gdb/TODO

   1 If you find inaccuracies in this list, please send mail to
   2 gdb-patches@sources.redhat.com.  If you would like to work on any
   3 of these, you should consider sending mail to the same address, to
   4 find out whether anyone else is working on it.
   5
   6
   7                         GDB 5.1 - Fixes
   8                         ===============
   9
  10 Below is a list of problems identified during the GDB 5.0 release
  11 cycle.  People hope to have these problems fixed in 5.1.
  12
  13 --
  14
  15 Wow, three bug reports for the same problem in one day!  We should
  16 probably make fixing this a real priority :-).
  17
  18 Anyway, thanks for reporting.
  19
  20 The following patch will fix the problems with setting breakpoints in
  21 dynamically loaded objects:
  22
  23    http://sources.redhat.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-05/msg00230.html
  24
  25 This patch isn't checked in yet (ping Michael/JimB), but I hope this
  26 will be in the next GDB release.
  27
  28 There should really be a test in the testsuite for this problem, since
  29 it keeps coming up :-(.  Any volunteers?
  30
  31 Mark
  32
  33 --
  34
  35                 GDB 5.1 - New features
  36                 ======================
  37
  38 The following new features should be included in 5.1.
  39
  40 --
  41
  42                 GDB 5.1 - Cleanups
  43                 ==================
  44
  45 The following code cleanups will hopefully be applied to GDB 5.1.
  46
  47 --
  48
  49                 GDB 5.1 - Known Problems
  50                 ========================
  51
  52 --
  53
  54 z8k
  55
  56 The z8k has suffered bit rot and is known to not build.  The problem
  57 was occuring in the opcodes directory.
  58
  59 --
  60
  61 The BFD directory requires bug-fixed AUTOMAKE et.al.
  62
  63 AUTOMAKE 1.4 incorrectly set the TEXINPUTS environment variable.  It
  64 contained the full path to texinfo.tex when it should have only
  65 contained the directory.  The bug has been fixed in the current
  66 AUTOMAKE sources.  Automake snapshots can be found in:
  67         ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/gdb/infrastructure
  68 and     ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/binutils
  69
  70 --
  71
  72 Solaris 8 x86 CURSES_H problem
  73 http://sources.redhat.com/ml/gdb/2000-07/msg00038.html
  74
  75 The original problem was worked around with:
  76
  77     2000-06-06  Michael Snyder  <msnyder@cygnus.com>
  78
  79         * configure.in: Enable autoconf to find curses.h on Solaris 2.8.
  80         * configure: Regenerate.
  81
  82 When building both GDB and SID using the same source tree the problem
  83 will still occure. sid/component/configure.in mis-configures
  84 <curses.h> and leaves wrong information in the config cache.
  85
  86 --
  87
  88                 GDB 5.2 - Fixes
  89                 ===============
  90
  91 --
  92
  93                 GDB 5.2 - New features
  94                 ======================
  95
  96 --
  97
  98 GCC 3.0 ABI support (but hopefully sooner...).
  99
 100 --
 101
 102 Objective C/C++ support (but hopefully sooner...).
 103
 104 --
 105
 106 Import of readline 4.2
 107
 108 --
 109
 110                 GDB 5.2 - Cleanups
 111                 ==================
 112
 113 The following cleanups have been identified as part of GDB 5.2.
 114
 115 --
 116
 117 Compiler warnings.
 118
 119 Eliminate warnings for all targets on at least one host for one of the
 120 -W flags.  Flags up for debate include: -Wswitch -Wcomment -trigraphs
 121 -Wtrigraphs -Wunused-function -Wunused-label -Wunused-variable
 122 -Wunused-value -Wchar-subscripts -Wtraditional -Wshadow -Wcast-qual
 123 -Wcast-align -Wwrite-strings -Wconversion -Wstrict-prototypes
 124 -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wredundant-decls
 125 -Woverloaded-virtual -Winline
 126
 127 --
 128
 129 Deprecate, if not delete, the following:
 130
 131         register[]
 132         register_valid[]
 133         REGISTER_BYTE()
 134                 Replaced by, on the target side
 135                   supply_register()
 136                 and on core-gdb side:
 137                   {read,write}_register_gen()
 138                 Remote.c will need to use something
 139                 other than REGISTER_BYTE() and
 140                 REGISTER_RAW_SIZE() when unpacking
 141                 [gG] packets.
 142
 143         STORE_PSEUDO_REGISTER
 144         FETCH_PSEUDO_REGISTER
 145                 Now handed by the methods
 146                   gdbarch_{read,write}_register()
 147                 which sits between core GDB and
 148                 the register cache.
 149
 150         REGISTER_CONVERTIBLE
 151         REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW
 152         REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL
 153                 I think these three are redundant.
 154                 gdbarch_register_{read,write} can
 155                 do any conversion it likes.
 156
 157         REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE
 158         MAX_REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE
 159         REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE
 160                 I think these can be replaced by
 161                 the pair:
 162                   FRAME_REGISTER_TYPE(frame, regnum)
 163                   REGISTER_TYPE(regnum)
 164
 165         DO_REGISTERS_INFO
 166                 Replace with
 167                  FRAME_REGISTER_INFO (frame, ...)
 168
 169         REGISTER_SIM_REGNO()
 170                 If nothing else rename this so that
 171                 how it relates to rawreg and the
 172                 regnum is clear.
 173
 174         REGISTER_BYTES
 175                 The size of the cache can be computed
 176                 on the fly.
 177
 178 --
 179
 180 Obsolete the targets:
 181
 182 arm*-wince-pe
 183 mips*-*-pe
 184 sh*-*-pe
 185
 186 --
 187
 188 Obsolete the protocols:
 189
 190 RDB?
 191
 192 ``As of version 5.3, WindRiver has removed the RDB server (RDB
 193 protocol support is built into gdb).''  -- Till.
 194
 195 --
 196
 197 Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14
 198 filename problems.
 199
 200 --
 201
 202 Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE.
 203
 204 See also sub-directory configure below.
 205
 206 The current convention is (kind of) to use $(<header>_h) in all
 207 dependency lists.  It isn't done in a consistent way.
 208
 209 --
 210
 211                 GDB 5.2 - Known Problems
 212                 ========================
 213
 214 --
 215
 216                 Code Cleanups: General
 217                 ======================
 218
 219 The following are more general cleanups and fixes.  They are not tied
 220 to any specific release.
 221
 222
 223                         New Features and Fixes
 224                         ======================
 225
 226 These are harder than cleanups but easier than work involving
 227 fundamental architectural change.
 228
 229 --
 230
 231                         Language Support
 232                         ================
 233
 234 New languages come onto the scene all the time.
 235
 236 --
 237
 238 Re: Various C++ things
 239
 240 RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the
 241 vtables.  The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the
 242 beginning of the vtable, and are always right. The vtables will have
 243 weird names like E::VB sometimes.  The typeinfo function will always
 244 be "E type_info function", or somesuch.
 245
 246 value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for
 247 virtual functions for C++ using g++.
 248
 249 Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support,
 250 since i have to make a lot of changes that could potentially break
 251 each other.
 252
 253 --
 254
 255
 256                         Symbol Support
 257                         ==============
 258
 259 --
 260
 261 Investiagate ways of reducing memory.
 262
 263 --
 264
 265 Investigate ways of improving load time.
 266
 267 --
 268
 269                         Testsuite Support
 270                         =================
 271
 272 There are never to many testcases.
 273
 274 --
 275
 276 Better thread testsuite.
 277
 278 --
 279
 280 Better C++ testsuite.
 281
 282 --
 283
 284                 Architectural Changes: General
 285                 ==============================
 286
 287 These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently
 288 involve more work.  Typically an Architectural Change will be broken
 289 down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes.
 290
 291 --
 292
 293                 Architectural Change: Multi-arch et al.
 294                 =======================================
 295
 296 The long term objective is to remove all assumptions that there is a
 297 single target with a single address space with a single instruction
 298 set architecture and single application binary interface.
 299
 300 This is an ongoing effort.  The first milestone is to enable
 301 ``multi-arch'' where by all architectural decisions are made at
 302 runtime.
 303
 304 It should be noted that ``gdbarch'' is really ``gdbabi'' and
 305 ``gdbisa''.  Once things are multi-arched breaking that down correctly
 306 will become much easier.
 307
 308 --
 309
 310         Architectural Change: MI, LIBGDB and scripting languages
 311         ========================================================
 312
 313 See also architectural changes related to the event loop.  LIBGDB
 314 can't be finished until there is a generic event loop being used by
 315 all targets.
 316
 317 The long term objective is it to be possible to integrate GDB into
 318 scripting languages.
 319
 320 --
 321
 322                 Architectural Change: Async
 323                 ===========================
 324
 325 While GDB uses an event loop when prompting the user for input.  That
 326 event loop is not exploited by targets when they allow the target
 327 program to continue.  Typically targets still block in (target_wait())
 328 until the program again halts.
 329
 330 The closest a target comes to supporting full asynchronous mode are
 331 the remote targets ``async'' and ``extended-async''.
 332
 333 --
 334
 335 # Local Variables:
 336 # mode: text
 337 # End: