RE: [PATCH] plugin patch

["Howell, David P" <david.p.howell@intel.com>]

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Scott Moser wrote:

> Below is a patch to add plugin support to GDB.  It exports a fairly
> simple programmable interface for people to extend the functionality
of
> GDB via runtime loaded shared libraries in ways that may not fit with
> the direction of the main GDB tree (not cross-platform, not stable,
> niche audience...).
For folks like myself that are working on an alternate architecture or 
runtime support components (in this case NGPT threads) this would be 
very useful, as I can see several info commands that I would like to 
add for M:N user mode scheduling state and LWP state display that would 
be unique to NGPT and it's implementation. 

Instead of having to add this to the standard gdb as a one-off for NGPT,
I can use the standard gdb and design them as plug-ins to be loaded only

when debugging NGPT applications. This feels a lot cleaner and could be 
applied for other gdb features/architectures to keep the core as small 
and efficient as possible, loading additional support/features on demand
only when needed.

Thanks,
Dave Howell


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Moser [mailto:ssmoser@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 9:45 AM
To: Eli Zaretskii
Cc: gdb-patches@sources.redhat.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] plugin patch

All,
   I sent a patch to add plugin support to GDB under this subject last
week, and hadn't received a response other than the one below.
   I'll gladly document the plugin in gdbint.texinfo if needed.  IBM
made a copyright assignment agreement previously and I have the required
papers to assign this patch also.

   I don't think that beneficial functionality should be kept from gdb
simply because people might use it in unfriendly ways.  Anyone
interested in taking gdb functionality could still get the GDB source
and highjack that (which would even be less obvious to detect than
shipping a file and telling the user to "plugin load" it within GDB).

   If my patch was submitted incorrectly, there was something else
that I was missing, or anything else I'd need to change/update/add,
please let me know.

   Thanks,
   Scott


On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>
> On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Scott Moser wrote:
>
> > Below is a patch to add plugin support to GDB.  It exports a fairly
> > simple programmable interface for people to extend the functionality
of
> > GDB via runtime loaded shared libraries in ways that may not fit
with
> > the direction of the main GDB tree (not cross-platform, not stable,
> > niche audience...).
>
> IIRC, the FSF doesn't like to add to GNU software support for
dynamically
> loading arbitrary modules (for fear of non-free libraries being used
thru
> this).
>
> In any case, if this is approved, please consider documenting it in
> gdbint.texinfo.  TIA
>
>

Scott Moser
Software Engineer; Linux Technology Center
IBM Corp., Austin, Tx
(512) 838-1533   T/L: 678-1533
ssmoser@us.ibm.com , internal zip: 9812