Re: [patch/rfc] Add a sentinel frame

Andrew Cagney
2003-02-19T13:27:46Z

(I hate jet lag, I'm never up at 7am, well ok ...)

> I got back to the mainline/"sentinel" problem and have found that it happens when a program's function is called from a gdb prompt.
>
> To reproduce create a very simple program:
> int func(int arg) { return 2*arg; }
> int main(int argc) { return func(argc); }
>
> Then run mainline GDB on x86-64:
> (gdb) break main
> (gdb) run
> (gdb) print func(1)
> ../../gdb-head/gdb/sentinel-frame.c:102: internal-error: Function sentinal_frame_pop called
> A problem internal to GDB has been detected. Further
> debugging may prove unreliable.
> Quit this debugging session? (y or n)
>
> Attached is a backtrace of this failing GDB.
> Any ideas?

Yes!

> #6 0x00000000005446d1 in sentinel_frame_pop (frame=0x82c100, cache=0x82c130,
> regcache=0x850610) at ../../gdb-head/gdb/sentinel-frame.c:102

At this point GDB is hosed.

As I mentioned before, popping the sentinal frame is meaningless so the
question is, where did that frame come from.

A wild guess is that it is trying to pop the dummy frame having finished
the inferior function call. A confirmation is:

(gdb) break func
(gdb) print func(1)

It should manage to stop in func, the stack being something like
(assuming bt doesn't also internal error :-):

(gdb) bt
.... func ...
.... <dummy-frame> ...
.... main ...

Returning from func(), causing the dummy-frame to be discarded should
then trigger things:

(gdb) finish
... barf ...

Can you confirm that the PC for this frame is falling in the stack dummy?

> #7 0x00000000004e6692 in frame_pop (frame=0x82c100)
> at ../../gdb-head/gdb/frame.c:164

> #8 0x000000000048a3c4 in normal_stop () at ../../gdb-head/gdb/infrun.c:3113

The code reads:

if (stop_stack_dummy)
{
/* Pop the empty frame that contains the stack dummy. POP_FRAME
ends with a setting of the current frame, so we can use that
next. */
frame_pop (get_current_frame ());
/* Set stop_pc to what it was before we called the function.
Can't rely on restore_inferior_status because that only gets
called if we don't stop in the called function. */
stop_pc = read_pc ();
select_frame (get_current_frame ());
}

Hmm, not so good. I was expecting something involving sentinal frames.
Anyway ...

get_current_frame() does the sequence:

if (current_frame == NULL)
{

This is where the sentinel frame comes from.

struct frame_info *sentinel_frame =
create_sentinel_frame (current_regcache);

This is where it tries to unwind it back to the current frame (a dummy
frame in this case). Note that unwind_to_current_frame() calls
get_prev_frame().

if (catch_exceptions (uiout, unwind_to_current_frame, sentinel_frame,
NULL, RETURN_MASK_ERROR) != 0)
{

And if it fails, it does this:

/* Oops! Fake a current frame? Is this useful? It has a PC
of zero, for instance. */
current_frame = sentinel_frame;
}
}

So lets assume that get_prev_frame() is failing. It can do it two ways:

- noisily via an error() call such as when a memory read fails
(I don't think it is this 'cos we'd see that error).
- silently because get_prev_frame() thinks that chaining is invalid
(more likely)

So I think it is one of these tests going awall:

if (next_frame->level >= 0
&& !backtrace_below_main
&& inside_main_func (get_frame_pc (next_frame)))
/* Don't unwind past main(), bug always unwind the sentinel frame.
Note, this is done _before_ the frame has been marked as
previously unwound. That way if the user later decides to
allow unwinds past main(), that just happens. */
return NULL;

/* If we're inside the entry file, it isn't valid. */
/* NOTE: drow/2002-12-25: should there be a way to disable this
check? It assumes a single small entry file, and the way some
debug readers (e.g. dbxread) figure out which object is the
entry file is somewhat hokey. */
/* NOTE: cagney/2003-01-10: If there is a way of disabling this test
then it should probably be moved to before the ->prev_p test,
above. */
if (inside_entry_file (get_frame_pc (next_frame)))
return NULL;

The second looks worrying (the dummy frame breakpoint lives in the entry
file ...). Perhaphs something like:

if (dummy_frame_p (get_frame_pc (next_frame) != NULL
&& inside_entry_file (get_frame_pc (next_frame))
return NULL;

Andrew