From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 22772 invoked by alias); 6 Mar 2011 18:54:03 -0000 Received: (qmail 22763 invoked by uid 22791); 6 Mar 2011 18:54:03 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-6.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI,SPF_HELO_PASS,T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from mx1.redhat.com (HELO mx1.redhat.com) (209.132.183.28) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:53:59 +0000 Received: from int-mx02.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (int-mx02.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.11.12]) by mx1.redhat.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p26IrwlR028784 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK) for ; Sun, 6 Mar 2011 13:53:58 -0500 Received: from host1.jankratochvil.net (ovpn01.gateway.prod.ext.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.9.1]) by int-mx02.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id p26IruPO013525 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sun, 6 Mar 2011 13:53:57 -0500 Received: from host1.jankratochvil.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by host1.jankratochvil.net (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p26IrtjX023315; Sun, 6 Mar 2011 19:53:55 +0100 Received: (from jkratoch@localhost) by host1.jankratochvil.net (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id p26Irtqa023313; Sun, 6 Mar 2011 19:53:55 +0100 Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:05:00 -0000 From: Jan Kratochvil To: Michael Snyder Cc: "gdb-patches@sourceware.org" Subject: Re: [RFA] mdebugread.c (psymtab_to_symtab_1): assert that 'fh' is not null Message-ID: <20110306185355.GB22789@host1.jankratochvil.net> References: <4D71648B.1090101@vmware.com> <20110306142337.GB1895@host1.jankratochvil.net> <4D73D67F.1030704@vmware.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4D73D67F.1030704@vmware.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gdb-patches-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-patches-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2011-03/txt/msg00405.txt.bz2 On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:46:23 +0100, Michael Snyder wrote: > All these recent submissions of mine are coming from running Coverity > on gdb. In this case, Coverity reports that we checked the variable fh > for null (suggesting that we think null is possible), but then > dereferenced it on an unchecked path. > > I figured that triggering an assert was more gracefull than just > crashing on a null pointer dereference, and gives the user the chance > to recover. I agree from the user point of view it may be (slightly) better (*). But from the GDB developers point of view this change without any specific code comment is not acceptable (as explained in my mail) as it confuses the code readers. I would find perfect: /* FIXME: FH may be NULL here but the code below cannot handle it. */ gdb_assert (fh); Thanks, Jan (*) In fact I like the crash from the Fedora point of view better as ABRT (Automatic Bug Reporting Tool) will automatically report it. In the case of a failed gdb_assert the user may or may not allow the core dump and therefore the crash bugreport by ABRT may be suppressed. A problem internal to GDB has been detected, further debugging may prove unreliable. Create a core file of GDB? (y or n) n This is just FYI and it should not be related to FSF GDB maintenance.