Request/question from RMS

[Andrew Cagney <ac131313@cygnus.com>]

Private e-mail from Richard Stallman.  Reproduced with permission.


> In Emacs .gdbinit I found this:
> 
>     define xreload
>       set $valmask = ((long)1 << gdb_valbits) - 1
>       set $nonvalbits = gdb_emacs_intbits - gdb_valbits
>     end
>     document xreload
>       When starting Emacs a second time in the same gdb session under
>       FreeBSD 2.2.5, gdb 4.13, $valmask and $nonvalbits have lost
>       their values.  (The same happens on current (2000) versions of GNU/Linux
>       with gdb 5.0.)
>       This function reloads them.
>     end
> 
> I think GDB should avoid making this necessary--that it should
> reread .gdbinit when it reloads the executable.  Or there should
> be a certain user-defined command that will be run after GDB
> reloads the executable.


I know there are now things like posthook-run commands.  However, 
without knowing how EMACS uses the above (I've no desire to debug emacs, 
debugging mozilla was scary enough :-^) it is hard to suggest a replacement.

RMS also expressed a preference for avoiding features less than a year old.

Andrew