing host-byte-ordered REGISTER_BYTES sized values that partially specify the sequence of instructions needed for an inferior function call.

     Should be deprecated in favor of a macro that uses target-byte-ordered data.

     This method has been replaced by push_dummy_code (see push_dummy_code).

DEPRECATED_SIZEOF_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS
     The size of DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS.  This must return a positive value.  See also DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_LENGTH.

     This method has been replaced by push_dummy_code (see push_dummy_code).

CALL_DUMMY
     A static initializer for DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS. Deprecated.

     This method has been replaced by push_dummy_code (see push_dummy_code).

CALL_DUMMY_LOCATION
     See the file inferior.h.

     This method has been replaced by push_dummy_code (see push_dummy_code).

DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_STACK_ADJUST
     Stack adjustment needed when performing an inferior function call.  This function is no longer needed.  See push_dummy_call, which can handle all alignment directly.

CANNOT_FETCH_REGISTER (REGNO)
     A C expression that should be nonzero if REGNO cannot be fetched from an inferior process.  This is only relevant if FETCH_INFERIOR_REGISTERS is not defined.

CANNOT_STORE_REGISTER (REGNO)
     A C expression that should be nonzero if REGNO should not be written to the target.  This is often the case for program counters, status words, and other special registers.  If this is not defined, GDBN will assume that all registers may be written.

DO_DEFERRED_STORES
CLEAR_DEFERRED_STORES
     Define this to execute any deferred stores of registers into the inferior, and to cancel any deferred stores.

     Currently only implemented correctly for native Sparc configurations?

int CONVERT_REGISTER_P(REGNUM)
     Return non-zero if register REGNUM can represent data values in a non-standard form. See Using Different Register and Memory Data Representations.

DECR_PC_AFTER_BREAK
     Define this to be the amount by which to decrement the PC after the program encounters a breakpoint.  This is often the number of bytes in BREAKPOINT, though not always.  For most targets this value will be 0.

DECR_PC_AFTER_HW_BREAK
     Similarly, for hardware breakpoints.

DISABLE_UNSETTABLE_BREAK (ADDR)
     If defined, this should evaluate to 1 if ADDR is in a shared library in which breakpoints cannot be set and so should be disabled.

PRINT_FLOAT_INFO()
     If defined, then the info float command will print information about the processor's floating point unit.

print_registers_info (GDBARCH, FRAME, REGNUM, ALL)
     If defined, pretty print the value of the register REGNUM for the specified FRAME.  If the value of REGNUM is -1, pretty print either all registers (ALL is non zero) or a select subset of registers (ALL is zero).

     The default method prints one register per line, and if ALL is zero omits floating-point registers.

PRINT_VECTOR_INFO()
     If defined, then the info vector command will call this function to print information about the processor's vector unit.

     By default, the info vector command will print all vector registers (the register's type having the vector attribute).

DWARF_REG_TO_REGNUM
     Convert DWARF register number into GDBN regnum.  If not defined, no conversion will be performed.

DWARF2_REG_TO_REGNUM
     Convert DWARF2 register number into GDBN regnum.  If not defined, no conversion will be performed.

ECOFF_REG_TO_REGNUM
     Convert ECOFF register number into GDBN regnum.  If not defined, no conversion will be performed.

END_OF_TEXT_DEFAULT
     This is an expression that should designate the end of the text section.

EXTRACT_RETURN_VALUE(TYPE, REGBUF, VALBUF)
     Define this to extract a function's return value of type TYPE from the raw register state REGBUF and copy that, in virtual format, into VALBUF.

EXTRACT_STRUCT_VALUE_ADDRESS(REGBUF)
     When defined, extract from the array REGBUF (containing the raw register state) the CORE_ADDR at which a function should return its structure value.

     If not defined, EXTRACT_RETURN_VALUE is used.

EXTRACT_STRUCT_VALUE_ADDRESS_P()
     Predicate for EXTRACT_STRUCT_VALUE_ADDRESS.

DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM
     If the virtual frame pointer is kept in a register, then define this macro to be the number (greater than or equal to zero) of that register.

     This should only need to be defined if DEPRECATED_TARGET_READ_FP is not defined.

FRAMELESS_FUNCTION_INVOCATION(FI)
     Define this to an expression that returns 1 if the function invocation represented by FI does not have a stack frame associated with it. Otherwise return 0.

frame_align (ADDRESS)
     Define this to adjust ADDRESS so that it meets the alignment requirements for the start of a new stack frame.  A stack frame's alignment requirements are typically stronger than a target processors stack alignment requirements (see STACK_ALIGN).

     This function is used to ensure that, when creating a dummy frame, both the initial stack pointer and (if needed) the address of the return value are correctly aligned.

     Unlike STACK_ALIGN, this function always adjusts the address in the direction of stack growth.

     By default, no frame based stack alignment is performed.

FRAME_ARGS_ADDRESS_CORRECT
     See stack.c.

DEPRECATED_FRAME_CHAIN(FRAME)
     Given FRAME, return a pointer to the calling frame.

DEPRECATED_FRAME_CHAIN_VALID(CHAIN, THISFRAME)
     Define this to be an expression that returns zero if the given frame is an outermost frame, with no caller, and nonzero otherwise.  Most normal situations can be handled without defining this macro, including NULL chain pointers, dummy frames, and frames whose PC values are inside the startup file (e.g. crt0.o), inside main, or inside _start.

DEPRECATED_FRAME_INIT_SAVED_REGS(FRAME)
     See frame.h.  Determines the address of all registers in the current stack frame storing each in frame->saved_regs.  Space for frame->saved_regs shall be allocated by DEPRECATED_FRAME_INIT_SAVED_REGS using frame_saved_regs_zalloc.

     FRAME_FIND_SAVED_REGS is deprecated.

FRAME_NUM_ARGS (FI)
     For the frame described by FI return the number of arguments that are being passed.  If the number of arguments is not known, return -1.

DEPRECATED_FRAME_SAVED_PC(FRAME)
      Given FRAME, return the pc saved there.  This is the return address.

     This method is deprecated. See unwind_pc.

CORE_ADDR unwind_pc (struct frame_info *THIS_FRAME)
      Return the instruction address, in THIS_FRAME's caller, at which execution will resume after THIS_FRAME returns. This is commonly refered to as the return address.

     The implementation, which must be frame agnostic (work with any frame), is typically no more than:

          ULONGEST pc;
          frame_unwind_unsigned_register (this_frame, D10V_PC_REGNUM, &pc);
          return d10v_make_iaddr (pc);

     See DEPRECATED_FRAME_SAVED_PC, which this method replaces.

FUNCTION_EPILOGUE_SIZE
     For some COFF targets, the x_sym.x_misc.x_fsize field of the function end symbol is 0.  For such targets, you must define FUNCTION_EPILOGUE_SIZE to expand into the standard size of a function's epilogue.

FUNCTION_START_OFFSET
     An integer, giving the offset in bytes from a function's address (as used in the values of symbols, function pointers, etc.), and the function's first genuine instruction.

     This is zero on almost all machines: the function's address is usually the address of its first instruction.  However, on the VAX, for example, each function starts with two bytes containing a bitmask indicating which registers to save upon entry to the function.  The VAX call instructions check this value, and save the appropriate registers automatically.  Thus, since the offset from the function's address to its first instruction is two bytes, FUNCTION_START_OFFSET would be 2 on the VAX.

GCC_COMPILED_FLAG_SYMBOL
GCC2_COMPILED_FLAG_SYMBOL
     If defined, these are the names of the symbols that GDBN will look for to detect that GCC compiled the file.  The default symbols are gcc_compiled. and gcc2_compiled., respectively.  (Currently only defined for the Delta 68.)

GDBN_MULTI_ARCH
     If defined and non-zero, enables support for multiple architectures within GDBN.

     This support can be enabled at two levels.  At level one, only definitions for previously undefined macros are provided; at level two, a multi-arch definition of all architecture dependent macros will be defined.

GDBN_TARGET_IS_HPPA
     This determines whether horrible kludge code in dbxread.c and partial-stab.h is used to mangle multiple-symbol-table files from HPPA's.  This should all be ripped out, and a scheme like elfread.c used instead.

GET_LONGJMP_TARGET
     For most machines, this is a target-dependent parameter.  On the DECstation and the Iris, this is a native-dependent parameter, since the header file setjmp.h is needed to define it.

     This macro determines the target PC address that longjmp will jump to, assuming that we have just stopped at a longjmp breakpoint.  It takes a CORE_ADDR * as argument, and stores the target PC value through this pointer.  It examines the current state of the machine as needed.

DEPRECATED_GET_SAVED_REGISTER
     Define this if you need to supply your own definition for the function DEPRECATED_GET_SAVED_REGISTER.

IBM6000_TARGET
     Shows that we are configured for an IBM RS/6000 target.  This conditional should be eliminated (FIXME) and replaced by feature-specific macros.  It was introduced in a haste and we are repenting at leisure.

I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS
     An x86-based target can define this to use the generic x86 watchpoint support; see I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS.

SYMBOLS_CAN_START_WITH_DOLLAR
     Some systems have routines whose names start with $.  Giving this macro a non-zero value tells GDBN's expression parser to check for such routines when parsing tokens that begin with $.

     On HP-UX, certain system routines (millicode) have names beginning with $ or $$.  For example, $$dyncall is a millicode routine that handles inter-space procedure calls on PA-RISC.

DEPRECATED_INIT_EXTRA_FRAME_INFO (FROMLEAF, FRAME)
     If additional information about the frame is required this should be stored in frame->extra_info.  Space for frame->extra_info is allocated using frame_extra_info_zalloc.

DEPRECATED_INIT_FRAME_PC (FROMLEAF, PREV)
     This is a C statement that sets the pc of the frame pointed to by PREV.  [By default...]

INNER_THAN (LHS, RHS)
     Returns non-zero if stack address LHS is inner than (nearer to the stack top) stack address RHS. Define this as lhs < rhs if the target's stack grows downward in memory, or lhs > rsh if the stack grows upward.

gdbarch_in_function_epilogue_p (GDBARCH, PC)
     Returns non-zero if the given PC is in the epilogue of a function. The epilogue of a function is defined as the part of a function where the stack frame of the function already has been destroyed up to the final `return from function call' instruction.

SIGTRAMP_START (PC)
SIGTRAMP_END (PC)
     Define these to be the start and end address of the sigtramp for the given PC.  On machines where the address is just a compile time constant, the macro expansion will typically just ignore the supplied PC.

IN_SOLIB_CALL_TRAMPOLINE (PC, NAME)
     Define this to evaluate to nonzero if the program is stopped in the trampoline that connects to a shared library.

IN_SOLIB_RETURN_TRAMPOLINE (PC, NAME)
     Define this to evaluate to nonzero if the program is stopped in the trampoline that returns from a shared library.

IN_SOLIB_DYNSYM_RESOLVE_CODE (PC)
     Define this to evaluate to nonzero if the program is stopped in the dynamic linker.

SKIP_SOLIB_RESOLVER (PC)
     Define this to evaluate to the (nonzero) address at which execution should continue to get past the dynamic linker's symbol resolution function.  A zero value indicates that it is not important or necessary to set a breakpoint to get through the dynamic linker and that single stepping will suffice.

INTEGER_TO_ADDRESS (TYPE, BUF)
     Define this when the architecture needs to handle non-pointer to address conversions specially.  Converts that value to an address according to the current architectures conventions.

     Pragmatics: When the user copies a well defined expression from
     their source code and passes it, as a parameter, to GDBN's
     print command, they should get the same value as would have been
     computed by the target program.  Any deviation from this rule can cause
     major confusion and annoyance, and needs to be justified carefully.  In
     other words, GDBN doesn't really have the freedom to do these
     conversions in clever and useful ways.  It has, however, been pointed
     out that users aren't complaining about how GDBN casts integers
     to pointers; they are complaining that they can't take an address from a
     disassembly listing and give it to x/i.  Adding an architecture
     method like INTEGER_TO_ADDRESS certainly makes it possible for
     GDBN to ``get it right'' in all circumstances.

     See Pointers Are Not Always Addresses.

NEED_TEXT_START_END
     Define this if GDBN should determine the start and end addresses of the text section.  (Seems dubious.)

NO_HIF_SUPPORT
     (Specific to the a29k.)

POINTER_TO_ADDRESS (TYPE, BUF)
     Assume that BUF holds a pointer of type TYPE, in the appropriate format for the current architecture.  Return the byte address the pointer refers to. See Pointers Are Not Always Addresses.

REGISTER_CONVERTIBLE (REG)
     Return non-zero if REG uses different raw and virtual formats. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

REGISTER_TO_VALUE(REGNUM, TYPE, FROM, TO)
     Convert the raw contents of register REGNUM into a value of type TYPE. See Using Different Register and Memory Data Representations.

REGISTER_RAW_SIZE (REG)
     Return the raw size of REG; defaults to the size of the register's virtual type. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

register_reggroup_p (GDBARCH, REGNUM, REGGROUP)
     Return non-zero if register REGNUM is a member of the register group REGGROUP.

     By default, registers are grouped as follows:

     float_reggroup
          Any register with a valid name and a floating-point type.

     vector_reggroup
          Any register with a valid name and a vector type.

     general_reggroup
          Any register with a valid name and a type other than vector or floating-point.  float_reggroup.

     save_reggroup
     restore_reggroup
     all_reggroup
          Any register with a valid name.

REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE (REG)
     Return the virtual size of REG; defaults to the size of the register's virtual type. Return the virtual size of REG. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE (REG)
     Return the virtual type of REG. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

struct type *register_type (GDBARCH, REG)
     If defined, return the type of register REG.  This function superseeds REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE.  See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL(REG, TYPE, FROM, TO)
     Convert the value of register REG from its raw form to its virtual form. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW(TYPE, REG, FROM, TO)
     Convert the value of register REG from its virtual form to its raw form. See Raw and Virtual Register Representations.

RETURN_VALUE_ON_STACK(TYPE)

     Return non-zero if values of type TYPE are returned on the stack, using the ``struct convention'' (i.e., the caller provides a pointer to a buffer in which the callee should store the return value).  This controls how the finish command finds a function's return value, and whether an inferior function call reserves space on the stack for the return value.

     The full logic GDBN uses here is kind of odd.

       * If the type being returned by value is not a structure, union, or array, and RETURN_VALUE_ON_STACK returns zero, then GDBN concludes the value is not returned using the struct convention.

       * Otherwise, GDBN calls USE_STRUCT_CONVENTION (see below). If that returns non-zero, GDBN assumes the struct convention is in use.

     In other words, to indicate that a given type is returned by value using the struct convention, that type must be either a struct, union, array, or something RETURN_VALUE_ON_STACK likes, and something that USE_STRUCT_CONVENTION likes.

     Note that, in C and C++, arrays are never returned by value.  In those languages, these predicates will always see a pointer type, never an array type.  All the references above to arrays being returned by value apply only to other languages.

SOFTWARE_SINGLE_STEP_P()
     Define this as 1 if the target does not have a hardware single-step mechanism.  The macro SOFTWARE_SINGLE_STEP must also be defined.

SOFTWARE_SINGLE_STEP(SIGNAL, INSERT_BREAPOINTS_P)
     A function that inserts or removes (depending on INSERT_BREAPOINTS_P) breakpoints at each possible destinations of the next instruction. See sparc-tdep.c and rs6000-tdep.c for examples.

SOFUN_ADDRESS_MAYBE_MISSING
     Somebody clever observed that, the more actual addresses you have in the debug information, the more time the linker has to spend relocating them.  So whenever there's some other way the debugger could find the address it needs, you should omit it from the debug info, to make linking faster.

     SOFUN_ADDRESS_MAYBE_MISSING indicates that a particular set of hacks of this sort are in use, affecting N_SO and N_FUN entries in stabs-format debugging information.  N_SO stabs mark the beginning and ending addresses of compilation units in the text segment.  N_FUN stabs mark the starts and ends of functions.

     SOFUN_ADDRESS_MAYBE_MISSING means two things:

       * N_FUN stabs have an address of zero.  Instead, you should find the addresses where the function starts by taking the function name from the stab, and then looking that up in the minsyms (the linker/assembler symbol table).  In other words, the stab has the name, and the linker/assembler symbol table is the only place that carries the address.

       * N_SO stabs have an address of zero, too.  You just look at the N_FUN stabs that appear before and after the N_SO stab, and guess the starting and ending addresses of the compilation unit from them.

PCC_SOL_BROKEN
     (Used only in the Convex target.)

PC_IN_SIGTRAMP (PC, NAME)
     The sigtramp is a routine that the kernel calls (which then calls the signal handler).  On most machines it is a library routine that is linked into the executable.

     This function, given a program counter value in PC and the (possibly NULL) name of the function in which that PC resides, returns nonzero if the PC and/or NAME show that we are in sigtramp.

PC_LOAD_SEGMENT
     If defined, print information about the load segment for the program counter.  (Defined only for the RS/6000.)

PC_REGNUM
     If the program counter is kept in a register, then define this macro to be the number (greater than or equal to zero) of that register.

     This should only need to be defined if TARGET_READ_PC and TARGET_WRITE_PC are not defined.

NPC_REGNUM
     The number of the ``next program counter'' register, if defined.

PARM_BOUNDARY
     If non-zero, round arguments to a boundary of this many bits before pushing them on the stack.

PROCESS_LINENUMBER_HOOK
     A hook defined for XCOFF reading.

PROLOGUE_FIRSTLINE_OVERLAP
     (Only used in unsupported Convex configuration.)

PS_REGNUM
     If defined, this is the number of the processor status register.  (This definition is only used in generic code when parsing "$ps".)

DEPRECATED_POP_FRAME
     If defined, used by frame_pop to remove a stack frame.  This method has been superseeded by generic code.

push_dummy_call (GDBARCH, REGCACHE, DUMMY_ADDR, NARGS, ARGS, SP, STRUCT_RETURN, STRUCT_ADDR)
     Define this to push the dummy frame's call to the inferior function onto the stack.  In addition to pushing NARGS, the code should push STRUCT_ADDR (when STRUCT_RETURN), and the return value (in the call dummy at DUMMY_ADDR).

     Returns the updated top-of-stack pointer.

     This method replaces DEPRECATED_PUSH_ARGUMENTS.

CORE_ADDR push_dummy_code (GDBARCH, SP, FUNADDR, USING_GCC, ARGS, NARGS, VALUE_TYPE, REAL_PC, BP_ADDR)
      Given a stack based call dummy, push the instruction sequence (including space for a breakpoint) to which the called function should return.

     Set BP_ADDR to the address at which the breakpoint instruction should be inserted, REAL_PC to the resume address when starting the call sequence, and return the updated inner-most stack address.

     By default, the stack is grown sufficient to hold a frame-aligned (see frame_align) breakpoint, BP_ADDR is set to the address reserved for that breakpoint, and REAL_PC set to FUNADDR.

     This method replaces DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS, DEPRECATED_SIZEOF_CALL_DUMMY_WORDS, CALL_DUMMY, CALL_DUMMY_LOCATION, DEPRECATED_REGISTER_SIZE, GDB_TARGET_IS_HPPA, DEPRECATED_CALL_DUMMY_BREAKPOINT_OFFSET, and DEPRECATED_FIX_CALL_DUMMY.

DEPRECATED_PUSH_DUMMY_FRAME
     Used in call_function_by_hand to create an artificial stack frame.

REGISTER_BYTES
     The total amount of space needed to store GDBN's copy of the machine's register state.

REGISTER_NAME(I)
     Return the name of register I as a string.  May return NULL or NUL to indicate that register I is not valid.

REGISTER_NAMES
     Deprecated in favor of REGISTER_NAME.

REG_STRUCT_HAS_ADDR (GCC_P, TYPE)
     Define this to return 1 if the given type will be passed by pointer rather than directly.

SAVE_DUMMY_FRAME_TOS (SP)
      Used in call_function_by_hand to notify the target dependent code of the top-of-stack value that will be passed to the the inferior code.  This is the value of the SP after both the dummy frame and space for parameters/results have been allocated on the stack.  See unwind_dummy_id.

SDB_REG_TO_REGNUM
     Define this to convert sdb register numbers into GDBN regnums.  If not defined, no conversion will be done.

SKIP_PERMANENT_BREAKPOINT
     Advance the inferior's PC past a permanent breakpoint.  GDBN normally steps over a breakpoint by removing it, stepping one instruction, and re-inserting the breakpoint.  However, permanent breakpoints are hardwired into the inferior, and can't be removed, so this strategy doesn't work.  Calling SKIP_PERMANENT_BREAKPOINT adjusts the processor's state so that execution will resume just after the breakpoint.  This macro does the right thing even when the breakpoint is in the delay slot of a branch or jump.

SKIP_PROLOGUE (PC)
     A C expression that returns the address of the ``real'' code beyond the function entry prologue found at PC.

SKIP_TRAMPOLINE_CODE (PC)
     If the target machine has trampoline code that sits between callers and the functions being called, then define this macro to return a new PC that is at the start of the real function.

SP_REGNUM
     If the stack-pointer is kept in a register, then define this macro to be the number (greater than or equal to zero) of that register, or -1 if there is no such register.

STAB_REG_TO_REGNUM
     Define this to convert stab register numbers (as gotten from `r' declarations) into GDBN regnums.  If not defined, no conversion will be done.

STACK_ALIGN (ADDR)
     Define this to increase ADDR so that it meets the alignment requirements for the processor's stack.

     Unlike frame_align, this function always adjusts ADDR upwards.

     By default, no stack alignment is performed.

STEP_SKIPS_DELAY (ADDR)
     Define this to return true if the address is of an instruction with a delay slot.  If a breakpoint has been placed in the instruction's delay slot, GDBN will single-step over that instruction before resuming normally.  Currently only defined for the Mips.

STORE_RETURN_VALUE (TYPE, REGCACHE, VALBUF)
     A C expression that writes the function return value, found in VALBUF, into the REGCACHE.  TYPE is the type of the value that is to be returned.

SUN_FIXED_LBRAC_BUG
     (Used only for Sun-3 and Sun-4 targets.)

SYMBOL_RELOADING_DEFAULT
     The default value of the ``symbol-reloading'' variable.  (Never defined in current sources.)

TARGET_CHAR_BIT
     Number of bits in a char; defaults to 8.

TARGET_CHAR_SIGNED
     Non-zero if char is normally signed on this architecture; zero if it should be unsigned.

     The ISO C standard requires the compiler to treat char as equivalent to either signed char or unsigned char; any character in the standard execution set is supposed to be positive. Most compilers treat char as signed, but char is unsigned on the IBM S/390, RS6000, and PowerPC targets.

TARGET_COMPLEX_BIT
     Number of bits in a complex number; defaults to 2 * TARGET_FLOAT_BIT.

     At present this macro is not used.

TARGET_DOUBLE_BIT
     Number of bits in a double float; defaults to 8 * TARGET_CHAR_BIT.

TARGET_DOUBLE_COMPLEX_BIT
     Number of bits in a double complex; defaults to 2 * TARGET_DOUBLE_BIT.

     At present this macro is not used.

TARGET_FLOAT_BIT
     Number of bits in a float; defaults to 4 * TARGET_CHAR_BIT.

TARGET_INT_BIT
     Number of bits in an integer; defaults to 4 * TARGET_CHAR_BIT.

TARGET_LONG_BIT
     Number of bits in a long integer; defaults to 4 * TARGET_CHAR_BIT.

TARGET_LONG_DOUBLE_BIT
     Number of bits in a long double float; defaults to 2 * TARGET_DOUBLE_BIT.

TARGET_LONG_LONG_BIT
     Number of bits in a long long integer; defaults to 2 * TARGET_LONG_BIT.

TARGET_PTR_BIT
     Number of bits in a pointer; defaults to TARGET_INT_BIT.

TARGET_SHORT_BIT
     Number of bits in a short integer; defaults to 2 * TARGET_CHAR_BIT.

TARGET_READ_PC
TARGET_WRITE_PC (VAL, PID)
TARGET_READ_SP
TARGET_READ_FP
     These change the behavior of read_pc, write_pc, read_sp and deprecated_read_fp.  For most targets, these may be left undefined.  GDBN will call the read and write register functions with the relevant _REGNUM argument.

     These macros are useful when a target keeps one of these registers in a hard to get at place; for example, part in a segment register and part in an ordinary register.

TARGET_VIRTUAL_FRAME_POINTER(PC, REGP, OFFSETP)
     Returns a (register, offset) pair representing the virtual frame pointer in use at the code address PC.  If virtual frame pointers are not used, a default definition simply returns DEPRECATED_FP_REGNUM, with an offset of zero.

TARGET_HAS_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINTS
     If non-zero, the target has support for hardware-assisted watchpoints.  See watchpoints, for more details and other related macros.

TARGET_PRINT_INSN (ADDR, INFO)
     This is the function used by GDBN to print an assembly instruction.  It prints the instruction at address ADDR in debugged memory and returns the length of the instruction, in bytes.  If a target doesn't define its own printing routine, it defaults to an accessor function for the global pointer deprecated_tm_print_insn.  This usually points to a function in the opcodes library (see Opcodes). INFO is a structure (of type disassemble_info) defined in include/dis-asm.h used to pass information to the instruction decoding routine.

struct frame_id unwind_dummy_id (struct frame_info *FRAME)
      Given FRAME return a struct frame_id that uniquely identifies an inferior function call's dummy frame.  The value returned must match the dummy frame stack value previously saved using SAVE_DUMMY_FRAME_TOS. See SAVE_DUMMY_FRAME_TOS.

USE_STRUCT_CONVENTION (GCC_P, TYPE)
     If defined, this must be an expression that is nonzero if a value of the given TYPE being returned from a function must have space allocated for it on the stack.  GCC_P is true if the function being considered is known to have been compiled by GCC; this is helpful for systems where GCC is known to use different calling convention than other compilers.

VALUE_TO_REGISTER(TYPE, REGNUM, FROM, TO)
     Convert a value of type TYPE into the raw contents of register REGNUM's. See Using Different Register and Memory Data Representations.

VARIABLES_INSIDE_BLOCK (DESC, GCC_P)
     For dbx-style debugging information, if the compiler puts variable declarations inside LBRAC/RBRAC blocks, this should be defined to be nonzero.  DESC is the value of n_desc from the N_RBRAC symbol, and GCC_P is true if GDBN has noticed the presence of either the GCC_COMPILED_SYMBOL or the GCC2_COMPILED_SYMBOL.  By default, this is 0.

OS9K_VARIABLES_INSIDE_BLOCK (DESC, GCC_P)
     Similarly, for OS/9000.  Defaults to 1.

Motorola M68K target conditionals.

BPT_VECTOR
     Define this to be the 4-bit location of the breakpoint trap vector.  If not defined, it will default to 0xf.

REMOTE_BPT_VECTOR
     Defaults to 1.

NAME_OF_MALLOC
     A string containing the name of the function to call in order to allocate some memory in the inferior. The default value is "malloc".

Adding a New Target
===================

The following files add a target to GDBN:

gdb/config/ARCH/TTT.mt
     Contains a Makefile fragment specific to this target.  Specifies what object files are needed for target TTT, by defining TDEPFILES=... and TDEPLIBS=....  Also specifies the header file which describes TTT, by defining TM_FILE= tm-TTT.h.

     You can also define TM_CFLAGS, TM_CLIBS, TM_CDEPS, but these are now deprecated, replaced by autoconf, and may go away in future versions of GDBN.

gdb/TTT-tdep.c
     Contains any miscellaneous code required for this target machine.  On some machines it doesn't exist at all.  Sometimes the macros in tm-TTT.h become very complicated, so they are implemented as functions here instead, and the macro is simply defined to call the function.  This is vastly preferable, since it is easier to understand and debug.

gdb/ARCH-tdep.c
gdb/ARCH-tdep.h
     This often exists to describe the basic layout of the target machine's processor chip (registers, stack, etc.).  If used, it is included by TTT-tdep.h.  It can be shared among many targets that use the same processor.

gdb/config/ARCH/tm-TTT.h
     (tm.h is a link to this file, created by configure).  Contains macro definitions about the target machine's registers, stack frame format and instructions.

     New targets do not need this file and should not create it.

gdb/config/ARCH/tm-ARCH.h
     This often exists to describe the basic layout of the target machine's processor chip (registers, stack, etc.).  If used, it is included by tm-TTT.h.  It can be shared among many targets that use the same processor.

     New targets do not need this file and should not create it.

If you are adding a new operating system for an existing CPU chip, add a config/tm-OS.h file that describes the operating system facilities that are unusual (extra symbol table info; the breakpoint instruction needed; etc.).  Then write a ARCH/tm-OS.h that just #includes tm-ARCH.h and config/tm-OS.h.

Converting an existing Target Architecture to Multi-arch
========================================================

This section describes the current accepted best practice for converting an existing target architecture to the multi-arch framework.

The process consists of generating, testing, posting and committing a sequence of patches.  Each patch must contain a single change, for instance:

  * Directly convert a group of functions into macros (the conversion does not change the behavior of any of the functions).

  * Replace a non-multi-arch with a multi-arch mechanism (e.g., FRAME_INFO).

  * Enable multi-arch level one.

  * Delete one or more files.

There isn't a size limit on a patch, however, a developer is strongly encouraged to keep the patch size down.

Since each patch is well defined, and since each change has been tested and shows no regressions, the patches are considered fairly obvious.  Such patches, when submitted by developers listed in the MAINTAINERS file, do not need approval.  Occasional steps in the process may be more complicated and less clear.  The developer is expected to use their judgment and is encouraged to seek advice as needed.

Preparation
-----------

The first step is to establish control.  Build (with -Werror enabled) and test the target so that there is a baseline against which the debugger can be compared.

At no stage can the test results regress or GDBN stop compiling with -Werror.

Add the multi-arch initialization code
--------------------------------------

The objective of this step is to establish the basic multi-arch framework.  It involves

  * The addition of a ARCH_gdbarch_init function (The
     above is from the original example and uses K&R C.  GDBN
     has since converted to ISO C but lets ignore that.) that creates the architecture:

          static struct gdbarch *
          d10v_gdbarch_init (info, arches)
               struct gdbarch_info info;
               struct gdbarch_list *arches;
          {
            struct gdbarch *gdbarch;
            /* there is only one d10v architecture */
            if (arches != NULL)
              return arches->gdbarch;
            gdbarch = gdbarch_alloc (&info, NULL);
            return gdbarch;
          }

  * A per-architecture dump function to print any architecture specific information:

          static void
          mips_dump_tdep (struct gdbarch *current_gdbarch,
                          struct ui_file *file)
          {
             ... code to print architecture specific info ...
          }

  * A change to _initialize_ARCH_tdep to register this new architecture:

          void
          _initialize_mips_tdep (void)
          {
            gdbarch_register (bfd_arch_mips, mips_gdbarch_init,
                              mips_dump_tdep);

  * Add the macro GDB_MULTI_ARCH, defined as 0 (zero), to the file

     config/ARCH/tm-ARCH.h.

Update multi-arch incompatible mechanisms
-----------------------------------------

Some mechanisms do not work with multi-arch.  They include:

FRAME_FIND_SAVED_REGS
     Replaced with DEPRECATED_FRAME_INIT_SAVED_REGS

At this stage you could also consider converting the macros into functions.

Prepare for multi-arch level to one
-----------------------------------

Temporally set GDB_MULTI_ARCH to GDB_MULTI_ARCH_PARTIAL and then build and start GDBN (the change should not be committed).  GDBN may not build, and once built, it may die with an internal error listing the architecture methods that must be provided.

Fix any build problems (patch(es)).

Convert all the architecture methods listed, which are only macros, into functions (patch(es)).

Update ARCH_gdbarch_init to set all the missing architecture methods and wrap the corresponding macros in #if !GDB_MULTI_ARCH (patch(es)).

Set multi-arch level one
------------------------

Change the value of GDB_MULTI_ARCH to GDB_MULTI_ARCH_PARTIAL (a single patch).

Any problems with throwing ``the switch'' should have been fixed already.

Convert remaining macros
------------------------

Suggest converting macros into functions (and setting the corresponding architecture method) in small batches.

Set multi-arch level to two
---------------------------

This should go smoothly.

Delete the TM file
------------------

The tm-ARCH.h can be deleted.  ARCH.mt and configure.in updated.

Target Vector Definition
************************

The target vector defines the interface between GDBN's abstract handling of target systems, and the nitty-gritty code that actually exercises control over a process or a serial port. GDBN includes some 30-40 different target vectors; however, each configuration of GDBN includes only a few of them.

File Targets
============

Both executables and core files have target vectors.

Standard Protocol and Remote Stubs
==================================

GDBN's file remote.c talks a serial protocol to code that runs in the target system.  GDBN provides several sample stubs that can be integrated into target programs or operating systems for this purpose; they are named *-stub.c.

The GDBN user's manual describes how to put such a stub into your target code.  What follows is a discussion of integrating the SPARC stub into a complicated operating system (rather than a simple program), by Stu Grossman, the author of this stub.

The trap handling code in the stub assumes the following upon entry to trap_low:

 1. %l1 and %l2 contain pc and npc respectively at the time of the trap;

 2. traps are disabled;

 3. you are in the correct trap window.

As long as your trap handler can guarantee those conditions, then there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to ``share'' traps with the stub. The stub has no requirement that it be jumped to directly from the hardware trap vector.  That is why it calls exceptionHandler(), which is provided by the external environment.  For instance, this could set up the hardware traps to actually execute code which calls the stub first, and then transfers to its own trap handler.

For the most point, there probably won't be much of an issue with ``sharing'' traps, as the traps we use are usually not used by the kernel, and often indicate unrecoverable error conditions.  Anyway, this is all controlled by a table, and is trivial to modify.  The most important trap for us is for ta 1.  Without that, we can't single step or do breakpoints.  Everything else is unnecessary for the proper operation of the debugger/stub.

From reading the stub, it's probably not obvious how breakpoints work. They are simply done by deposit/examine operations from GDBN.

ROM Monitor Interface
=====================

Custom Protocols
================

Transport Layer
===============

Builtin Simulator
=================

Native Debugging
****************

Several files control GDBN's configuration for native support:

gdb/config/ARCH/XYZ.mh
     Specifies Makefile fragments needed by a native configuration on machine XYZ.  In particular, this lists the required native-dependent object files, by defining NATDEPFILES=.... Also specifies the header file which describes native support on XYZ, by defining NAT_FILE= nm-XYZ.h.  You can also define NAT_CFLAGS, NAT_ADD_FILES, NAT_CLIBS, NAT_CDEPS, etc.; see Makefile.in.

     Maintainer's note: The .mh suffix is because this file
     originally contained Makefile fragments for hosting GDBN
     on machine XYZ.  While the file is no longer used for this
     purpose, the .mh suffix remains.  Perhaps someone will
     eventually rename these fragments so that they have a .mn
     suffix.

gdb/config/ARCH/nm-XYZ.h
     (nm.h is a link to this file, created by configure).  Contains C macro definitions describing the native system environment, such as child process control and core file support.

gdb/XYZ-nat.c
     Contains any miscellaneous C code required for this native support of this machine.  On some machines it doesn't exist at all.

There are some ``generic'' versions of routines that can be used by various systems.  These can be customized in various ways by macros defined in your nm-XYZ.h file.  If these routines work for the XYZ host, you can just include the generic file's name (with .o, not .c) in NATDEPFILES.

Otherwise, if your machine needs custom support routines, you will need to write routines that perform the same functions as the generic file. Put them into XYZ-nat.c, and put XYZ-nat.o into NATDEPFILES.

inftarg.c
     This contains the target_ops vector that supports Unix child processes on systems which use ptrace and wait to control the child.

procfs.c
     This contains the target_ops vector that supports Unix child processes on systems which use /proc to control the child.

fork-child.c
     This does the low-level grunge that uses Unix system calls to do a ``fork and exec'' to start up a child process.

infptrace.c
     This is the low level interface to inferior processes for systems using the Unix ptrace call in a vanilla way.

Native core file Support
========================

core-aout.c::fetch_core_registers()
     Support for reading registers out of a core file.  This routine calls register_addr(), see below.  Now that BFD is used to read core files, virtually all machines should use core-aout.c, and should just provide fetch_core_registers in XYZ-nat.c (or REGISTER_U_ADDR in nm-XYZ.h).

core-aout.c::register_addr()
     If your nm-XYZ.h file defines the macro REGISTER_U_ADDR(addr, blockend, regno), it should be defined to set addr to the offset within the user struct of GDBN register number regno.  blockend is the offset within the ``upage'' of u.u_ar0.  If REGISTER_U_ADDR is defined, core-aout.c will define the register_addr() function and use the macro in it.  If you do not define REGISTER_U_ADDR, but you are using the standard fetch_core_registers(), you will need to define your own version of register_addr(), put it into your XYZ-nat.c file, and be sure XYZ-nat.o is in the NATDEPFILES list.  If you have your own fetch_core_registers(), you may not need a separate register_addr().  Many custom fetch_core_registers() implementations simply locate the registers themselves.

When making GDBN run native on a new operating system, to make it possible to debug core files, you will need to either write specific code for parsing your OS's core files, or customize bfd/trad-core.c.  First, use whatever #include files your machine uses to define the struct of registers that is accessible (possibly in the u-area) in a core file (rather than machine/reg.h), and an include file that defines whatever header exists on a core file (e.g. the u-area or a struct core).  Then modify trad_unix_core_file_p to use these values to set up the section information for the data segment, stack segment, any other segments in the core file (perhaps shared library contents or control information), ``registers'' segment, and if there are two discontiguous sets of registers (e.g.  integer and float), the ``reg2'' segment.  This section information basically delimits areas in the core file in a standard way, which the section-reading routines in BFD know how to seek around in.

Then back in GDBN, you need a matching routine called fetch_core_registers.  If you can use the generic one, it's in core-aout.c; if not, it's in your XYZ-nat.c file. It will be passed a char pointer to the entire ``registers'' segment, its length, and a zero; or a char pointer to the entire ``regs2'' segment, its length, and a 2.  The routine should suck out the supplied register values and install them into GDBN's ``registers'' array.

If your system uses /proc to control processes, and uses ELF format core files, then you may be able to use the same routines for reading the registers out of processes and out of core files.

ptrace
======

/proc
=====

win32
=====

shared libraries
================

Native Conditionals
===================

When GDBN is configured and compiled, various macros are defined or left undefined, to control compilation when the host and target systems are the same.  These macros should be defined (or left undefined) in nm-SYSTEM.h.

ATTACH_DETACH
     If defined, then GDBN will include support for the attach and detach commands.

CHILD_PREPARE_TO_STORE
     If the machine stores all registers at once in the child process, then define this to ensure that all values are correct.  This usually entails a read from the child.

     [Note that this is incorrectly defined in xm-SYSTEM.h files currently.]

FETCH_INFERIOR_REGISTERS
     Define this if the native-dependent code will provide its own routines fetch_inferior_registers and store_inferior_registers in HOST-nat.c.  If this symbol is not defined, and infptrace.c is included in this configuration, the default routines in infptrace.c are used for these functions.

FILES_INFO_HOOK
     (Only defined for Convex.)

FP0_REGNUM
     This macro is normally defined to be the number of the first floating point register, if the machine has such registers.  As such, it would appear only in target-specific code.  However, /proc support uses this to decide whether floats are in use on this target.

GET_LONGJMP_TARGET
     For most machines, this is a target-dependent parameter.  On the DECstation and the Iris, this is a native-dependent parameter, since setjmp.h is needed to define it.

     This macro determines the target PC address that longjmp will jump to, assuming that we have just stopped at a longjmp breakpoint.  It takes a CORE_ADDR * as argument, and stores the target PC value through this pointer.  It examines the current state of the machine as needed.

I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS
     An x86-based machine can define this to use the generic x86 watchpoint support; see I386_USE_GENERIC_WATCHPOINTS.

KERNEL_U_ADDR
     Define this to the address of the u structure (the ``user struct'', also known as the ``u-page'') in kernel virtual memory.  GDBN needs to know this so that it can subtract this address from absolute addresses in the upage, that are obtained via ptrace or from core files. On systems that don't need this value, set it to zero.

KERNEL_U_ADDR_BSD
     Define this to cause GDBN to determine the address of u at runtime, by using Berkeley-style nlist on the kernel's image in the root directory.

KERNEL_U_ADDR_HPUX
     Define this to cause GDBN to determine the address of u at runtime, by using HP-style nlist on the kernel's image in the root directory.

ONE_PROCESS_WRITETEXT
     Define this to be able to, when a breakpoint insertion fails, warn the user that another process may be running with the same executable.

PREPARE_TO_PROCEED (SELECT_IT)
     This (ugly) macro allows a native configuration to customize the way the proceed function in infrun.c deals with switching between threads.

     In a multi-threaded task we may select another thread and then continue or step.  But if the old thread was stopped at a breakpoint, it will immediately cause another breakpoint stop without any execution (i.e. it will report a breakpoint hit incorrectly).  So GDBN must step over it first.

     If defined, PREPARE_TO_PROCEED should check the current thread against the thread that reported the most recent event.  If a step-over is required, it returns TRUE.  If SELECT_IT is non-zero, it should reselect the old thread.

PROC_NAME_FMT
     Defines the format for the name of a /proc device.  Should be defined in nm.h only in order to override the default definition in procfs.c.

PTRACE_FP_BUG
     See mach386-xdep.c.

PTRACE_ARG3_TYPE
     The type of the third argument to the ptrace system call, if it exists and is different from int.

REGISTER_U_ADDR
     Defines the offset of the registers in the ``u area''.

SHELL_COMMAND_CONCAT
     If defined, is a string to prefix on the shell command used to start the inferior.

SHELL_FILE
     If defined, this is the name of the shell to use to run the inferior. Defaults to "/bin/sh".

SOLIB_ADD (FILENAME, FROM_TTY, TARG, READSYMS)
     Define this to expand into an expression that will cause the symbols in FILENAME to be added to GDBN's symbol table. If READSYMS is zero symbols are not read but any necessary low level processing for FILENAME is still done.

SOLIB_CREATE_INFERIOR_HOOK
     Define this to expand into any shared-library-relocation code that you want to be run just after the child process has been forked.

START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED
     When starting an inferior, GDBN normally expects to trap twice; once when the shell execs, and once when the program itself execs.  If the actual number of traps is something other than 2, then define this macro to expand into the number expected.

SVR4_SHARED_LIBS
     Define this to indicate that SVR4-style shared libraries are in use.

USE_PROC_FS
     This determines whether small routines in *-tdep.c, which translate register values between GDBN's internal representation and the /proc representation, are compiled.

U_REGS_OFFSET
     This is the offset of the registers in the upage.  It need only be defined if the generic ptrace register access routines in infptrace.c are being used (that is, infptrace.c is configured in, and FETCH_INFERIOR_REGISTERS is not defined).  If the default value from infptrace.c is good enough, leave it undefined.

     The default value means that u.u_ar0 points to the location of the registers.  I'm guessing that #define U_REGS_OFFSET 0 means that u.u_ar0 is the location of the registers.

CLEAR_SOLIB
     See objfiles.c.

DEBUG_PTRACE
     Define this to debug ptrace calls.

Support Libraries
*****************

BFD
===

BFD provides support for GDBN in several ways:

identifying executable and core files
     BFD will identify a variety of file types, including a.out, coff, and several variants thereof, as well as several kinds of core files.

access to sections of files
     BFD parses the file headers to determine the names, virtual addresses, sizes, and file locations of all the various named sections in files (such as the text section or the data section).  GDBN simply calls BFD to read or write section X at byte offset Y for length Z.

specialized core file support
     BFD provides routines to determine the failing command name stored in a core file, the signal with which the program failed, and whether a core file matches (i.e. could be a core dump of) a particular executable file.

locating the symbol information
     GDBN uses an internal interface of BFD to determine where to find the symbol information in an executable file or symbol-file.  GDBN itself handles the reading of symbols, since BFD does not ``understand'' debug symbols, but GDBN uses BFD's cached information to find the symbols, string table, etc.

opcodes
=======

The opcodes library provides GDBN's disassembler.  (It's a separate library because it's also used in binutils, for objdump).

readline
========

mmalloc
=======

libiberty
=========

gnu-regex
=========

Regex conditionals.

C_ALLOCA

NFAILURES

RE_NREGS

SIGN_EXTEND_CHAR

SWITCH_ENUM_BUG

SYNTAX_TABLE

Sword

sparc

include
=======

Coding
******

This chapter covers topics that are lower-level than the major algorithms of GDBN.

Cleanups
========

Cleanups are a structured way to deal with things that need to be done later.

When your code does something (e.g., xmalloc some memory, or open a file) that needs to be undone later (e.g., xfree the memory or close the file), it can make a cleanup.  The cleanup will be done at some future point: when the command is finished and control returns to the top level; when an error occurs and the stack is unwound; or when your code decides it's time to explicitly perform cleanups.  Alternatively you can elect to discard the cleanups you created.

Syntax:

struct cleanup *OLD_CHAIN;
     Declare a variable which will hold a cleanup chain handle.

OLD_CHAIN = make_cleanup (FUNCTION, ARG);
     Make a cleanup which will cause FUNCTION to be called with ARG (a char *) later.  The result, OLD_CHAIN, is a handle that can later be passed to do_cleanups or discard_cleanups.  Unless you are going to call do_cleanups or discard_cleanups, you can ignore the result from make_cleanup.

do_cleanups (OLD_CHAIN);
     Do all cleanups added to the chain since the corresponding make_cleanup call was made.

discard_cleanups (OLD_CHAIN);
     Same as do_cleanups except that it just removes the cleanups from the chain and does not call the specified functions.

Cleanups are implemented as a chain.  The handle returned by make_cleanups includes the cleanup passed to the call and any later cleanups appended to the chain (but not yet discarded or performed).  E.g.:

     make_cleanup (a, 0);
     {
       struct cleanup *old = make_cleanup (b, 0);
       make_cleanup (c, 0)
       ...
       do_cleanups (old);
     }

will call c() and b() but will not call a().  The cleanup that calls a() will remain in the cleanup chain, and will be done later unless otherwise discarded.

Your function should explicitly do or discard the cleanups it creates. Failing to do this leads to non-deterministic behavior since the caller will arbitrarily do or discard your functions cleanups.  This need leads to two common cleanup styles.

The first style is try/finally.  Before it exits, your code-block calls do_cleanups with the old cleanup chain and thus ensures that your code-block's cleanups are always performed.  For instance, the following code-segment avoids a memory leak problem (even when error is called and a forced stack unwind occurs) by ensuring that the xfree will always be called:

     struct cleanup *old = make_cleanup (null_cleanup, 0);
     data = xmalloc (sizeof blah);
     make_cleanup (xfree, data);
     ... blah blah ...
     do_cleanups (old);

The second style is try/except.  Before it exits, your code-block calls discard_cleanups with the old cleanup chain and thus ensures that any created cleanups are not performed.  For instance, the following code segment, ensures that the file will be closed but only if there is an error:

     FILE *file = fopen ("afile", "r");
     struct cleanup *old = make_cleanup (close_file, file);
     ... blah blah ...
     discard_cleanups (old);
     return file;

Some functions, e.g. fputs_filtered() or error(), specify that they ``should not be called when cleanups are not in place''.  This means that any actions you need to reverse in the case of an error or interruption must be on the cleanup chain before you call these functions, since they might never return to your code (they longjmp instead).

Per-architecture module data
============================

The multi-arch framework includes a mechanism for adding module specific per-architecture data-pointers to the struct gdbarch architecture object.

A module registers one or more per-architecture data-pointers using the function register_gdbarch_data:

 -- Function: struct gdbarch_data *register_gdbarch_data (gdbarch_data_init_ftype *INIT, gdbarch_data_free_ftype *FREE)

     The INIT function is used to obtain an initial value for a per-architecture data-pointer.  The function is called, after the architecture has been created, when the data-pointer is still uninitialized (NULL) and its value has been requested via a call to gdbarch_data.  A data-pointer can also be initialize explicitly using set_gdbarch_data.

     The FREE function is called when a data-pointer needs to be destroyed.  This occurs when either the corresponding struct gdbarch object is being destroyed or when set_gdbarch_data is overriding a non-NULL data-pointer value.

     The function register_gdbarch_data returns a struct gdbarch_data that is used to identify the data-pointer that was added to the module.

A typical module has init and free functions of the form:

     static struct gdbarch_data *nozel_handle;
     static void *
     nozel_init (struct gdbarch *gdbarch)
     {
       struct nozel *data = XMALLOC (struct nozel);
       ...
       return data;
     }
     ...
     static void
     nozel_free (struct gdbarch *gdbarch, void *data)
     {
       xfree (data);
     }

Since uninitialized (NULL) data-pointers are initialized on-demand, an init function is free to call other modules that use data-pointers.  Those modules data-pointers will be initialized as needed.  Care should be taken to ensure that the init call graph does not contain cycles.

The data-pointer is registered with the call:

     void
     _initialize_nozel (void)
     {
       nozel_handle = register_gdbarch_data (nozel_init, nozel_free);
     ...

The per-architecture data-pointer is accessed using the function:

 -- Function: void *gdbarch_data (struct gdbarch *GDBARCH, struct gdbarch_data *DATA_HANDLE)
     Given the architecture ARCH and module data handle DATA_HANDLE (returned by register_gdbarch_data, this function returns the current value of the per-architecture data-pointer.

The non-NULL data-pointer returned by gdbarch_data should be saved in a local variable and then used directly:

     int
     nozel_total (struct gdbarch *gdbarch)
     {
       int total;
       struct nozel *data = gdbarch_data (gdbarch, nozel_handle);
       ...
       return total;
     }

It is also possible to directly initialize the data-pointer using:

 -- Function: void set_gdbarch_data (struct gdbarch *GDBARCH, struct gdbarch_data *handle, void *POINTER)
     Update the data-pointer corresponding to HANDLE with the value of POINTER.  If the previous data-pointer value is non-NULL, then it is freed using data-pointers FREE function.

This function is used by modules that require a mechanism for explicitly setting the per-architecture data-pointer during architecture creation:

     /* Called during architecture creation.  */
     extern void
     set_gdbarch_nozel (struct gdbarch *gdbarch,
                        int total)
     {
       struct nozel *data = XMALLOC (struct nozel);
       ...
       set_gdbarch_data (gdbarch, nozel_handle, nozel);
     }

     /* Default, called when nozel not set by set_gdbarch_nozel().  */
     static void *
     nozel_init (struct gdbarch *gdbarch)
     {
       struct nozel *default_nozel = XMALLOC (struc nozel);
       ...
       return default_nozel;
     }

     void
     _initialize_nozel (void)
     {
       nozel_handle = register_gdbarch_data (nozel_init, NULL);
       ...

Note that an init function still needs to be registered.  It is used to initialize the data-pointer when the architecture creation phase fail to set an initial value.

Wrapping Output Lines
=====================

Output that goes through printf_filtered or fputs_filtered or fputs_demangled needs only to have calls to wrap_here added in places that would be good breaking points.  The utility routines will take care of actually wrapping if the line width is exceeded.

The argument to wrap_here is an indentation string which is printed only if the line breaks there.  This argument is saved away and used later.  It must remain valid until the next call to wrap_here or until a newline has been printed through the *_filtered functions.  Don't pass in a local variable and then return!

It is usually best to call wrap_here after printing a comma or space.  If you call it before printing a space, make sure that your indentation properly accounts for the leading space that will print if the line wraps there.

Any function or set of functions that produce filtered output must finish by printing a newline, to flush the wrap buffer, before switching to unfiltered (printf) output.  Symbol reading routines that print warnings are a good example.

GDBN Coding Standards
=====================

GDBN follows the GNU coding standards, as described in etc/standards.texi.  This file is also available for anonymous FTP from GNU archive sites.  GDBN takes a strict interpretation of the standard; in general, when the GNU standard recommends a practice but does not require it, GDBN requires it.

GDBN follows an additional set of coding standards specific to GDBN, as described in the following sections.

ISO C
-----

GDBN assumes an ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (a.k.a. ISO C90) compliant compiler.

GDBN does not assume an ISO C or POSIX compliant C library.

Memory Management
-----------------

GDBN does not use the functions malloc, realloc, calloc, free and asprintf.

GDBN uses the functions xmalloc, xrealloc and xcalloc when allocating memory.  Unlike malloc et.al. these functions do not return when the memory pool is empty.  Instead, they unwind the stack using cleanups.  These functions return NULL when requested to allocate a chunk of memory of size zero.

Pragmatics: By using these functions, the need to check every memory allocation is removed.  These functions provide portable behavior.

GDBN does not use the function free.

GDBN uses the function xfree to return memory to the memory pool.  Consistent with ISO-C, this function ignores a request to free a NULL pointer.

Pragmatics: On some systems free fails when passed a NULL pointer.

GDBN can use the non-portable function alloca for the allocation of small temporary values (such as strings).

Pragmatics: This function is very non-portable.  Some systems restrict the memory being allocated to no more than a few kilobytes.

GDBN uses the string function xstrdup and the print function xasprintf.

Pragmatics: asprintf and strdup can fail.  Print functions such as sprintf are very prone to buffer overflow errors.

Compiler Warnings
-----------------

With few exceptions, developers should include the configuration option --enable-gdb-build-warnings=,-Werror when building GDBN. The exceptions are listed in the file gdb/MAINTAINERS.

This option causes GDBN (when built using GCC) to be compiled with a carefully selected list of compiler warning flags.  Any warnings from those flags being treated as errors.

The current list of warning flags includes:

-Wimplicit
     Since GDBN coding standard requires all functions to be declared using a prototype, the flag has the side effect of ensuring that prototyped functions are always visible with out resorting to -Wstrict-prototypes.

-Wreturn-type
     Such code often appears to work except on instruction set architectures that use register windows.

-Wcomment

-Wtrigraphs

-Wformat
     Since GDBN uses the format printf attribute on all printf like functions this checks not just printf calls but also calls to functions such as fprintf_unfiltered.

-Wparentheses
     This warning includes uses of the assignment operator within an if statement.

-Wpointer-arith

-Wuninitialized

Pragmatics: Due to the way that GDBN is implemented most
functions have unused parameters.  Consequently the warning
-Wunused-parameter is precluded from the list.  The macro
ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED is not used as it leads to false negatives ---
it is not an error to have ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED on a parameter that
is being used.  The options -Wall and -Wunused are also
precluded because they both include -Wunused-parameter.

Pragmatics: GDBN has not simply accepted the warnings
enabled by -Wall -Werror -W....  Instead it is selecting warnings
when and where their benefits can be demonstrated.

Formatting
----------

The standard GNU recommendations for formatting must be followed strictly.

A function declaration should not have its name in column zero.  A function definition should have its name in column zero.

     /* Declaration */
     static void foo (void);
     /* Definition */
     void
     foo (void)
     {
     }

Pragmatics: This simplifies scripting.  Function definitions can be found using ^function-name.

There must be a space between a function or macro name and the opening parenthesis of its argument list (except for macro definitions, as required by C).  There must not be a space after an open paren/bracket or before a close paren/bracket.

While additional whitespace is generally helpful for reading, do not use more than one blank line to separate blocks, and avoid adding whitespace after the end of a program line (as of 1/99, some 600 lines had whitespace after the semicolon).  Excess whitespace causes difficulties for diff and patch utilities.

Pointers are declared using the traditional K&R C style:

     void *foo;

and not:

     void * foo;
     void* foo;

Comments
--------

The standard GNU requirements on comments must be followed strictly.

Block comments must appear in the following form, with no /*- or */-only lines, and no leading *:

     /* Wait for control to return from inferior to debugger.  If inferior
        gets a signal, we may decide to start it up again instead of
        returning.  That is why there is a loop in this function.  When
        this function actually returns it means the inferior should be left
        stopped and GDBN should read more commands.  */

(Note that this format is encouraged by Emacs; tabbing for a multi-line comment works correctly, and M-q fills the block consistently.)

Put a blank line between the block comments preceding function or variable definitions, and the definition itself.

In general, put function-body comments on lines by themselves, rather than trying to fit them into the 20 characters left at the end of a line, since either the comment or the code will inevitably get longer than will fit, and then somebody will have to move it anyhow.

C Usage
-------

Code must not depend on the sizes of C data types, the format of the host's floating point numbers, the alignment of anything, or the order of evaluation of expressions.

Use functions freely.  There are only a handful of compute-bound areas in GDBN that might be affected by the overhead of a function call, mainly in symbol reading.  Most of GDBN's performance is limited by the target interface (whether serial line or system call).

However, use functions with moderation.  A thousand one-line functions are just as hard to understand as a single thousand-line function.

Macros are bad, M'kay. (But if you have to use a macro, make sure that the macro arguments are protected with parentheses.)

Declarations like struct foo * should be used in preference to declarations like typedef struct foo { ... } *foo_ptr.

Function Prototypes
-------------------

Prototypes must be used when both declaring and defining a function.  Prototypes for GDBN functions must include both the argument type and name, with the name matching that used in the actual function definition.

All external functions should have a declaration in a header file that callers include, except for _initialize_* functions, which must be external so that init.c construction works, but shouldn't be visible to random source files.

Where a source file needs a forward declaration of a static function, that declaration must appear in a block near the top of the source file.

Internal Error Recovery
-----------------------

During its execution, GDBN can encounter two types of errors. User errors and internal errors.  User errors include not only a user entering an incorrect command but also problems arising from corrupt object files and system errors when interacting with the target. Internal errors include situations where GDBN has detected, at run time, a corrupt or erroneous situation.

When reporting an internal error, GDBN uses internal_error and gdb_assert.

GDBN must not call abort or assert.

Pragmatics: There is no internal_warning function.  Either the code detected a user error, recovered from it and issued a warning or the code failed to correctly recover from the user error and issued an internal_error.

File Names
----------

Any file used when building the core of GDBN must be in lower case. Any file used when building the core of GDBN must be 8.3 unique.  These requirements apply to both source and generated files.

Pragmatics: The core of GDBN must be buildable on many
platforms including DJGPP and MacOS/HFS.  Every time an unfriendly file
is introduced to the build process both Makefile.in and
configure.in need to be modified accordingly.  Compare the
convoluted conversion process needed to transform COPYING into
copying.c with the conversion needed to transform
version.in into version.c.

Any file non 8.3 compliant file (that is not used when building the core of GDBN) must be added to gdb/config/djgpp/fnchange.lst.

Pragmatics: This is clearly a compromise.

When GDBN has a local version of a system header file (ex string.h) the file name based on the POSIX header prefixed with gdb_ (gdb_string.h).

For other files - is used as the separator.

Include Files
-------------

A .c file should include defs.h first.

A .c file should directly include the .h file of every declaration and/or definition it directly refers to.  It cannot rely on indirect inclusion.

A .h file should directly include the .h file of every declaration and/or definition it directly refers to.  It cannot rely on indirect inclusion.  Exception: The file defs.h does not need to be directly included.

An external declaration should only appear in one include file.

An external declaration should never appear in a .c file. Exception: a declaration for the _initialize function that pacifies -Wmissing-declaration.

A typedef definition should only appear in one include file.

An opaque struct declaration can appear in multiple .h files.  Where possible, a .h file should use an opaque struct declaration instead of an include.

All .h files should be wrapped in:

     #ifndef INCLUDE_FILE_NAME_H
     #define INCLUDE_FILE_NAME_H
     header body
     #endif

Clean Design and Portable Implementation
----------------------------------------

In addition to getting the syntax right, there's the little question of semantics.  Some things are done in certain ways in GDBN because long experience has shown that the more obvious ways caused various kinds of trouble.

You can't assume the byte order of anything that comes from a target (including VALUEs, object files, and instructions).  Such things must be byte-swapped using SWAP_TARGET_AND_HOST in GDBN, or one of the swap routines defined in bfd.h, such as bfd_get_32.

You can't assume that you know what interface is being used to talk to the target system.  All references to the target must go through the current target_ops vector.

You can't assume that the host and target machines are the same machine (except in the ``native'' support modules).  In particular, you can't assume that the target machine's header files will be available on the host machine.  Target code must bring along its own header files -- written from scratch or explicitly donated by their owner, to avoid copyright problems.

Insertion of new #ifdef's will be frowned upon.  It's much better to write the code portably than to conditionalize it for various systems.

New #ifdef's which test for specific compilers or manufacturers or operating systems are unacceptable.  All #ifdef's should test for features.  The information about which configurations contain which features should be segregated into the configuration files.  Experience has proven far too often that a feature unique to one particular system often creeps into other systems; and that a conditional based on some predefined macro for your current system will become worthless over time, as new versions of your system come out that behave differently with regard to this feature.

Adding code that handles specific architectures, operating systems, target interfaces, or hosts, is not acceptable in generic code.

One particularly notorious area where system dependencies tend to creep in is handling of file names.  The mainline GDBN code assumes Posix semantics of file names: absolute file names begin with a forward slash /, slashes are used to separate leading directories, case-sensitive file names.  These assumptions are not necessarily true on non-Posix systems such as MS-Windows.  To avoid system-dependent code where you need to take apart or construct a file name, use the following portable macros:

HAVE_DOS_BASED_FILE_SYSTEM
     This preprocessing symbol is defined to a non-zero value on hosts whose filesystems belong to the MS-DOS/MS-Windows family.  Use this symbol to write conditional code which should only be compiled for such hosts.

IS_DIR_SEPARATOR (C)
     Evaluates to a non-zero value if C is a directory separator character.  On Unix and GNU/Linux systems, only a slash / is such a character, but on Windows, both / and \ will pass.

IS_ABSOLUTE_PATH (FILE)
     Evaluates to a non-zero value if FILE is an absolute file name. For Unix and GNU/Linux hosts, a name which begins with a slash / is absolute.  On DOS and Windows, d:/foo and x:\bar are also absolute file names.

FILENAME_CMP (F1, F2)
     Calls a function which compares file names F1 and F2 as appropriate for the underlying host filesystem.  For Posix systems, this simply calls strcmp; on case-insensitive filesystems it will call strcasecmp instead.

DIRNAME_SEPARATOR
     Evaluates to a character which separates directories in PATH-style lists, typically held in environment variables. This character is : on Unix, ; on DOS and Windows.

SLASH_STRING
     This evaluates to a constant string you should use to produce an absolute filename from leading directories and the file's basename. SLASH_STRING is "/" on most systems, but might be "\\" for some Windows-based ports.

In addition to using these macros, be sure to use portable library functions whenever possible.  For example, to extract a directory or a basename part from a file name, use the dirname and basename library functions (available in libiberty for platforms which don't provide them), instead of searching for a slash with strrchr.

Another way to generalize GDBN along a particular interface is with an attribute struct.  For example, GDBN has been generalized to handle multiple kinds of remote interfaces---not by #ifdefs everywhere, but by defining the target_ops structure and having a current target (as well as a stack of targets below it, for memory references).  Whenever something needs to be done that depends on which remote interface we are using, a flag in the current target_ops structure is tested (e.g., target_has_stack), or a function is called through a pointer in the current target_ops structure.  In this way, when a new remote interface is added, only one module needs to be touched---the one that actually implements the new remote interface.  Other examples of attribute-structs are BFD access to multiple kinds of object file formats, or GDBN's access to multiple source languages.

Please avoid duplicating code.  For example, in GDBN 3.x all the code interfacing between ptrace and the rest of GDBN was duplicated in *-dep.c, and so changing something was very painful.  In GDBN 4.x, these have all been consolidated into infptrace.c.  infptrace.c can deal with variations between systems the same way any system-independent file would (hooks, #if defined, etc.), and machines which are radically different don't need to use infptrace.c at all.

All debugging code must be controllable using the set debug MODULE command.  Do not use printf to print trace messages.  Use fprintf_unfiltered(gdb_stdlog, ....  Do not use #ifdef DEBUG.

Porting GDBN
************

Most of the work in making GDBN compile on a new machine is in specifying the configuration of the machine.  This is done in a dizzying variety of header files and configuration scripts, which we hope to make more sensible soon.  Let's say your new host is called an XYZ (e.g.,  sun4), and its full three-part configuration name is ARCH-XVEND-XOS (e.g., sparc-sun-sunos4).  In particular:

  * In the top level directory, edit config.sub and add ARCH, XVEND, and XOS to the lists of supported architectures, vendors, and operating systems near the bottom of the file.  Also, add XYZ as an alias that maps to ARCH-XVEND-XOS.  You can test your changes by running

          ./config.sub XYZ

     and

          ./config.sub ARCH-XVEND-XOS

     which should both respond with ARCH-XVEND-XOS and no error messages.

     You need to port BFD, if that hasn't been done already.  Porting BFD is beyond the scope of this manual.

  * To configure GDBN itself, edit gdb/configure.host to recognize your system and set gdb_host to XYZ, and (unless your desired target is already available) also edit gdb/configure.tgt, setting gdb_target to something appropriate (for instance, XYZ).

     Maintainer's note: Work in progress.  The file
     gdb/configure.host originally needed to be modified when either a
     new native target or a new host machine was being added to GDBN.
     Recent changes have removed this requirement.  The file now only needs
     to be modified when adding a new native configuration.  This will likely
     changed again in the future.

  * Finally, you'll need to specify and define GDBN's host-, native-, and target-dependent .h and .c files used for your configuration.

Releasing GDBN
**************

Versions and Branches
=====================

Version Identifiers
-------------------

GDBN's version is determined by the file gdb/version.in.

GDBN's mainline uses ISO dates to differentiate between versions.  The CVS repository uses YYYY-MM-DD-cvs while the corresponding snapshot uses YYYYMMDD.

GDBN's release branch uses a slightly more complicated scheme. When the branch is first cut, the mainline version identifier is prefixed with the MAJOR.MINOR from of the previous release series but with .90 appended.  As draft releases are drawn from the branch, the minor minor number (.90) is incremented.  Once the first release (M.N) has been made, the version prefix is updated to M.N.0.90 (dot zero, dot ninety).  Follow on releases have an incremented minor minor version number (.0).

Using 5.1 (previous) and 5.2 (current), the example below illustrates a typical sequence of version identifiers:

5.1.1
     final release from previous branch

2002-03-03-cvs
     main-line the day the branch is cut

5.1.90-2002-03-03-cvs
     corresponding branch version

5.1.91
     first draft release candidate

5.1.91-2002-03-17-cvs
     updated branch version

5.1.92
     second draft release candidate

5.1.92-2002-03-31-cvs
     updated branch version

5.1.93
     final release candidate (see below)

5.2
     official release

5.2.0.90-2002-04-07-cvs
     updated CVS branch version

5.2.1
     second official release

Notes:

  * Minor minor minor draft release candidates such as 5.2.0.91 have been omitted from the example.  Such release candidates are, typically, never made.

  * For 5.1.93 the bziped tar ball gdb-5.1.93.tar.bz2 is just the official gdb-5.2.tar renamed and compressed.

To avoid version conflicts, vendors are expected to modify the file gdb/version.in to include a vendor unique alphabetic identifier (an official GDBN release never uses alphabetic characters in its version identifer).

Since GDBN does not make minor minor minor releases (e.g., 5.1.0.1) the conflict between that and a minor minor draft release identifier (e.g., 5.1.0.90) is avoided.

Branches
--------

GDBN draws a release series (5.2, 5.2.1, ...) from a single release branch (gdb_5_2-branch).  Since minor minor minor releases (5.1.0.1) are not made, the need to branch the release branch is avoided (it also turns out that the effort required for such a a branch and release is significantly greater than the effort needed to create a new release from the head of the release branch).

Releases 5.0 and 5.1 used branch and release tags of the form:

     gdb_N_M-YYYY-MM-DD-branchpoint
     gdb_N_M-YYYY-MM-DD-branch
     gdb_M_N-YYYY-MM-DD-release

Release 5.2 is trialing the branch and release tags:

     gdb_N_M-YYYY-MM-DD-branchpoint
     gdb_N_M-branch
     gdb_M_N-YYYY-MM-DD-release

Pragmatics: The branchpoint and release tags need to identify when a branch and release are made.  The branch tag, denoting the head of the branch, does not have this criteria.

Branch Commit Policy
====================

The branch commit policy is pretty slack.  GDBN releases 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2 all used the below:

  * The gdb/MAINTAINERS file still holds.

  * Don't fix something on the branch unless/until it is also fixed in the trunk.  If this isn't possible, mentioning it in the gdb/PROBLEMS file is better than committing a hack.

  * When considering a patch for the branch, suggested criteria include: Does it fix a build?  Does it fix the sequence break main; run when debugging a static binary?

  * The further a change is from the core of GDBN, the less likely the change will worry anyone (e.g., target specific code).

  * Only post a proposal to change the core of GDBN after you've sent individual bribes to all the people listed in the MAINTAINERS file ;-)

Pragmatics: Provided updates are restricted to non-core functionality there is little chance that a broken change will be fatal. This means that changes such as adding a new architectures or (within reason) support for a new host are considered acceptable.

Obsoleting code
===============

Before anything else, poke the other developers (and around the source code) to see if there is anything that can be removed from GDBN (an old target, an unused file).

Obsolete code is identified by adding an OBSOLETE prefix to every line.  Doing this means that it is easy to identify something that has been obsoleted when greping through the sources.

The process is done in stages --- this is mainly to ensure that the wider GDBN community has a reasonable opportunity to respond. Remember, everything on the Internet takes a week.

 1. Post the proposal on the GDB mailing list Creating a bug report to track the task's state, is also highly recommended.

 2. Wait a week or so.

 3. Post the proposal on the GDB Announcement mailing list.

 4. Wait a week or so.

 5. Go through and edit all relevant files and lines so that they are prefixed with the word OBSOLETE.

 6. Wait until the next GDB version, containing this obsolete code, has been released.

 7. Remove the obsolete code.

Maintainer note: While removing old code is regrettable it is
hopefully better for GDBN's long term development.  Firstly it
helps the developers by removing code that is either no longer relevant
or simply wrong.  Secondly since it removes any history associated with
the file (effectively clearing the slate) the developer has a much freer
hand when it comes to fixing broken files.

Before the Branch
=================

The most important objective at this stage is to find and fix simple changes that become a pain to track once the branch is created.  For instance, configuration problems that stop GDBN from even building.  If you can't get the problem fixed, document it in the gdb/PROBLEMS file.

Prompt for gdb/NEWS
-------------------

People always forget.  Send a post reminding them but also if you know something interesting happened add it yourself.  The schedule script will mention this in its e-mail.

Review gdb/README
-----------------

Grab one of the nightly snapshots and then walk through the gdb/README looking for anything that can be improved.  The schedule script will mention this in its e-mail.

Refresh any imported files.
---------------------------

A number of files are taken from external repositories.  They include:

  * texinfo/texinfo.tex

  * config.guess et. al. (see the top-level MAINTAINERS file)

  * etc/standards.texi, etc/make-stds.texi

Check the ARI
-------------

A.R.I. is an awk script (Awk Regression Index ;-) that checks for a number of errors and coding conventions.  The checks include things like using malloc instead of xmalloc and file naming problems.  There shouldn't be any regressions.

Review the bug data base
------------------------

Close anything obviously fixed.

Check all cross targets build
-----------------------------

The targets are listed in gdb/MAINTAINERS.

Cut the Branch
==============

Create the branch
-----------------

     $  u=5.1
     $  v=5.2
     $  V=`echo $v | sed 's/\./_/g'`
     $  D=`date -u +%Y-%m-%d`
     $  echo $u $V $D
     5.1 5_2 2002-03-03
     $  echo cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src rtag \
     -D $D-gmt gdb_$V-$D-branchpoint insight+dejagnu
     cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src rtag
     -D 2002-03-03-gmt gdb_5_2-2002-03-03-branchpoint insight+dejagnu
     $  ^echo ^^
     ...
     $  echo cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src rtag \
     -b -r gdb_$V-$D-branchpoint gdb_$V-branch insight+dejagnu
     cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src rtag \
     -b -r gdb_5_2-2002-03-03-branchpoint gdb_5_2-branch insight+dejagnu
     $  ^echo ^^
     ...
     $

  * by using -D YYYY-MM-DD-gmt the branch is forced to an exact date/time.

  * the trunk is first taged so that the branch point can easily be found

  * Insight (which includes GDB) and dejagnu are all tagged at the same time

  * version.in gets bumped to avoid version number conflicts

  * the reading of .cvsrc is disabled using -f

Update version.in
-----------------

     $  u=5.1
     $  v=5.2
     $  V=`echo $v | sed 's/\./_/g'`
     $  echo $u $v$V
     5.1 5_2
     $  cd /tmp
     $  echo cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src co \
     -r gdb_$V-branch src/gdb/version.in
     cvs -f -d :ext:sources.redhat.com:/cvs/src co
      -r gdb_5_2-branch src/gdb/version.in
     $  ^echo ^^
     U src/gdb/version.in
     $  cd src/gdb
     $  echo $u.90-0000-00-00-cvs > version.in
     $  cat version.in
     5.1.90-0000-00-00-cvs
     $  cvs -f commit version.in

  * 0000-00-00 is used as a date to pump prime the version.in update mechanism

  * .90 and the previous branch version are used as fairly arbitrary initial branch version number

Update the web and news pages
-----------------------------

Something?

Tweak cron to track the new branch
----------------------------------

The file gdbadmin/cron/crontab contains gdbadmin's cron table. This file needs to be updated so that:

  * a daily timestamp is added to the file version.in

  * the new branch is included in the snapshot process

See the file gdbadmin/cron/README for how to install the updated cron table.

The file gdbadmin/ss/README should also be reviewed to reflect any changes.  That file is copied to both the branch/ and current/ snapshot directories.

Update the NEWS and README files
--------------------------------

The NEWS file needs to be updated so that on the branch it refers to changes in the current release while on the trunk it also refers to changes since the current release.

The README file needs to be updated so that it refers to the current release.

Post the branch info
--------------------

Send an announcement to the mailing lists:

  * GDB Announcement mailing list

  * GDB Discsussion mailing list and GDB Discsussion mailing list

Pragmatics: The branch creation is sent to the announce list to ensure that people people not subscribed to the higher volume discussion list are alerted.

The announcement should include:

  * the branch tag

  * how to check out the branch using CVS

  * the date/number of weeks until the release

  * the branch commit policy still holds.

Stabilize the branch
====================

Something goes here.

Create a Release
================

The process of creating and then making available a release is broken down into a number of stages.  The first part addresses the technical process of creating a releasable tar ball.  The later stages address the process of releasing that tar ball.

When making a release candidate just the first section is needed.

Create a release candidate
--------------------------

The objective at this stage is to create a set of tar balls that can be made available as a formal release (or as a less formal release candidate).

Freeze the branch
.................

Send out an e-mail notifying everyone that the branch is frozen to gdb-patches@sources.redhat.com.

Establish a few defaults.
.........................

     $  b=gdb_5_2-branch
     $  v=5.2
     $  t=/sourceware/snapshot-tmp/gdbadmin-tmp
     $  echo $t/$b/$v
     /sourceware/snapshot-tmp/gdbadmin-tmp/gdb_5_2-branch/5.2
     $  mkdir -p $t/$b/$v
     $  cd $t/$b/$v
     $  pwd
     /sourceware/snapshot-tmp/gdbadmin-tmp/gdb_5_2-branch/5.2
     $  which autoconf
     /home/gdbadmin/bin/autoconf
     $

Notes:

  * Check the autoconf version carefully.  You want to be using the version taken from the binutils snapshot directory, which can be found at ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/binutils/. It is very unlikely that a system installed version of autoconf (e.g., /usr/bin/autoconf) is correct.

Check out the relevant modules:
...............................

     $  for m in gdb insight dejagnu
     do
     ( mkdir -p $m && cd $m && cvs -q -f -d /cvs/src co -P -r $b $m )
     done
     $

Note:

  * The reading of .cvsrc is disabled (-f) so that there isn't any confusion between what is written here and what your local cvs really does.

Update relevant files.
......................

gdb/NEWS

     Major releases get their comments added as part of the mainline.  Minor releases should probably mention any significant bugs that were fixed.

     Don't forget to include the ChangeLog entry.

          $  emacs gdb/src/gdb/NEWS
          ...
          c-x 4 a
          ...
          c-x c-s c-x c-c
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/NEWS insight/src/gdb/NEWS
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/ChangeLog insight/src/gdb/ChangeLog

gdb/README

     You'll need to update:

       * the version

       * the update date

       * who did it

          $  emacs gdb/src/gdb/README
          ...
          c-x 4 a
          ...
          c-x c-s c-x c-c
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/README insight/src/gdb/README
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/ChangeLog insight/src/gdb/ChangeLog

     Maintainer note: Hopefully the README file was reviewed before the initial branch was cut so just a simple substitute is needed to get it updated.

     Maintainer note: Other projects generate README and INSTALL from the core documentation.  This might be worth pursuing.

gdb/version.in

          $  echo $v > gdb/src/gdb/version.in
          $  cat gdb/src/gdb/version.in
          5.2
          $  emacs gdb/src/gdb/version.in
          ...
          c-x 4 a
          ... Bump to version ...
          c-x c-s c-x c-c
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/version.in insight/src/gdb/version.in
          $  cp gdb/src/gdb/ChangeLog insight/src/gdb/ChangeLog

dejagnu/src/dejagnu/configure.in

     Dejagnu is more complicated.  The version number is a parameter to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.  Tweak it to read something like gdb-5.1.91.

     Don't forget to re-generate configure.

     Don't forget to include a ChangeLog entry.

          $  emacs dejagnu/src/dejagnu/configure.in
          ...
          c-x 4 a
          ...
          c-x c-s c-x c-c
          $  ( cd  dejagnu/src/dejagnu && autoconf )

Do the dirty work
.................

This is identical to the process used to create the daily snapshot.

     $  for m in gdb insight
     do
     ( cd $m/src && gmake -f src-release $m.tar )
     done
     $  ( m=dejagnu; cd $m/src && gmake -f src-release $m.tar.bz2 )

If the top level source directory does not have src-release (GDBN version 5.3.1 or earlier), try these commands instead:

     $  for m in gdb insight
     do
     ( cd $m/src && gmake -f Makefile.in $m.tar )
     done
     $  ( m=dejagnu; cd $m/src && gmake -f Makefile.in $m.tar.bz2 )

Check the source files
......................

You're looking for files that have mysteriously disappeared. distclean has the habit of deleting files it shouldn't.  Watch out for the version.in update cronjob.

     $  ( cd gdb/src && cvs -f -q -n update )
     M djunpack.bat
     ? gdb-5.1.91.tar
     ? proto-toplev
     ... lots of generated files ...
     M gdb/ChangeLog
     M gdb/NEWS
     M gdb/README
     M gdb/version.in
     ... lots of generated files ...
     $

Don't worry about the gdb.info-?? or gdb/p-exp.tab.c.  They were generated (and yes gdb.info-1 was also generated only something strange with CVS means that they didn't get supressed).  Fixing it would be nice though.

Create compressed versions of the release
.........................................

     $  cp */src/*.tar .
     $  cp */src/*.bz2 .
     $  ls -F
     dejagnu/ dejagnu-gdb-5.2.tar.bz2 gdb/ gdb-5.2.tar insight/ insight-5.2.tar
     $  for m in gdb insight
     do
     bzip2 -v -9 -c $m-$v.tar > $m-$v.tar.bz2
     gzip -v -9 -c $m-$v.tar > $m-$v.tar.gz
     done
     $

Note:

  * A pipe such as bunzip2 < xxx.bz2 | gzip -9 > xxx.gz is not since, in that mode, gzip does not know the name of the file and, hence, can not include it in the compressed file.  This is also why the release process runs tar and bzip2 as separate passes.

Sanity check the tar ball
-------------------------

Pick a popular machine (Solaris/PPC?) and try the build on that.

     $  bunzip2 < gdb-5.2.tar.bz2 | tar xpf -
     $  cd gdb-5.2
     $  ./configure
     $  make
     ...
     $  ./gdb/gdb ./gdb/gdb
     GNU gdb 5.2
     ...
     (gdb)  b main
     Breakpoint 1 at 0x80732bc: file main.c, line 734.
     (gdb)  run
     Starting program: /tmp/gdb-5.2/gdb/gdb

     Breakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0xbffff8b4) at main.c:734
     734       catch_errors (captured_main, &args, "", RETURN_MASK_ALL);
     (gdb)  print args
     $1 = {argc = 136426532, argv = 0x821b7f0}
     (gdb)

Make a release candidate available
----------------------------------

If this is a release candidate then the only remaining steps are:

 1. Commit version.in and ChangeLog

 2. Tweak version.in (and ChangeLog to read L.M.N-0000-00-00-cvs so that the version update process can restart.

 3. Make the release candidate available in ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/gdb/snapshots/branch

 4. Notify the relevant mailing lists ( gdb@sources.redhat.com and gdb-testers@sources.redhat.com that the candidate is available.

Make a formal release available
-------------------------------

(And you thought all that was required was to post an e-mail.)

Install on sware
................

Copy the new files to both the release and the old release directory:

     $  cp *.bz2 *.gz ~ftp/pub/gdb/old-releases/
     $  cp *.bz2 *.gz ~ftp/pub/gdb/releases

Clean up the releases directory so that only the most recent releases are available (e.g. keep 5.2 and 5.2.1 but remove 5.1):

     $  cd ~ftp/pub/gdb/releases
     $  rm ...

Update the file README and .message in the releases directory:

     $  vi README
     ...
     $  rm -f .message
     $  ln README .message

Update the web pages.
.....................

htdocs/download/ANNOUNCEMENT
     This file, which is posted as the official announcement, includes:

       * General announcement

       * News.  If making an M.N.1 release, retain the news from earlier M.N release.

       * Errata

htdocs/index.html
htdocs/news/index.html
htdocs/download/index.html
     These files include:

       * announcement of the most recent release

       * news entry (remember to update both the top level and the news directory).

     These pages also need to be regenerate using index.sh.

download/onlinedocs/
     You need to find the magic command that is used to generate the online docs from the .tar.bz2.  The best way is to look in the output from one of the nightly cron jobs and then just edit accordingly. Something like:

          $  ~/ss/update-web-docs \
           ~ftp/pub/gdb/releases/gdb-5.2.tar.bz2 \
           $PWD/www \
           /www/sourceware/htdocs/gdb/download/onlinedocs \
           gdb

download/ari/
     Just like the online documentation.  Something like:

          $  /bin/sh ~/ss/update-web-ari \
           ~ftp/pub/gdb/releases/gdb-5.2.tar.bz2 \
           $PWD/www \
           /www/sourceware/htdocs/gdb/download/ari \
           gdb

Shadow the pages onto gnu
.........................

Something goes here.

Install the GDBN tar ball on GNU
................................

At the time of writing, the GNU machine was gnudist.gnu.org in ~ftp/gnu/gdb.

Make the ANNOUNCEMENT
.....................

Post the ANNOUNCEMENT file you created above to:

  * GDB Announcement mailing list

  * General GNU Announcement list (but delay it a day or so to let things get out)

  * GDB Bug Report mailing list

Cleanup
-------

The release is out but you're still not finished.

Commit outstanding changes
..........................

In particular you'll need to commit any changes to:

  * gdb/ChangeLog

  * gdb/version.in

  * gdb/NEWS

  * gdb/README

Tag the release
...............

Something like:

     $  d=`date -u +%Y-%m-%d`
     $  echo $d
     2002-01-24
     $  ( cd insight/src/gdb && cvs -f -q update )
     $  ( cd insight/src && cvs -f -q tag gdb_5_2-$d-release )

Insight is used since that contains more of the release than GDBN (dejagnu doesn't get tagged but I think we can live with that).

Mention the release on the trunk
................................

Just put something in the ChangeLog so that the trunk also indicates when the release was made.

Restart gdb/version.in
......................

If gdb/version.in does not contain an ISO date such as 2002-01-24 then the daily cronjob won't update it.  Having committed all the release changes it can be set to 5.2.0_0000-00-00-cvs which will restart things (yes the _ is important - it affects the snapshot process).

Don't forget the ChangeLog.

Merge into trunk
................

The files committed to the branch may also need changes merged into the trunk.

Revise the release schedule
...........................

Post a revised release schedule to GDB Discussion List with an updated announcement.  The schedule can be generated by running:

     $  ~/ss/schedule `date +%s` schedule

The first parameter is approximate date/time in seconds (from the epoch) of the most recent release.

Also update the schedule cronjob.

Post release
============

Remove any OBSOLETE code.

Testsuite
*********

The testsuite is an important component of the GDBN package. While it is always worthwhile to encourage user testing, in practice this is rarely sufficient; users typically use only a small subset of the available commands, and it has proven all too common for a change to cause a significant regression that went unnoticed for some time.

The GDBN testsuite uses the DejaGNU testing framework. DejaGNU is built using Tcl and expect.  The tests themselves are calls to various Tcl procs; the framework runs all the procs and summarizes the passes and fails.

Using the Testsuite
===================

To run the testsuite, simply go to the GDBN object directory (or to the testsuite's objdir) and type make check.  This just sets up some environment variables and invokes DejaGNU's runtest script.  While the testsuite is running, you'll get mentions of which test file is in use, and a mention of any unexpected passes or fails.  When the testsuite is finished, you'll get a summary that looks like this:

                     === gdb Summary ===

     # of expected passes            6016
     # of unexpected failures        58
     # of unexpected successes       5
     # of expected failures          183
     # of unresolved testcases       3
     # of untested testcases         5

The ideal test run consists of expected passes only; however, reality conspires to keep us from this ideal.  Unexpected failures indicate real problems, whether in GDBN or in the testsuite.  Expected failures are still failures, but ones which have been decided are too hard to deal with at the time; for instance, a test case might work everywhere except on AIX, and there is no prospect of the AIX case being fixed in the near future.  Expected failures should not be added lightly, since you may be masking serious bugs in GDBN. Unexpected successes are expected fails that are passing for some reason, while unresolved and untested cases often indicate some minor catastrophe, such as the compiler being unable to deal with a test program.

When making any significant change to GDBN, you should run the testsuite before and after the change, to confirm that there are no regressions.  Note that truly complete testing would require that you run the testsuite with all supported configurations and a variety of compilers; however this is more than really necessary.  In many cases testing with a single configuration is sufficient.  Other useful options are to test one big-endian (Sparc) and one little-endian (x86) host, a cross config with a builtin simulator (powerpc-eabi, mips-elf), or a 64-bit host (Alpha).

If you add new functionality to GDBN, please consider adding tests for it as well; this way future GDBN hackers can detect and fix their changes that break the functionality you added. Similarly, if you fix a bug that was not previously reported as a test failure, please add a test case for it.  Some cases are extremely difficult to test, such as code that handles host OS failures or bugs in particular versions of compilers, and it's OK not to try to write tests for all of those.

Testsuite Organization
======================

The testsuite is entirely contained in gdb/testsuite.  While the testsuite includes some makefiles and configury, these are very minimal, and used for little besides cleaning up, since the tests themselves handle the compilation of the programs that GDBN will run.  The file testsuite/lib/gdb.exp contains common utility procs useful for all GDBN tests, while the directory testsuite/config contains configuration-specific files, typically used for special-purpose definitions of procs like gdb_load and gdb_start.

The tests themselves are to be found in testsuite/gdb.* and subdirectories of those.  The names of the test files must always end with .exp.  DejaGNU collects the test files by wildcarding in the test directories, so both subdirectories and individual files get chosen and run in alphabetical order.

The following table lists the main types of subdirectories and what they are for.  Since DejaGNU finds test files no matter where they are located, and since each test file sets up its own compilation and execution environment, this organization is simply for convenience and intelligibility.

gdb.base
     This is the base testsuite.  The tests in it should apply to all configurations of GDBN (but generic native-only tests may live here). The test programs should be in the subset of C that is valid K&R, ANSI/ISO, and C++ (#ifdefs are allowed if necessary, for instance for prototypes).

gdb.LANG
     Language-specific tests for any language LANG besides C.  Examples are gdb.c++ and gdb.java.

gdb.PLATFORM
     Non-portable tests.  The tests are specific to a specific configuration (host or target), such as HP-UX or eCos.  Example is gdb.hp, for HP-UX.

gdb.COMPILER
     Tests specific to a particular compiler.  As of this writing (June 1999), there aren't currently any groups of tests in this category that couldn't just as sensibly be made platform-specific, but one could imagine a gdb.gcc, for tests of GDBN's handling of GCC extensions.

gdb.SUBSYSTEM
     Tests that exercise a specific GDBN subsystem in more depth.  For instance, gdb.disasm exercises various disassemblers, while gdb.stabs tests pathways through the stabs symbol reader.

Writing Tests
=============

In many areas, the GDBN tests are already quite comprehensive; you should be able to copy existing tests to handle new cases.

You should try to use gdb_test whenever possible, since it includes cases to handle all the unexpected errors that might happen. However, it doesn't cost anything to add new test procedures; for instance, gdb.base/exprs.exp defines a test_expr that calls gdb_test multiple times.

Only use send_gdb and gdb_expect when absolutely necessary, such as when GDBN has several valid responses to a command.

The source language programs do not need to be in a consistent style.  Since GDBN is used to debug programs written in many different styles, it's worth having a mix of styles in the testsuite; for instance, some GDBN bugs involving the display of source lines would never manifest themselves if the programs used GNU coding style uniformly.

Hints
*****

Check the README file, it often has useful information that does not appear anywhere else in the directory.

Getting Started
===============

GDBN is a large and complicated program, and if you first starting to work on it, it can be hard to know where to start.  Fortunately, if you know how to go about it, there are ways to figure out what is going on.

This manual, the GDBN Internals manual, has information which applies generally to many parts of GDBN.

Information about particular functions or data structures are located in comments with those functions or data structures.  If you run across a function or a global variable which does not have a comment correctly explaining what is does, this can be thought of as a bug in GDBN; feel free to submit a bug report, with a suggested comment if you can figure out what the comment should say.  If you find a comment which is actually wrong, be especially sure to report that.

Comments explaining the function of macros defined in host, target, or native dependent files can be in several places.  Sometimes they are repeated every place the macro is defined.  Sometimes they are where the macro is used.  Sometimes there is a header file which supplies a default definition of the macro, and the comment is there.  This manual also documents all the available macros.

Start with the header files.  Once you have some idea of how GDBN's internal symbol tables are stored (see symtab.h, gdbtypes.h), you will find it much easier to understand the code which uses and creates those symbol tables.

You may wish to process the information you are getting somehow, to enhance your understanding of it.  Summarize it, translate it to another language, add some (perhaps trivial or non-useful) feature to GDBN, use the code to predict what a test case would do and write the test case and verify your prediction, etc.  If you are reading code and your eyes are starting to glaze over, this is a sign you need to use a more active approach.

Once you have a part of GDBN to start with, you can find more specifically the part you are looking for by stepping through each function with the next command.  Do not use step or you will quickly get distracted; when the function you are stepping through calls another function try only to get a big-picture understanding (perhaps using the comment at the beginning of the function being called) of what it does.  This way you can identify which of the functions being called by the function you are stepping through is the one which you are interested in.  You may need to examine the data structures generated at each stage, with reference to the comments in the header files explaining what the data structures are supposed to look like.

Of course, this same technique can be used if you are just reading the code, rather than actually stepping through it.  The same general principle applies---when the code you are looking at calls something else, just try to understand generally what the code being called does, rather than worrying about all its details.

A good place to start when tracking down some particular area is with a command which invokes that feature.  Suppose you want to know how single-stepping works.  As a GDBN user, you know that the step command invokes single-stepping.  The command is invoked via command tables (see command.h); by convention the function which actually performs the command is formed by taking the name of the command and adding _command, or in the case of an info subcommand, _info.  For example, the step command invokes the step_command function and the info display command invokes display_info.  When this convention is not followed, you might have to use grep or M-x
tags-search in emacs, or run GDBN on itself and set a breakpoint in execute_command.

If all of the above fail, it may be appropriate to ask for information on bug-gdb.  But never post a generic question like ``I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips about understanding GDBN''---if we had some magic secret we would put it in this manual. Suggestions for improving the manual are always welcome, of course.

Debugging GDBN with itself
==========================

If GDBN is limping on your machine, this is the preferred way to get it fully functional.  Be warned that in some ancient Unix systems, like Ultrix 4.2, a program can't be running in one process while it is being debugged in another.  Rather than typing the command ./gdb ./gdb, which works on Suns and such, you can copy gdb to gdb2 and then type ./gdb ./gdb2.

When you run GDBN in the GDBN source directory, it will read a .gdbinit file that sets up some simple things to make debugging gdb easier.  The info command, when executed without a subcommand in a GDBN being debugged by gdb, will pop you back up to the top level gdb.  See .gdbinit for details.

If you use emacs, you will probably want to do a make TAGS after you configure your distribution; this will put the machine dependent routines for your local machine where they will be accessed first by M-.

Also, make sure that you've either compiled GDBN with your local cc, or have run fixincludes if you are compiling with gcc.

Submitting Patches
==================

Thanks for thinking of offering your changes back to the community of GDBN users.  In general we like to get well designed enhancements. Thanks also for checking in advance about the best way to transfer the changes.

The GDBN maintainers will only install ``cleanly designed'' patches. This manual summarizes what we believe to be clean design for GDBN.

If the maintainers don't have time to put the patch in when it arrives, or if there is any question about a patch, it goes into a large queue with everyone else's patches and bug reports.

The legal issue is that to incorporate substantial changes requires a copyright assignment from you and/or your employer, granting ownership of the changes to the Free Software Foundation.  You can get the standard documents for doing this by sending mail to gnu@gnu.org and asking for it.  We recommend that people write in "All programs owned by the Free Software Foundation" as "NAME OF PROGRAM", so that changes in many programs (not just GDBN, but GAS, Emacs, GCC, etc) can be contributed with only one piece of legalese pushed through the bureaucracy and filed with the FSF.  We can't start merging changes until this paperwork is received by the FSF (their rules, which we follow since we maintain it for them).

Technically, the easiest way to receive changes is to receive each feature as a small context diff or unidiff, suitable for patch. Each message sent to me should include the changes to C code and header files for a single feature, plus ChangeLog entries for each directory where files were modified, and diffs for any changes needed to the manuals (gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo or gdb/doc/gdbint.texinfo).  If there are a lot of changes for a single feature, they can be split down into multiple messages.

In this way, if we read and like the feature, we can add it to the sources with a single patch command, do some testing, and check it in. If you leave out the ChangeLog, we have to write one.  If you leave out the doc, we have to puzzle out what needs documenting.  Etc., etc.

The reason to send each change in a separate message is that we will not install some of the changes.  They'll be returned to you with questions or comments.  If we're doing our job correctly, the message back to you will say what you have to fix in order to make the change acceptable. The reason to have separate messages for separate features is so that the acceptable changes can be installed while one or more changes are being reworked.  If multiple features are sent in a single message, we tend to not put in the effort to sort out the acceptable changes from the unacceptable, so none of the features get installed until all are acceptable.

If this sounds painful or authoritarian, well, it is.  But we get a lot of bug reports and a lot of patches, and many of them don't get installed because we don't have the time to finish the job that the bug reporter or the contributor could have done.  Patches that arrive complete, working, and well designed, tend to get installed on the day they arrive.  The others go into a queue and get installed as time permits, which, since the maintainers have many demands to meet, may not be for quite some time.

Please send patches directly to the GDBN maintainers.

Obsolete Conditionals
=====================

Fragments of old code in GDBN sometimes reference or set the following configuration macros.  They should not be used by new code, and old uses should be removed as those parts of the debugger are otherwise touched.

STACK_END_ADDR
     This macro used to define where the end of the stack appeared, for use in interpreting core file formats that don't record this address in the core file itself.  This information is now configured in BFD, and GDBN gets the info portably from there.  The values in GDBN's configuration files should be moved into BFD configuration files (if needed there), and deleted from all of GDBN's config files.

     Any FOO-xdep.c file that references STACK_END_ADDR is so old that it has never been converted to use BFD.  Now that's old!

     [file observer.texi not included]
     [file fdl.texi not included]