GDB Focus Group at the 2008 GCC Summit

[Joel Brobecker]

Hello,

we had a couple of 45min sessions where we discussed various items
related to GDB. I took some brief notes, although I might have forgotten
one or two. Anyway, here is what I wrote:

| * Next GDB Release:
| 
|     Lots of new features, but not ready for real release. When
|     the features are in, need a little more maturing time before
|     shipping it in an official release. Suggest next release
|     in 6 months from now (Jan-Feb 2009).
| 
|     For people really interested in trying it out before the official
|     release, perhaps either:
|       - Announce various nightly tarballs that contain the features
|       - Or perhaps create a 6.9 branch but never release 6.9. Just
|         make various pre-releases 6.8.90, 6.8.91, etc.
| 
| * Reverse debugging:
| 
|     4 different implementations, but are starting to converge.
|     We think there is a reasonable chance that this makes 7.0.
| 
| * Calling python function from the CLI:
| 
|     Several possible syntaxes:
|       $(function-name arguments)
|       $function_name (arguments)
| 
|     And also, should be treat the arguments as a simple string,
|     or should we treat each argument as an expression?
| 
|     We reached a consensus and Tom to send it to the gdb list.
| 
| * Python support:
| 
|     Entire work has been split in ~10 patches. Daniel reviewed
|     the patches and 80% of the action items have now been done.
|     Work could be checked in as early as in a month from now.
| 
|     Real issue: Documentation and testsuite.
| 
|     Suggestion: Make sure that the distros build GDB with Python
|     enabled when support is provided in a release.
| 
| * Transition to SVN:
| 
|     Required version (for the client) just released a couple of hours ago:
|     feature allows to checkout a subset of the module (?). There is still
|     no one-line command that allows to check gdb out, so maybe will have
|     a script.
| 
|     Pb: If we want to have a combined tree, we will need to convert
|     binutils, gnulib, etc.
| 
| * Switch to Bugzilla (from gnats):
| 
|     We would like to move to bugzilla, and then need to write somei
|     documentation about the transition, and how to translate old bug
|     numbers into new bug numbers. Use same database as binutils.
| 
| * Using threads inside GDB:
| 
|     Problem: Expression evaluation is synchronous and blocking.
|     While GDB is doing that work, it is not handling other events,
|     which can be a problem in non-stop mode.
|
|     Typical problem is inferior function call that causes two issues:
|       - potential length of time it takes to evaluate
|       - having to re-enter the event loop to wait for function to return.
| 
|     Pedro to think about it and write a proposal. Idea we're gearing
|     towards is one thread that runs the event loop all the time.
| 
| * Fix and continue:
| 
|     Perhaps try to implement this feature through the use of Python.
|     For instance, use python to build a return value, and return that.


-- 
Joel