115 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
115 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
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Suggested projects for aspiring or current GDB hackers
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======================================================
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(You should probably chat with kingdon@ai.mit.edu to make sure that
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no one else is doing the project you chose).
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Add watchpoints (break if a memory location changes). This would
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usually have to involve constant single stepping, but occasionally
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there is operating system support which gdb should be able to cleanly
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use (e.g. on the 80386, there are 4 debug registers. By ptracing an
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address into them, you can get a trap on writes or on reads and
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writes).
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Rewrite proceed, wait_for_inferior, and normal_stop to clean them up.
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Suggestions:
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1) Make each test in wait_for_inferior a seperate subroutine
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call.
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2) Combine wait_for_inferior and normal_stop to clean up
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communication via global variables.
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3) See if you can find some way to clean up the global
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variables that are used; possibly group them by data flow
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and information content?
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Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as
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a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running
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the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require
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some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should
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probably be done in concert with the above.
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Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions.
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Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file,
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selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame
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line number, etc.
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Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb
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while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are
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debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection
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to a server running under gdb.
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Make "handle" understand symbolic signal names.
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Work out and implement a reasonably general mechanism for multi-threaded
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processies. There are parts of one implemented in convex-dep.c, if
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you want an example.
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A standalone version of gdb on the i386 exists. Anyone who wants to
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do some serious working cleaning it up and making it a general
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standalone gdb should contact pace@wheaties.ai.mit.edu.
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Add stab information to allow reasonable debugging of inline functions
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(possibly they should show up on a stack backtrace? With a note
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indicating that they weren't "real"?).
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Implement support for specifying arbitrary locations of stack frames
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(in practice, this usually requires specification of both the top and
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bottom of the stack frame (fp and sp), since you *must* retrieve the
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pc that was saved in the innermost frame).
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Modify the naked "until" command to step until past the current source
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line, rather than past the current pc value. This is tricky simply
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because the low level routines have no way of specifying a multi-line
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step range, and there is no way of saying "don't print stuff when we
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stop" from above (otherwise could just call step many times).
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Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to
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allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will
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seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence
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lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is
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accessed.
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Work out some method of saving breakpoints across the reloading of an
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executable. Probably this should be by saving the commands by which
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the breakpoints were set and re-executing them (as text locations may
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change).
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Do an "x/i $pc" after each stepi or nexti.
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Modify all of the disassemblers to use printf_filtered to get correct
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more filtering.
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Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal.
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Rewrite macros that handle frame chaining and frameless functions.
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They should be able to tell the difference between start, main, and a
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frameless function called from main.
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Work out what information would need to be included in an executable
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by the compiler to allow gdb to debug functions which do not have a
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frame pointer. Modify gdb and gcc to do this.
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When `attached' to a program (via either OS support or remote
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debugging), gdb should arrange to catch signals which the terminal
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might send, as it is unlikely that the program will be able to notice
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them. SIGINT and SIGTSTP are obvious examples.
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Enhance the gdb manual with extra examples where needed.
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Arrange for list_command not to use decode_line_1 and thus not require
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symbols to be read in simply to read a source file.
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Problem in xgdb; the readline library needs the terminal in CBREAK
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mode for command line editing, but this makes it difficult to dispatch
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on button presses. Possible solution: use a define to replace getc in
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readline.c with a routine that does button dispatches. You should
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probably see XGDB-README before you fiddle with XGDB. Also, someone
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is implementing a new xgdb; it may not be worth while fiddling with
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the old one.
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# Local Variables:
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# mode: text
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# End:
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