Re: [Compile] Inserting compiled code via jumps

[Tom Tromey <tom at tromey dot com>]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Naert <paul.naert@polymtl.ca> writes:

Paul> I am a masters student and I would like to devote my research to
Paul> improving GDB's GCC Compile and Execute by adding the possibility to
Paul> jump directly to the compiled code without having to hit a breakpoint.

Paul> The idea is to reuse the same principle that was used in fast
Paul> tracepoints to insert code in a compiled program, except that instead
Paul> of jumping to GDB's collector function we would execute the code
Paul> compiled by GCC each time we hit the selected instruction.

I am not sure I really understand the idea.

With the "compile" command, we had hopes of someday extending it to
either allow fast breakpoint conditions (by compiling the breakpoint
condition and patching the process); or to allow fix-and-continue
(recompiling a single function and inserting it).

Is your idea like one of these?  If it's different, could you maybe show
an example of how a user would use it?

Paul>    -  Has someone already worked on this ? On the wiki page there are
Paul> mentions to future projects that seem related (fast breakpoint
Paul> conditions most notably)

As far as I know nobody is working on it.

Paul>    -  Do you see any reason why that would not work that I missed,
Paul> except for the limitations of the existing Compile project?

I think it's entirely possible.  I think the main issues involve the
patching -- figuring out how to replace instructions.  Maybe dyninst
could be used to help with the rewriting, or maybe it can be done purely
in gdb.

thanks,
Tom