Re: [RFC] GDB ARIndex Linux rule cleanup

Ulrich Weigand
2009-04-15T18:55:13Z

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:34:08 +0200 (CEST)
> > From: "Ulrich Weigand" <uweigand@de.ibm.com>
> > Cc: muller@ics.u-strasbg.fr, brobecker@adacore.com, gdb-patches@sourceware.org,
> > gdb@sourceware.org
> >
> > Yes, the ppc-linux-tdep.c file, which defines the gdbarch struct to be used
> > when debugging an application built for GNU/Linux on the PowerPC platform,
> > in either native, remote, or core file debugging mode.
> >
> > In fact, in this specific file, some elements of the gdbarch struct are
> > clearly kernel-related (e.g. the ppc_linux_write_pc method to properly
> > restart interrupted system calls, or the signal trampoline unwinders), some
> > elements have nothing whatsoever to do with the kernel (e.g. the
> > ppc_linux_memory_remove_breakpoint method that deals with the fact that
> > ld.so on powerpc modifies code, or the ppc64_skip_trampoline_code method
> > which recognizes linker-generated stubs, or the
> > ppc64_linux_convert_from_func_ptr_addr method that interprets the function
> > pointer ABI), and some could be considered either way (e.g. the core file
> > register set definitions -- a core file may be generated by the kernel,
> > but also other tools, including GDB itself).
>
> The point is that the elements that are unrelated to the Linux kernel
> are also unrelated to GNU.

I was replying to your statement that

I think GDB's "target" is always the OS kernel, not the OS itself.

with the point that all those elements are related to, and in fact defined
by, the *target operating system*; the OS defines the ABI applications
need to use, and in the GNU/Linux case, even provides the toolchain and
system libraries that implement those elements.

Bye,
Ulrich

--
Dr. Ulrich Weigand
GNU Toolchain for Linux on System z and Cell BE
Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com