"No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

"No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Andrew Cagney]

Hello,

	Ref: default.exp

At present get_selected_frame(), when there is no inferior(1), throws 
the error:

	No registers

Except for the case where the user types:

	(gdb) info registers
	No registers

this message won't be very enlightening.  For instance, a user trying to 
do a return when there is no process to debug would (theoretically) 
encounter the error:

	(gdb) return
	No registers

I'm wondering if the error message should be standardized vis:

	(gdb) info registers
	No inferior to debug
	(gdb) return
	No inferior to debug

Looking through default.exp I see plenty of alternatives vis:

	The program is not being run.
	No stack
	No frame selected
	No registers
	No frame selected

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Andrew

(1) I'm treating a core file as an inferior here (reasonable?).

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Kevin Buettner]

On Oct 20,  5:28pm, Andrew Cagney wrote:

> I'm wondering if the error message should be standardized vis:
> 
> 	(gdb) info registers
> 	No inferior to debug
> 	(gdb) return
> 	No inferior to debug

This sounds reasonable to me.  It is certainly better than seeing the
"No registers" message.

Kevin

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Andrew Cagney]

> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 11:26:32 -0400
>> From: Andrew Cagney <ac131313@redhat.com>
> 
>> > 
>> >    (gdb) info registers
>> >    No program or core file to debug, so no registers.
> 
>> 
>> The point at which the error is detected and thrown is a long way from 
>> "info registers" so customizing it to mention ", so no registers" will 
>> be painful.
> 
> 
> Is it possible to add "No registers." on a separate line after the
> thread of execution comes back to "info registers"?  That would
> produce

>     (gdb) info registers
>     No program or core file to debug.
>     No registers.

The error throws gdb out of the info registers function, so no, not 
without other changes.

Having seen michael's comments, I also suspect that "No registers" isn't 
that helpful.  I'd expect a user to fix this problem by looking for a 
program or core file, and not by looking for registers :-)

Anyway, for the immediate problem at hand ("return" and return_command), 
I tweaked toe code so that it directly checked that there was a target 
before doing anything and then issued the existing response.

Andrew

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 11:26:32 -0400
> From: Andrew Cagney <ac131313@redhat.com>
> > 
> >    (gdb) info registers
> >    No program or core file to debug, so no registers.
> 
> The point at which the error is detected and thrown is a long way from 
> "info registers" so customizing it to mention ", so no registers" will 
> be painful.

Is it possible to add "No registers." on a separate line after the
thread of execution comes back to "info registers"?  That would
produce

    (gdb) info registers
    No program or core file to debug.
    No registers.

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Andrew Cagney]

> 
> Right.  So how about
> 
>    (gdb) info registers
>    No program or core file to debug, so no registers.

The point at which the error is detected and thrown is a long way from 
"info registers" so customizing it to mention ", so no registers" will 
be painful.

Explicit mention of both program and core file would be helpful though.

Andrew

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 18:39:06 -0400
> From: Andrew Cagney <ac131313@redhat.com>
> > 
> >   (gdb) info registers
> >   The program is not being run
> >   User: "Oh, okay, I guess I can't see the registers right now."
> > 
> > So I like "The program is not being run."
> > "The inferior program is not being run." would be okay too.
> 
> Info registers works with a core file.  And that is definitly not being run.

Right.  So how about

   (gdb) info registers
   No program or core file to debug, so no registers.

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Andrew Cagney]

> Look at your use case:
> 
>   (gdb) info registers
>   No registers
>   User: "Huh?  How come there aren't any registers?  Wha?"
> 
>   (gdb) info registers
>   The program is not being run
>   User: "Oh, okay, I guess I can't see the registers right now."
> 
> So I like "The program is not being run."
> "The inferior program is not being run." would be okay too.

Info registers works with a core file.  And that is definitly not being run.

Andrew

Re: "No registers" or "No inferior to debug"?

[Michael Elizabeth Chastain]

Look at your use case:

  (gdb) info registers
  No registers
  User: "Huh?  How come there aren't any registers?  Wha?"

  (gdb) info registers
  The program is not being run
  User: "Oh, okay, I guess I can't see the registers right now."

So I like "The program is not being run."
"The inferior program is not being run." would be okay too.

Michael C