RE: [PATCH v2 2/2] gdb: add warning when no native target is available

Ciaran Woodward
2026-01-09T12:37:16Z

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Guinevere Larsen <guinevere@redhat.com>
>
> When a user starts GDB, they have no way of knowing if native debugging
> will be supported or not. This is most relevant for Mac users, since
> GDB hasn't been ported to Apple's CPUs yet.
>
> This patch adds a warning if, after initializing all files, GDB was
> unable to find an appropriate native target for the session, informing
> the user that they will only be able to debug remotely.

Thanks for continuing to focus on usability :)

I thought I would add my perspective as a primarily embedded developer. Most
of the GDBs I use are "cross GDBs", for debugging embedded targets that
can't run GDB themselves. These get configured by having a different HOST
and TARGET in the build config, and I tend to think that usually its quite
clear that you're using one instead of your system GDB.

I think for such debuggers, it would be good to have this warning suppressed,
since users usually obtain it as part of a tool suite for that same platform,
so wouldn't be expected to get reminded that they can't use it to debug host
programs.

Thanks,
Ciaran