Remote query for structure layout

[Thomas Weißschuh]

Hi!

On Mo, 2021-03-29T12:05-0400, Simon Marchi wrote:
> On 2021-03-28 7:06 a.m., Thomas Weißschuh wrote:> Hi everybody,
> > I would like to propose a new command for the remote protocol that can be used to
> > query structure layouts.
> > Essentially a `qSymbol` equivalent for the output of `ptype`.
> > 
> I think that would make sense.  We already help the stub look up some
> things in the debugged process using qSymbol, so it would be a bit silly
> to say "now you're on your own to interpret it!".

Good to know, I'll take a shot at it.

> If we go there, we could also help the stub make the link between the
> symbol and its type, so that you don't have to hardcode that symbol
> "foo" is of type "foo_t".  For example, if you could also pass a symbol
> name (like pxCurrentTCB) to qType, you wouldn't have to hardcode its
> type name in the openocd source code, it's one less thing that can go
> wrong.  Or it could be another packet that does symbol name to type
> name, which you then pass to qType.

Would it not make more sense to report the type of a symbol as part of qSymbol?
Gated behind a qSupported flag "qSymbol:type+" or so?

What do you think about the dataformat of the qType response?
Should it be a homegrown textformat or XML which would be much easier to
extend.

Regards,
Thomas