Re: [RFA/RFC] Replace call_ptrace and ptrace_wait in inf-ptrace.c

[Andrew Cagney <cagney@gnu.org>]

>    Either way we'll end up with casts:
> 	   CORE_ADDR -> (void *)
> 	   (void *) -> long
>    etc, why not have methods that at least avoid the casts (or do it 
>    locally to GDB's ptrace code?).
> 
> The problem here is that the third argument of ptrace is used for two
> purposes:

> 1. For specifying memory addresses of objects in the debugger's
>    address space (PT_GETREGS, PT_SETREGS, PT_IO).
>
> 2. For specifying memory addresses in the inferior.
> 
> This gets especially complicated with 32x64 "native" cross-debugging
> and is further complicated by the fact that some systems use an
> integer type and other systems use a pointer type for this third
> arguments.

Right, no matter what a single function is, casing is required.

> I've tried to come up with a function signature for
> gdb_ptrace() that would work for all targets, and I failed.

With two ptrace functions, one with void* (for host buffer) and one with 
CORE_ADDR (for target address), this problem would be solved.

Andrew