Re: [remote protocol] step range?

Jason Molenda
2008-09-05T00:12:25Z

On Sep 4, 2008, at 3:14 PM, Michael Snyder wrote:

> What about a remote protocol command that says
> "single step until you leave the range <begin> - <end>".

I wouldn't imagine any problem with such a packet - but it won't be
useful on architectures that have variable length instructions (even
ARM with its mix of ARM and Thumb opcodes) that don't have a hardware-
supported single-instruction-step capability. Your remote driver
would need to contain a disassembler in those cases to do anything
useful.

There is a lot of overhead and unnecessary communication over a
typical remote protocol connection that you can eliminate with some
effort. But if the problem you're trying to solve is on a platform
where single-instruction stepping is easy for the remote driver to do,
this could be a reasonable alternate approach. I suppose the most
complicated thing you'd have to worry about is a remote target that
has multiple threads, with those threads executing when you're trying
to step through that range, and one of the other threads hitting a
breakpoint or getting a signal.

Just my two cents,

J