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 Remove old code that does not use ui_out functions and all the related
 118 "ifdef"s.  This also allows the elimination of -DUI_OUT from
 119 Makefile.in and configure.in.
 120
 121 --
 122
 123 Compiler warnings.
 124
 125 Eliminate warnings for all targets on at least one host for one of the
 126 -W flags.  Flags up for debate include: -Wswitch -Wcomment -trigraphs
 127 -Wtrigraphs -Wunused-function -Wunused-label -Wunused-variable
 128 -Wunused-value -Wchar-subscripts -Wtraditional -Wshadow -Wcast-qual
 129 -Wcast-align -Wwrite-strings -Wconversion -Wstrict-prototypes
 130 -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wredundant-decls
 131 -Woverloaded-virtual -Winline
 132
 133 --
 134
 135 Deprecate, if not delete, the following:
 136
 137         register[]
 138         register_valid[]
 139         REGISTER_BYTE()
 140                 Replaced by, on the target side
 141                   supply_register()
 142                 and on core-gdb side:
 143                   {read,write}_register_gen()
 144                 Remote.c will need to use something
 145                 other than REGISTER_BYTE() and
 146                 REGISTER_RAW_SIZE() when unpacking
 147                 [gG] packets.
 148
 149         STORE_PSEUDO_REGISTER
 150         FETCH_PSEUDO_REGISTER
 151                 Now handed by the methods
 152                   gdbarch_{read,write}_register()
 153                 which sits between core GDB and
 154                 the register cache.
 155
 156         REGISTER_CONVERTIBLE
 157         REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_RAW
 158         REGISTER_CONVERT_TO_VIRTUAL
 159                 I think these three are redundant.
 160                 gdbarch_register_{read,write} can
 161                 do any conversion it likes.
 162
 163         REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE
 164         MAX_REGISTER_VIRTUAL_SIZE
 165         REGISTER_VIRTUAL_TYPE
 166                 I think these can be replaced by
 167                 the pair:
 168                   FRAME_REGISTER_TYPE(frame, regnum)
 169                   REGISTER_TYPE(regnum)
 170
 171         DO_REGISTERS_INFO
 172                 Replace with
 173                  FRAME_REGISTER_INFO (frame, ...)
 174
 175         REGISTER_SIM_REGNO()
 176                 If nothing else rename this so that
 177                 how it relates to rawreg and the
 178                 regnum is clear.
 179
 180         REGISTER_BYTES
 181                 The size of the cache can be computed
 182                 on the fly.
 183
 184         IS_TRAPPED_INTERNALVAR
 185                 The pseudo registers should eventually make
 186                 this redundant.
 187
 188 --
 189
 190 Obsolete the targets:
 191
 192 arm*-wince-pe
 193 mips*-*-pe
 194 sh*-*-pe
 195
 196 --
 197
 198 Obsolete the protocols:
 199
 200 RDB?
 201
 202 ``As of version 5.3, WindRiver has removed the RDB server (RDB
 203 protocol support is built into gdb).''  -- Till.
 204
 205 --
 206
 207 Restructure gdb directory tree so that it avoids any 8.3 and 14
 208 filename problems.
 209
 210 --
 211
 212 Convert GDB build process to AUTOMAKE.
 213
 214 See also sub-directory configure below.
 215
 216 The current convention is (kind of) to use $(<header>_h) in all
 217 dependency lists.  It isn't done in a consistent way.
 218
 219 --
 220
 221                 GDB 5.2 - Known Problems
 222                 ========================
 223
 224 --
 225
 226                 Code Cleanups: General
 227                 ======================
 228
 229 The following are more general cleanups and fixes.  They are not tied
 230 to any specific release.
 231
 232
 233                         New Features and Fixes
 234                         ======================
 235
 236 These are harder than cleanups but easier than work involving
 237 fundamental architectural change.
 238
 239 --
 240
 241                         Language Support
 242                         ================
 243
 244 New languages come onto the scene all the time.
 245
 246 --
 247
 248 Re: Various C++ things
 249
 250 value_headof/value_from_vtable_info are worthless, and should be
 251 removed.  The one place in printcmd.c that uses it should use the RTTI
 252 functions.
 253
 254 RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the
 255 vtables.  The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the
 256 beginning of the vtable, and are always right. The vtables will have
 257 weird names like E::VB sometimes.  The typeinfo function will always
 258 be "E type_info function", or somesuch.
 259
 260 value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for
 261 virtual functions for C++ using g++.
 262
 263 Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support,
 264 since i have to make a lot of changes that could potentially break
 265 each other.
 266
 267 --
 268
 269
 270                         Symbol Support
 271                         ==============
 272
 273 --
 274
 275 Investiagate ways of reducing memory.
 276
 277 --
 278
 279 Investigate ways of improving load time.
 280
 281 --
 282
 283                         Testsuite Support
 284                         =================
 285
 286 There are never to many testcases.
 287
 288 --
 289
 290 Better thread testsuite.
 291
 292 --
 293
 294 Better C++ testsuite.
 295
 296 --
 297
 298                 Architectural Changes: General
 299                 ==============================
 300
 301 These are harder than simple cleanups / fixes and, consequently
 302 involve more work.  Typically an Architectural Change will be broken
 303 down into a more digestible set of cleanups and fixes.
 304
 305 --
 306
 307                 Architectural Change: Multi-arch et al.
 308                 =======================================
 309
 310 The long term objective is to remove all assumptions that there is a
 311 single target with a single address space with a single instruction
 312 set architecture and single application binary interface.
 313
 314 This is an ongoing effort.  The first milestone is to enable
 315 ``multi-arch'' where by all architectural decisions are made at
 316 runtime.
 317
 318 It should be noted that ``gdbarch'' is really ``gdbabi'' and
 319 ``gdbisa''.  Once things are multi-arched breaking that down correctly
 320 will become much easier.
 321
 322 --
 323
 324         Architectural Change: MI, LIBGDB and scripting languages
 325         ========================================================
 326
 327 See also architectural changes related to the event loop.  LIBGDB
 328 can't be finished until there is a generic event loop being used by
 329 all targets.
 330
 331 The long term objective is it to be possible to integrate GDB into
 332 scripting languages.
 333
 334 --
 335
 336                 Architectural Change: Async
 337                 ===========================
 338
 339 While GDB uses an event loop when prompting the user for input.  That
 340 event loop is not exploited by targets when they allow the target
 341 program to continue.  Typically targets still block in (target_wait())
 342 until the program again halts.
 343
 344 The closest a target comes to supporting full asynchronous mode are
 345 the remote targets ``async'' and ``extended-async''.
 346
 347 --
 348
 349 # Local Variables:
 350 # mode: text
 351 # End: