From: Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com>
To: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
Cc: Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com>
Subject: [PATCH 4/6] gdb: rename argument in valprint_check_validity
Date: Tue, 12 May 2026 11:07:25 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <e56dbfe16964047cd34e2379af959e65d385c0e9.1778579473.git.aburgess@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cover.1778579473.git.aburgess@redhat.com>
To understand the motivation for this commit you'll need to look ahead
two commits in this series for an upcoming bug fix.
Look at coerce_pieced_ref in dwarf2/expr.c, and this call:
if (value->bits_synthetic_pointer (value->embedded_offset (),
TARGET_CHAR_BIT * type->length ()))
{ ... }
This passes the result from value::embedded_offset as the first argument.
Though it's not clear from value.h, the number returned by
value::embedded_offset is a byte offset.
The value::bits_synthetic_pointer call can end up calling
check_pieced_synthetic_pointer, with the first argument to
value::bits_synthetic_pointer becoming the second argument to
check_pieced_synthetic_pointer. The second argument to
check_pieced_synthetic_pointer is called BIT_OFFSET, a value in bits.
Looking at how this argument is used confirms that it is expected to be
a value in bits, not bytes.
The fix should be easy, multiply the embedded offset by
TARGET_CHAR_BIT, but I think things are a little more complex than
this.
I started looking at how value::bits_synthetic_pointer is used, there
are only 7 uses, and they can be grouped as follows:
gdb/dwarf2/expr.c
gdb/valops.c
These call value::embedded_offset directly within the call to
value::bits_synthetic_pointer.
gdb/opencl-lang.c
This function is used as a wrapper that implements a
lval_funcs::check_synthetic_pointer callback, it adjusts the
arguments and then calls value::bits_synthetic_pointer. As such we'd
not expect to see embedded offset mentioned here as that would (we
assume) be handled by the caller.
gdb/valprint.c (in generic_val_print_ref)
This call passes an argument called 'embedded_offset', but the
function generic_val_print_ref is only used in one place, and the
embedded_offset is always passed as zero.
gdb/valprint.c (in valprint_check_validity)
This call also passes an argument called 'embedded_offset'. This
function is used in two places. In common_val_print the
embedded_offset is always passed as zero, but in
valprint_check_validity (in cp-valprint.c) the embedded_offset being
passed is the offset of a field within the value, not the value's
embedded_offset within some larger value.
gdb/cp-valprint.c
gdb/p-valprint.c
As with the call to valprint_check_validity in cp-valprint.c, these
two direct calls to value::bits_synthetic_pointer pass the offset of a
field within the value, rather than the value's embedded_offset.
What I see in the above is some confusion. In some places we are
passing the value::embedded_offset, while in other places we are
passing the offset of a field within the value itself.
If we consider the direct call to value::bits_synthetic_pointer in
gdb/cp-valprint.c, where a field offset is passed, then it should be
possible, that if we can create an object with a non-zero
embedded_offset (which isn't accounted for in this code path), then we
should see some bugs in GDB, and indeed, this is what I do see.
My plan for fixing this is to have the offset passed to
value::bits_synthetic_pointer always be a field offset within the value,
the value::embedded_offset will then be handled directly within the
various value::bits_synthetic_pointer implementations.
This commit is a small refactor in preparation for this fix.
I believe part of the confusion here is that we have functions that
take arguments called embedded_offset, when the value they should
accept is no longer the embedded offset.
So in this commit I propose renaming the embedded_offset argument to
field_byte_offset in valprint_check_validity. This is purely a
mechanical rename, there should be no user visible changes after this
commit.
---
gdb/valprint.c | 8 ++++----
gdb/valprint.h | 4 ++--
2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/gdb/valprint.c b/gdb/valprint.c
index 9801f195d13..ca4a064a7c5 100644
--- a/gdb/valprint.c
+++ b/gdb/valprint.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ val_print_scalar_or_string_type_p (struct type *type,
bool
valprint_check_validity (struct ui_file *stream,
struct type *type,
- LONGEST embedded_offset,
+ LONGEST field_byte_offset,
const struct value *val)
{
type = check_typedef (type);
@@ -339,14 +339,14 @@ valprint_check_validity (struct ui_file *stream,
&& type->code () != TYPE_CODE_STRUCT
&& type->code () != TYPE_CODE_ARRAY)
{
- if (val->bits_any_optimized_out (TARGET_CHAR_BIT * embedded_offset,
+ if (val->bits_any_optimized_out (TARGET_CHAR_BIT * field_byte_offset,
TARGET_CHAR_BIT * type->length ()))
{
val_print_optimized_out (val, stream);
return false;
}
- if (val->bits_synthetic_pointer (TARGET_CHAR_BIT * embedded_offset,
+ if (val->bits_synthetic_pointer (TARGET_CHAR_BIT * field_byte_offset,
TARGET_CHAR_BIT * type->length ()))
{
const bool is_ref = type->code () == TYPE_CODE_REF;
@@ -368,7 +368,7 @@ valprint_check_validity (struct ui_file *stream,
return is_ref;
}
- if (!val->bytes_available (embedded_offset, type->length ()))
+ if (!val->bytes_available (field_byte_offset, type->length ()))
{
val_print_unavailable (stream);
return false;
diff --git a/gdb/valprint.h b/gdb/valprint.h
index c8f4bd52286..146a24d174f 100644
--- a/gdb/valprint.h
+++ b/gdb/valprint.h
@@ -199,12 +199,12 @@ extern void print_function_pointer_address (const struct value_print_options *op
If TYPE represents some aggregate type (e.g., a structure), return true.
- For non-aggregate TYPEs, if any of the bytes starting at EMBEDDED_OFFSET
+ For non-aggregate TYPEs, if any of the bytes starting at FIELD_BYTE_OFFSET
and extending for TYPE->length () bytes are invalid, print a message to
STREAM and return false. Otherwise, return true. */
extern bool valprint_check_validity (struct ui_file *stream, struct type *type,
- LONGEST embedded_offset,
+ LONGEST field_byte_offset,
const struct value *val);
extern void val_print_optimized_out (const struct value *val,
--
2.25.4
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-05-12 10:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-12 10:07 [PATCH 0/6] Fix aggregate types, synthetic pointers, and computed locations bug Andrew Burgess
2026-05-12 10:07 ` [PATCH 1/6] gdb: int to bool conversion in valprint.{c,h} Andrew Burgess
2026-05-13 14:48 ` Tom Tromey
2026-05-12 10:07 ` [PATCH 2/6] gdb: use TARGET_CHAR_BIT more in dwarf2/expr.c Andrew Burgess
2026-05-13 15:05 ` Tom Tromey
2026-05-15 12:00 ` Andrew Burgess
2026-05-15 14:44 ` Tom Tromey
2026-05-12 10:07 ` [PATCH 3/6] gdb: fix coerce_pieced_ref for multi-piece values Andrew Burgess
2026-05-14 18:53 ` Tom Tromey
2026-05-12 10:07 ` Andrew Burgess [this message]
2026-05-13 16:23 ` [PATCH 4/6] gdb: rename argument in valprint_check_validity Tom Tromey
2026-05-12 10:07 ` [PATCH 5/6] gdb: remove embedded_offset argument that is always 0 Andrew Burgess
2026-05-13 15:27 ` Tom Tromey
2026-05-12 10:07 ` [PATCH 6/6] gdb: use value::embedded_offset in check_pieced_synthetic_pointer Andrew Burgess
2026-05-14 19:00 ` Tom Tromey
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