Re: GDB plugin

Abhijit Halder
2012-05-08T05:46:27Z

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 1:48 AM, Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> wrote:
>>>>>> "Abhijit" == Abhijit Halder <abhijit.k.halder@gmail.com> writes:
>
> Abhijit> Is there any way to load a GDB plugin (shared library having extended
> Abhijit> functionality) in current GDB? I am planning to develop one. Need
> Abhijit> yours opinion on this.
>
> There is a little bit of this for the JIT functionality.
>
> Generic plugins are trouble because they tend to fix the API -- but we
> want to be able to change the API as needed.  The JIT approach avoided
> this by exporting a custom, minimal API.
>
> What exactly are you planning to do?
>
I am planning to introduce a pluggin command in GDB which will give a
flexibility to a GDB user to develop his/her own GDB extension (e.g.
GDB-ext.so). The extension may have new and/or extended functionality
like support for new languages and platforms and custom GDB-command.
The extension can be loaded by this newly proposed plugin command.

I am not completely aware of the limitation of this approach, but it
makes me happy thinking that the GDB users who want to extend GDB
functionality but are not well accustomed with GDB source code, can
still write their own pluggins and use an enhanced GDB without the
pain of recompilation of entire GDB source code.

Thanks,
Abhijit Halder

> Tom