Re: [patch] IPv6 support for gdbserver

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 16:16:34 +0200
> From: Jan Kratochvil <jan.kratochvil@redhat.com>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> > And second, isn't there a better way of specifying two descriptors?  I
> > find the "fdNM" method inelegant, and the limitation of a single-digit
> > descriptor it requires too high a price to pay.  I hope we can come up
> > with a better method.
> 
> Designed for trivia C parsing as the IPv6 support was considered too
> complicated by Daniel Jacobowitz and the string parsing in C is a lot of lines.
> The new syntax looks like that of socat(1):
> 	socat EXEC:'gdbserver fdin=3,fdout=4 emacs foo.txt',fdin=3,fdout=4 TCP-LISTEN:2345

I'd prefer to lift the limitation of one-digit descriptor.

> > > +You can choose any port number you want (@code{2345} here) as long as it does
> > > +not conflict with any TCP ports already in use on the target system (for
> > > +example, @code{23} is reserved for @code{telnet}).@footnote{If you choose
> > > +a port number that conflicts with another service, @code{socat} prints an error
> > > +message and exits.}  You must use the same port number with the host
> > > +@value{GDBN} @code{target remote} command.
> > > +
> > > +On IPv4 networks you may also run @code{gdbserver} directly, without the
> > > +@code{socat} helper there (equivalent command to the example above):
> > > +
> > > +@smallexample
> > > +target> gdbserver :2345 emacs foo.txt
> > > +@end smallexample
> > 
> > The example (and the sentence that precedes it) should be before the
> > descriptive text, otherwise the text doesn't make sense.
> 
> The first paragraph describes the line above it:
> 	socat EXEC:'gdbserver fdin=3,fdout=4 emacs foo.txt',fdin=3,fdout=4 TCP-LISTEN:2345

Sorry, I didn't see the "2345" at the end of that line.

Which reminds me: lines in @smallexample should be shorter than 64
characters; anything longer will overflow the page margin.  So please
break the long lines in @smallexample into two lines.

> > > 	* gdb.texinfo (Using the gdbserver program): Remove "host:port".
> > 
> > Why?  I think back-compatibility is important.
> 
> It looks broken to me to support IPv4 without supporting IPv6, moreover if the
> IPv6 functions to use are simpler.

That's not a reason good enough to drop back-compatibility, even if
I'd agree with your assertion about IPv6 (which I don't, and neither
does Daniel, I think).