Porting GDB to a new target processor architecture -- what's involved?

[stefan_heinzmann@t-online.de (Stefan Heinzmann)]

Hello,

a potential customer wants me to port GDB to a new processor architecture (a
32-bit RISC processor) used in embedded systems. As I'm unfamiliar with the
GDB internals, I have difficulties estimating the time needed to do this.
What do I need to know? Has anyone got a reading list?

The GCC (2.95.3) and binutils apparently have been ported already. To which
extent can I reuse code from those? I remember having read somewhere that
gas and gdb use common target definition files, is that true?

The GDB internals document is quite helpful, but it appears to be incomplete
(stack frame interpretation, compiler characteristics). Is there additional
information available (other than the source code itself)?

How does the development process work assuming that the new target is
contributed back to the community? Do I have to follow the most up-to-date
CVS tree closely or is it more useful to work "off-line"?

Is it reasonable to assume that the general gdb code can be used unchanged
and only a few target-specific files need to be provided, or is it common
that such a porting effort brings up issues with gdb in general (or even
with a graphical frontend) that will have to be addressed, too?

Thanks for your help

Cheers
Stefan