RFC: should MIPS gas have a -mlong switch?

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Fri, Oct 04, 2002 at 02:45:31PM +0100, Richard Sandiford wrote:
> I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I can't seem
> to find anything in the archives...
> 
> What do folks think about adding -mlong options to MIPS
> gas and storing the long size in the header flags?
> It'd give tighter linker checking, and would allow
> the GDB command line to handle "(long)" correctly.

Only the former should be a problem... or debugging something written
entirely in assembly.  GCC outputs the size of a long:
 <1><10d>: Abbrev Number: 13 (DW_TAG_base_type)
     DW_AT_name        : (indirect string, offset: 0xe4b6): long int    
     DW_AT_byte_size   : 4      
     DW_AT_encoding    : 5      (signed)

[GDB doesn't correctly use that now, but that's a different problem.]

> 3. Don't do it.  Get GCC to emit a .gcc_compiled_longXX
>    section instead.
> 
>    Pro: backwards compatible, doesn't need gas to have a -mlong option.
>    Con: perpetuates an old hack.

That looks like it only has the GDB benefit; and you can get that an
easier/more correct way.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer