Re: [remote protocol] step range?

[Jason Molenda <jmolenda@apple.com>]

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