+
+ Suggested projects for aspiring or current GDB hackers
+ ======================================================
+
+ (You should probably chat with kingdon@ai.mit.edu to make sure that
+ no one else is doing the project you chose).
+
+Add watchpoints (break if a memory location changes). This would
+usually have to involve constant single stepping, but occasionally
+there is operating system support which gdb should be able to cleanly
+use (e.g. on the 80386, there are 4 debug registers. By ptracing an
+address into them, you can get a trap on writes or on reads and
+writes).
+
+Rewrite proceed, wait_for_inferior, and normal_stop to clean them up.
+Suggestions:
+
+ 1) Make each test in wait_for_inferior a seperate subroutine
+ call.
+ 2) Combine wait_for_inferior and normal_stop to clean up
+ communication via global variables.
+ 3) See if you can find some way to clean up the global
+ variables that are used; possibly group them by data flow
+ and information content?
+
+Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as
+a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running
+the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require
+some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should
+probably be done in concert with the above.
+
+Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions.
+
+Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file,
+selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame
+line number, etc.
+
+Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb
+while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are
+debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection
+to a server running under gdb.
+
+Make "handle" understand symbolic signal names.
+
+Work out and implement a reasonably general mechanism for multi-threaded
+processies. There are parts of one implemented in convex-dep.c, if
+you want an example.
+
+A standalone version of gdb on the i386 exists. Anyone who wants to
+do some serious working cleaning it up and making it a general
+standalone gdb should contact pace@wheaties.ai.mit.edu.
+
+Add stab information to allow reasonable debugging of inline functions
+(possibly they should show up on a stack backtrace? With a note
+indicating that they weren't "real"?).
+
+Implement support for specifying arbitrary locations of stack frames
+(in practice, this usually requires specification of both the top and
+bottom of the stack frame (fp and sp), since you *must* retrieve the
+pc that was saved in the innermost frame).
+
+Modify the naked "until" command to step until past the current source
+line, rather than past the current pc value. This is tricky simply
+because the low level routines have no way of specifying a multi-line
+step range, and there is no way of saying "don't print stuff when we
+stop" from above (otherwise could just call step many times).
+
+Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to
+allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will
+seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence
+lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is
+accessed.
+
+Work out some method of saving breakpoints across the reloading of an
+executable. Probably this should be by saving the commands by which
+the breakpoints were set and re-executing them (as text locations may
+change).
+
+Do an "x/i $pc" after each stepi or nexti.
+
+Modify all of the disassemblers to use printf_filtered to get correct
+more filtering.
+
+Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal.
+
+Rewrite macros that handle frame chaining and frameless functions.
+They should be able to tell the difference between start, main, and a
+frameless function called from main.
+
+Work out what information would need to be included in an executable
+by the compiler to allow gdb to debug functions which do not have a
+frame pointer. Modify gdb and gcc to do this.
+
+When `attached' to a program (via either OS support or remote
+debugging), gdb should arrange to catch signals which the terminal
+might send, as it is unlikely that the program will be able to notice
+them. SIGINT and SIGTSTP are obvious examples.
+
+Enhance the gdb manual with extra examples where needed.
+
+Arrange for list_command not to use decode_line_1 and thus not require
+symbols to be read in simply to read a source file.
+
+Problem in xgdb; the readline library needs the terminal in CBREAK
+mode for command line editing, but this makes it difficult to dispatch
+on button presses. Possible solution: use a define to replace getc in
+readline.c with a routine that does button dispatches. You should
+probably see XGDB-README before you fiddle with XGDB. Also, someone
+is implementing a new xgdb; it may not be worth while fiddling with
+the old one.
+
+# Local Variables:
+# mode: text
+# End:
projects / unix-history / commitdiff