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         IS_TRAPPED_INTERNALVAR
 179                 The pseudo registers should eventually make
 180                 this redundant.
 181
 182 --
 183
 184 Obsolete the targets:
 185
 186 arm*-wince-pe
 187 mips*-*-pe
 188 sh*-*-pe
 189
 190 --
 191
 192 Obsolete the protocols:
 193
 194 RDB?
 195
 196 ``As of version 5.3, WindRiver has removed the RDB server (RDB
 197 protocol support is built into gdb).''  -- Till.
 198
 199 --
 200
 201 Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14
 202 filename problems.
 203
 204 --
 205
 206 Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE.
 207
 208 See also sub-directory configure below.
 209
 210 The current convention is (kind of) to use $(<header>_h) in all
 211 dependency lists.  It isn't done in a consistent way.
 212
 213 --
 214
 215                 GDB 5.2 - Known Problems
 216                 ========================
 217
 218 --
 219
 220                 Code Cleanups: General
 221                 ======================
 222
 223 The following are more general cleanups and fixes.  They are not tied
 224 to any specific release.
 225
 226
 227                         New Features and Fixes
 228                         ======================
 229
 230 These are harder than cleanups but easier than work involving
 231 fundamental architectural change.
 232
 233 --
 234
 235                         Language Support
 236                         ================
 237
 238 New languages come onto the scene all the time.
 239
 240 --
 241
 242 Re: Various C++ things
 243
 244 RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the
 245 vtables.  The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the
 246 beginning of the vtable, and are always right. The vtables will have
 247 weird names like E::VB sometimes.  The typeinfo function will always
 248 be "E type_info function", or somesuch.
 249
 250 value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for
 251 virtual functions for C++ using g++.
 252
 253 Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support,
 254 since i have to make a lot of changes that could potentially break
 255 each other.
 256
 257 --
 258
 259
 260                         Symbol Support
 261                         ==============
 262
 263 --
 264
 265 Investiagate ways of reducing memory.
 266
 267 --
 268
 269 Investigate ways of improving load time.
 270
 271 --
 272
 273                         Testsuite Support
 274                         =================
 275
 276 There are never to many testcases.
 277
 278 --
 279
 280 Better thread testsuite.
 281
 282 --
 283
 284 Better C++ testsuite.
 285
 286 --
 287
 288                 Architectural Changes: General
 289                 ==============================
 290
 291 These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently
 292 involve more work.  Typically an Architectural Change will be broken
 293 down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes.
 294
 295 --
 296
 297                 Architectural Change: Multi-arch et al.
 298                 =======================================
 299
 300 The long term objective is to remove all assumptions that there is a
 301 single target with a single address space with a single instruction
 302 set architecture and single application binary interface.
 303
 304 This is an ongoing effort.  The first milestone is to enable
 305 ``multi-arch'' where by all architectural decisions are made at
 306 runtime.
 307
 308 It should be noted that ``gdbarch'' is really ``gdbabi'' and
 309 ``gdbisa''.  Once things are multi-arched breaking that down correctly
 310 will become much easier.
 311
 312 --
 313
 314         Architectural Change: MI, LIBGDB and scripting languages
 315         ========================================================
 316
 317 See also architectural changes related to the event loop.  LIBGDB
 318 can't be finished until there is a generic event loop being used by
 319 all targets.
 320
 321 The long term objective is it to be possible to integrate GDB into
 322 scripting languages.
 323
 324 --
 325
 326                 Architectural Change: Async
 327                 ===========================
 328
 329 While GDB uses an event loop when prompting the user for input.  That
 330 event loop is not exploited by targets when they allow the target
 331 program to continue.  Typically targets still block in (target_wait())
 332 until the program again halts.
 333
 334 The closest a target comes to supporting full asynchronous mode are
 335 the remote targets ``async'' and ``extended-async''.
 336
 337 --
 338
 339 # Local Variables:
 340 # mode: text
 341 # End: