Re: [RFC] link GDB against libunwind-ia64

[Kevin Buettner <kevinb@redhat.com>]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 15:23:23 -0700
Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:

> I'm currently working on a GDB port for ia64-hpux, and I'm having some
> problems with the unwinding of a stacked register. I'm trying to find
> the source of the problem, and part of the investigation lead me to look
> into the libunwind-ia64 code.
> 
> I noticed that GDB uses the libunwind-ia64 shared library without being
> directly linked to it. Instead, it uses dlopen().
> 
> This method has its advantages, but also introduces an extra layer
> of complication that is preventing me from making progress (*): A bug
> in my debugger is causing problems when I am attempting operations such
> as next or step over code inside that library.
> 
> So I'd like to add an option so that GDB is explicitly linked against
> libunwind-ia64, instead of using dlopen(). As a bonus, this may simplify
> our work in terms of binary distribution...
> 
> I was wondering if this would be an interesting enhancement to contribute.

I'm wondering if there's a good reason to preserve the existing
dlopen() mechanism.  In other words, why not always link directly
against libunwind-ia64?

Kevin