+If you find inaccuracies in this list, please send mail to
+bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu. If you would like to work on any of these,
+you should consider sending mail to the same address, to find out
+whether anyone else is working on it.
- gdb bug list
- John Gilmore, gnu@cygnus.com
+General To Do List
+------------------
-This bug list is probably not up to date or accurate, but it reflects
-some known bugs in gdb, if you are into bug-hunting.
+This list is probably not up to date, and opinions vary about the
+importance or even desirability of some of the items.
+Add an "info bfd" command that displays supported object formats,
+similarly to objdump -i.
-Update the TODO list with all the lists of gdb bugs lying around on paper.
-
-"share" command should not need to be manually run. It should be run
-as soon as possible, automatically, both on "run" and on core files.
+START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED need never be defined to 2, since that
+is its default value. Clean this up.
It should be possible to use symbols from shared libraries before we know
exactly where the libraries will be loaded. E.g. "b perror" before running
Speed up single stepping by not inserting and removing breakpoints
each time the inferior starts and stops.
-Speed up watchpoints by not single-stepping them, but do something
-faster like single-line execution.
+Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the
+one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support
+breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them.
-Update gdb.texinfo to include doc on the directory structure and
+Update gdbint.texinfo to include doc on the directory structure and
the various tricks of building gdb.
Do a tutorial in gdb.texinfo on how to do simple things in gdb.
E.g. how to set a breakpoint that just prints something and continues.
How to break on aborts. Etc.
-Do a "new features" section for release 4.
-
Provide "voodoo" debugging of core files. This creates a zombie
process as a child of the debugger, and loads it up with the data,
stack, and regs of the core file. This allows you to call functions
Persistent command history: A feature where you could save off a list
of the commands you did, so you can edit it into something that will bring
-the target to the same place every time you source it. Sun wants it.
+the target to the same place every time you source it.
This would also be useful for automated fast watchpointing; if you go
past the place where it watchpoints, you just start it over again and
do it more carefully.
-Deal with the Sun ptrace bug that loses the registers if the stack is
-paged out.
+Deal with the SunOS 4.0 and 4.1.1 ptrace bug that loses the registers if
+the stack is paged out.
Finish the C++ exception handling stub routines. Lint points them out
as unused statics functions.
-"i source" only shows you info about files that it can read. When it
-can't read a file and complains, you can't see any info about it, like
-where it was compiled. Perhaps "i source" should take an argument
-like that of "list".
+Perhaps "i source" should take an argument like that of "list".
-See if coredep.c's fetch_core_registers can be used on more machines.
+See if core-aout.c's fetch_core_registers can be used on more machines.
E.g. MIPS (mips-xdep.c).
-coredep.c is completely broken. Needs work just to compile, it uses
-"u" and doesn't declare it, etc.
-
unpack_double() does not handle IEEE float on the target unless the host
is also IEEE. Death on a vax.
-Test cross-debugging Unix-to-Unix.
-
-Check the RAPP remote protocol. What is it? It's in Makefile.dist
-and one ChangeLog entry.
-
Set up interface between GDB and INFO so that you can hop into interactive
INFO and back out again. When running under Emacs, should use Emacs
info, else fork the info program. Installation of GDB should install
its texinfo files into the info tree automagically, including the readline
-texinfo files..
-
-Improve backtrace output to avoid line wraps. Prettify it.
+texinfo files.
-"help address" ought to find the "help set addressprint" entry.
+"help address" ought to find the "help set print address" entry.
Remove the VTBL internal guts from printouts of C++ structs, unless
vtblprint is set.
-Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if !addressprint and if
+Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if `print address off' and if
it matches the source line indicated.
The prompt at end of screen should accept space as well as CR.
-"List" should put you into a pseudo-"more" where you can hit space
-to get more, forever to eof.
-
Check STORE_RETURN_VALUE on all architectures. Check near it in tm-sparc.h
for other bogosities.
vtblprint of a vtbl should demangle the names it's printing.
-Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in its
-display, perhaps showing ">3 foo (bar, ...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)".
+Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in
+its display, perhaps showing "@3 foo (bar, ...)" or ">3 foo (bar,
+...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)".
"i program" should work for core files, and display more info, like what
actually caused it to die.
-Hitting ^Z to an inferior doesn't work right, it takes several continues
-to make it actually go.
-
-"i fun" doesn't show misc function vector symbols.
-
"x/10i" should shorten the long name, if any, on subsequent lines.
Check through the code for FIXME comments and fix them. dbxread.c,
-blockframe.c, and plenty more.
+blockframe.c, and plenty more. (I count 634 as of 940621 - sts)
"next" over a function that longjumps, never stops until next time you happen
to get to that spot by accident. E.g. "n" over execute_command which has
an error.
-Watchpoints seem not entirely reliable.
-
-"set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which are entirely
-zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful members.
+"set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which
+are entirely zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful
+members.
GDB does four ioctl's for every command, probably switching terminal modes
to/from inferior or for readline or something.
call functions in the child, and while there, the child is interrupted
with a signal, or hits a breakpoint.)
-Symbol completion with TAB does not unmangle names!
-
help completion, help history should work.
-Symbol completion doesn't handle e.g. W::f. (symtab.c,
-make_symbol_completion_list).
-
-AMD version: ^C should do ^Ak to stop ebmon.
-
Check that we can handle stack trace through varargs AND alloca in same
function, on 29K.
wait_for_inferior loops forever if wait() gives it an error.
-"i frame" arg formatting sucks. Should wrap lines.
-"bt" arg formatting needs the same treatment .
-
"i frame" shows wrong "arglist at" location, doesn't show where the args
should be found, only their actual values.
-Symbolic display of addrs, (& disassembly prefixes), don't show static
-fns, e.g. enable_command in gdb.
-
-'ptype yylval' ==> "union YYSTYPE { ..... }". However, it is not a
-union YYSTYPE, but is simply a YYSTYPE, which is a typedef for an
-unnamed union.
-
-"show all" should work.
-
There should be a way for "set" commands to validate the new setting
before it takes effect.
-The "display" command should become the "always" command, e.g.
- "always print XXX"
- "always p/xxx XXX"
- "always echo foo"
- "always call XXX"
- "always x/i $pc", etc.
-
A mess of floating point opcodes are missing from sparc-opcode.h.
Also, a little program should test the table for bits that are
overspecified or underspecified. E.g. if the must-be-ones bits
should end up coming back the same (modulo transformation comments)
if fed to "gas" then the .o is fed to gdb for disassembly.
-Merge the xxx-opcode.h files with gas again...
-
Eliminate all the core_file_command's in all the xdep files.
Eliminate separate declarations of registers[] everywhere.
"ena d" is ambiguous, why? "ena delete" seems to think it is a command!
-Line numbers are off in some spots. In proceed() at 1st "oneproc = 1",
-it seems to run that statement, but it doesn't actually.
-
-Perhaps the tdep and xdep files, and the tm and xm files, into a config
-subdirectory. If not, at least straighten out their names so that
+Perhaps move the tdep, xdep, and nat files, into the config
+subdirectories. If not, at least straighten out their names so that
they all start with the machine name.
inferior_status should include stop_print_frame. It won't need to be
i line VAR produces "Line number not known for symbol ``var''.". I
thought we were stashing that info now!
-Make sure we can handle executables with no symbol info, e.g. /bin/csh.
-
-We should be able to write to executables that aren't running.
-
We should be able to write to random files at hex offsets like adb.
-Tiemann: It is very painful to look at fp registers that hold
-double precision values. GDB is happy to show them to you as single
-precision, but you cannot look at them as doubles. Perhaps casting
-should be changed to make this work; or maybe a new "set" option that
-sets the default fp precision to single, double, or quad. This is not
-urgent, but would be nice to get into GDB 4.0.
-
Make "target xxx" command interruptible.
Handle add_file with separate text, data, and bss addresses. Maybe
in a dynamic linking environment. Should remember the last copy loaded,
but not get too snowed if it finds references to the older copy.
-Implement have_memory, have_stack, have_registers, have_execution.
-Memory: core, exec, child, vxworks even without child.
-stack: core, child, vxworks with child
-registers: core, child, vxworks with child
-execution: child, vxworks with child.
-
-The original BFD core dump reading routine would itself coredump when fed
-a garbage file as a core file. Does the current one?
-
-Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the
-one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support
-breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them.
-
-Stop reading stop_registers!
-
Generalize and Standardize the RPC interface to a target program,
-improve it beyond the "ptrace" interface, and see if it can become a standard
-for remote debugging. Is WRS interested in donating their target-end
-code?
+improve it beyond the "ptrace" interface, and see if it can become a
+standard for remote debugging. (This is talking about the vxworks
+interface. Seems unlikely to me that there will be "a standard" for
+remote debugging anytime soon --kingdon, 8 Nov 1994).
Remove all references to:
text_offset
examined, you get "Couldn't read float regs from core file"...if
indeed it can't. generic_mourn_inferior...
-...
-
-Check signal argument to remote proceed's and error if set.
-
-Handle floating point registers in core files under BFD. Currently
-they are punted.
+Have remote targets give a warning on a signal argument to
+target_resume. Or better yet, extend the protocols so that it works
+like it does on the Unix-like systems.
Sort help and info output.
Re-organize help categories into things that tend to fit on a screen
and hang together.
-When trying to print source lines but you can't find the file,
-print the file name and line number, and leave it selected anyway
-so "i source" will show it.
-
renote-nindy.c handles interrupts poorly; it error()s out of badly
chosen places, e.g. leaving current_frame zero, which causes core dumps
on the next command.
probably guessed wrong, or left them "for later" when I have a
machine that can attempt to build them.
-Use the complain() mechanism for handling all the error() calls in dbxread.c,
-and in similar situations in coffread.c and mipsread.c.
-
When doing "step" or "next", if a few lines of source are skipped between
the previous line and the current one, print those lines, not just the
last line of a multiline statement.
happen when the struct was defined before the superclass (before the
name became a typedef).
-For "float point[15];":
+Handling of "&" address-of operator needs some serious overhaul
+for ANSI C and consistency on arrays and functions.
+ For "float point[15];":
ptype &point[4] ==> Attempt to take address of non-lvalue.
-p &point[4] ==> Dereferences point[4] rather than giving you point+4.
+ For "char *malloc();":
+ptype malloc ==> "char *()"; should be same as
+ptype &malloc ==> "char *(*)()"
+call printf ("%x\n", malloc) ==> weird value, should be same as
+call printf ("%x\n", &malloc) ==> correct value
+
+Fix dbxread.c symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It
+currently leaves a cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a
+QUIT occurs. (What's wrong with that? -kingdon, 28 Oct 1993).
+
+Mipsread.c reads include files depth-first, because the dependencies
+in the psymtabs are way too inclusive (it seems to me). Figure out what
+really depends on what, to avoid recursing 20 or 30 times while reading
+real symtabs.
+
+value_add() should be subtracting the lower bound of arrays, if known,
+and possibly checking against the upper bound for error reporting.
+
+mipsread.c symbol table allocation and deallocation should be checked.
+My suspicion is that it's full of memory leaks.
+
+SunOS should have a target_lookup_symbol() for common'd things allocated
+by the shared library linker ld.so.
+
+When listing source lines, check for a preceding \n, to verify that
+the file hasn't changed out from under us.
+
+When listing source lines, eat leading whitespace corresponding to the
+line-number prefix we print. This avoids long lines wrapping.
+
+mipsread.c needs to check for old symtabs and psymtabs for the same
+files, the way it happens for dbxread.c and coffread.c, for VxWorks
+incremental symbol table reloading.
+
+Get all the remote systems (where the protocol allows it) to be able to
+stop the remote system when the GDB user types ^C (like remote.c
+does). For ebmon, use ^Ak.
+
+Possible feature: A version of the "disassemble" command which shows
+both source and assembly code ("set symbol-filename on" is a partial
+solution).
+
+investigate "x/s 0" (right now stops early) (I think maybe GDB is
+using a 0 address for bad purposes internally).
+
+Make "info path" and path_command work again (but independent of the
+environment either of gdb or that we'll pass to the inferior).
+
+Make GDB understand the GCC feature for putting octal constants in
+enums. Make it so overflow on an enum constant does not error_type
+the whole type. Allow arbitrarily large enums with type attributes.
+Put all this stuff in the testsuite.
+
+Make TYPE_CODE_ERROR with a non-zero TYPE_LENGTH more useful (print
+the value in hex; process type attributes). Add this to the
+testsuite. This way future compilers can add new types and old
+versions of GDB can do something halfway reasonable.
+
+Clean up formatting of "info registers" on MIPS and 88k. See if it
+is possible to do this generically across all target architectures.
+
+GDB gets bfd/corefile.c and gdb/corefile.c confused (this should be easy to
+repeat even with something more recent than GDB 4.9).
+
+Check that unmatched RBRAC doesn't abort().
+
+Fix mdebugread.c:parse_type to do fundamental types right (see
+rs6000_builtin_type in stabsread.c for what "right" is--the point is
+that the debug format fixes the sizes of these things and it shouldn't
+depend on stuff like TARGET_PTR_BIT and so on. For mdebug, there seem
+to be separate bt* codes for 64 bit and 32 bit things, and GDB should
+be aware of that). Also use a switch statement for clarity and speed.
+
+Investigate adding symbols in target_load--some targets do, some
+don't.
+
+Put dirname in psymtabs and change lookup*symtab to use dirname (so
+/foo/bar.c works whether compiled by cc /foo/bar.c, or cd /foo; cc
+bar.c).
+
+Merge xcoffread.c and coffread.c. Use breakpoint_re_set instead of
+fixup_breakpoints.
+
+Fix byte order and int size sins in tm-a29k.h
+(EXTRACT_RETURN_VALUE). Perhaps should reproduce bug and verify fix
+(or perhaps should just fix it...).
+
+Make a watchpoint on a constant expression an error (or warning
+perhaps)
+
+Make a watchpoint which contains a function call an error (it is
+broken now, making it work is probably not worth the effort).
+
+Re-do calls to signal() in remote.c, and inflow.c (set_sigint_trap and
+so on) to be independent of the debugging target, using target_stop to
+stop the inferior. Probably the part which is now handled by
+interrupt_query in remote.c can be done without any new features in
+the debugging target.
+
+New test case based on weird.exp but in which type numbers are not
+renumbered (thus multiply defining a type). This currently causes an
+infinite loop on "p v_comb".
+
+Nuke baseclass_addr.
+
+Nuke USG define.
+
+"source file more recent" loses on re-read
+
+Fix 386 floating point so that floating point registers are real
+registers (but code can deal at run-time if they are missing, like
+mips and 68k). This would clean up "info float" and related stuff.
+
+Look at Solaris bug in interrupt.exp. Can get out of syscall with
+PRSABORT (syscall will return EINTR) but merely doing that leads to a
+"can't read memory" error.
+
+gcc -g -c enummask.c then gdb enummask.o, then "p v". GDB complains
+about not being able to access memory location 0.
+
+-------------------- enummask.c
+enum mask
+{
+ ANIMAL = 0,
+ VEGETABLE = 1,
+ MINERAL = 2,
+ BASIC_CATEGORY = 3,
+
+ WHITE = 0,
+ BLUE = 4,
+ GREEN = 8,
+ BLACK = 0xc,
+ COLOR = 0xc,
+
+ ALIVE = 0x10,
+
+ LARGE = 0x20
+} v;
+
+If try to modify value in file with "set write off" should give
+appropriate error not "cannot access memory at address 0x65e0".
+
+Why do we allow a target to omit standard register names (NO_STD_REGS
+in tm-z8k.h)? I thought the standard register names were supposed to
+be just that, standard.
+
+Make DEBUG_EXPRESSIONS a maintenance command, dependent on
+MAINTENANCE_COMMANDS.
+
+Allow core file without exec file on RS/6000.
+
+Make sure "shell" with no arguments works right on DOS.
+
+Make gdb.ini (as well as .gdbinit) be checked on all platforms, so
+the same directory can be NFS-mounted on unix or DOS, and work the
+same way.
+
+cd ~/tmp/<M-?> causes infinite loop (where ~/tmp is a directory).
+
+Get SECT_OFF_TEXT stuff out of objfile_relocate (might be needed to
+get RS/6000 to work right, might not be immediately relevant).
+
+Clean up add_toc_to_loadinfo
+
+Think about attached processes and sharing terminal.
+
+John sez in reference to ignoring errors from tcsegpgrp if attach_flag:
+set_tty_state should not have any trouble with attached processes.
+Instead, the tty handling should leave the pgrp of the tty alone when
+attaching to processes (perhaps pass terminal_init_inferior a flag
+saying whether we're attaching).
+
+PAGE_SIZE redefined warnings on AIX. Probably should be using
+BFD_PAGE_SIZE throughout BFD.
+
+Rewrite proceed, wait_for_inferior, and normal_stop to clean them up.
+Suggestions:
+
+ 1) Make each test in wait_for_inferior a seperate subroutine
+ call.
+ 2) Combine wait_for_inferior and normal_stop to clean up
+ communication via global variables.
+ 3) See if you can find some way to clean up the global
+ variables that are used; possibly group them by data flow
+ and information content?
+
+Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as
+a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running
+the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require
+some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should
+probably be done in concert with the above.
+
+Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions.
+
+Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file,
+selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame
+line number, etc.
+
+Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb
+while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are
+debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection
+to a server running under gdb.
+
+Add stab information to allow reasonable debugging of inline functions
+(possibly they should show up on a stack backtrace? With a note
+indicating that they weren't "real"?).
+
+Modify the naked "until" command to step until past the current source
+line, rather than past the current pc value. This is tricky simply
+because the low level routines have no way of specifying a multi-line
+step range, and there is no way of saying "don't print stuff when we
+stop" from above (otherwise could just call step many times).
+
+Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to
+allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will
+seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence
+lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is
+accessed.
+
+Do an "x/i $pc" after each stepi or nexti.
+
+Modify all of the disassemblers to use printf_filtered to get correct
+more filtering.
+
+Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal.
-Fix symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It currently leaves a
-cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a QUIT occurs.
+Add a command for searching memory, a la adb. It specifies size,
+mask, value, start address. ADB searches until it finds it or hits
+an error (or is interrupted).
+# Local Variables:
+# mode: text
+# End:
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff