Re: [RFC] PR 20939: Handle error in disassembly

Pedro Alves
2016-12-14T17:31:23Z

On 12/12/2016 10:48 AM, Yao Qi wrote:
> Hi,
> GDB calls some APIs from opcodes to do disassembly and provide some
> call backs. This model makes troubles on C++ exception unwinding,
> because GDB is a C++ program, and opcodes is still compiled as C.
> As we can see, frame #10 and #12 are C++, while #frame 11 is C,
>
> #10 0x0000000000544228 in memory_error (err=TARGET_XFER_E_IO, memaddr=<optimized out>) at ../../binutils-gdb/gdb/corefile.c:237
> #11 0x00000000006b0a54 in print_insn_aarch64 (pc=0, info=0xffffffffeeb0) at ../../binutils-gdb/opcodes/aarch64-dis.c:3185
> #12 0x0000000000553590 in gdb_pretty_print_insn (gdbarch=gdbarch@entry=0xbbceb0, uiout=uiout@entry=0xbc73d0, di=di@entry=0xffffffffeeb0,
> insn=0xffffffffed40, insn@entry=0xffffffffed90, flags=flags@entry=0,
>
> C++ exception unwinder can't go across frame #11 unless it has
> unwind table. However, C program on many architectures doesn't
> have it in default. As a result, GDB aborts, which is described
> in PR 20939.
>
> This is not the first time we see this kind of problem. We've
> had a commit 89525768cd086a0798a504c81fdf7ebcd4c904e1
> "Propagate GDB/C++ exceptions across readline using sj/lj-based TRY/CATCH".
> We can fix the disassembly bug in a similar way, this is the option one.
>
> Alternatively, we can do more changes in opcodes, because opcodes is
> built together with gdb. Don't throw exception in dis_asm_memory_error,
> and only throw exception if the return value of print_insn_$ARCH is -1
> in GDB. This is the option two, which is demonstrated by the patch
> below. This requires every print_insn_$ARCH function return -1 on
> memory error, but msp430 and m68k don't follow this convention yet.
>
> Which option do you prefer? If we prefer option one, the change is
> only within the GDB scope. If we prefer option two, it goes out to
> opcodes, and I'll bring the discussion to binutils. I prefer this
> one.

Did you try to find the discussions around when the current
interface based on throwing (using longjmp at the time) was added?
Maybe the "return -1" option was considered back then, but
discarded for some reason?

E.g., looks like simply "return -1" would lose the actual
address that failed to be read, in case opcodes does several
reads in sequence and its not the first that fails. We could
add some other means to get at that, of course.

>
> Note that, no matter which option do we take, the fix should be
> backported to 7.12 branch, in which GDB can still be built as a C
> program.
>

Thanks,
Pedro Alves