Re: Contributing to gdb

[shaunak saha via Gdb <gdb@sourceware.org>]

Hi,

>>Hello! Welcome welcome, we always love to have new contributors :)

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome.

>>For watchpoints, the first bug that that page mentions is still open,
>>but apparently the last mention of anything related to it was in 2014
>>(the 2024 comment is unrelated), so you could first check if you can
>>still reproduce the issue, and maybe try to fix or close the bug if it
>>can't be reproduced anymore. I'm also a big fan of improving user
>>experience, so the second thing about watchpoints (and the misuse of the
>>word scope) is something I'd love to see, if you're interested in fixing it.

Sure, I will check as this will help me to get used to the gdb
development environment also better. Just to confirm, Is this the bug
you mentioned? "https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=10645"

>>And for internals, if I may do a bit of promotion of my favorite area,
>>right now reverse debugging has a big problem: We rely on recording the
>>execution history of the inferior in a global variable, which is totally
>>not feasible if someone wants to record multiple inferiors at once. I'd
>>love to see a rework of this area that makes the history specific to an
>>inferior instead of relying on a global var. This could be pretty
>>complicated, as I don't exactly know how someone would go about doing
>>this and it might touch a couple different subsystems, but if you'd like
>>your first contribution to be tough as nails, I know I would love to see
>>it :)
Actually this is one of the areas I am very interested in too. This
would be a really good learning experience for me. For the rework of
the global variable issues can you please point me to the bug if it's
there. I can start by learning more about it.

>>If you want some help understanding some bits of GDB, feel free to reach
>>out on IRC (#gdb on libera chat), and if you feel shy about asking
>>questions in public, feel free to reach to me privately :) (though I
>>mostly only answer on work hours for Brazil).

Thanks a lot. I will reach out on IRC or ask you over email for my doubts.

>>Just a heads up, too, if your patch isn't a trivial fix, you might need
>>to sign a bit of paperwork giving the copyright of changes to GDB to the
>>Free Software Foundation before we are able to accept the changes. I
>>mention this up front because I know a few people who were turned off by
>>the idea, even though the process itself isn't complicated.

I understand. I am ok with signing the paperwork with FSF. I am
guessing that would not be a problem with my employer but I will still
check.

Regards,
Shaunak

On Mon, Jun 17, 2024 at 5:22 AM Guinevere Larsen <blarsen@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/14/24 6:52 PM, shaunak saha via Gdb wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I am new to the community and I'd like to contribute to gdb. I have 15
> > years of development experience in C mainly working in embedded
> > domain. Went through the project ideas page
> > "https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ProjectIdeas". I would be interested
> > to contribute in areas like Embedded Debugging, watchpoints or
> > internals. Any suggestion would be great.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Shaunak
> >
> Hello! Welcome welcome, we always love to have new contributors :)
>
> My first thought with regards to that page is that I don't know how up
> to date it is... the last update seems to be back in 2021, which is from
> before I joined the project. That said, I think there is plenty of
> things to do in the areas you mentioned.
>
> For embedded debugging, unfortunately I have no idea what the situation is.
>
> For watchpoints, the first bug that that page mentions is still open,
> but apparently the last mention of anything related to it was in 2014
> (the 2024 comment is unrelated), so you could first check if you can
> still reproduce the issue, and maybe try to fix or close the bug if it
> can't be reproduced anymore. I'm also a big fan of improving user
> experience, so the second thing about watchpoints (and the misuse of the
> word scope) is something I'd love to see, if you're interested in fixing it.
>
> And for internals, if I may do a bit of promotion of my favorite area,
> right now reverse debugging has a big problem: We rely on recording the
> execution history of the inferior in a global variable, which is totally
> not feasible if someone wants to record multiple inferiors at once. I'd
> love to see a rework of this area that makes the history specific to an
> inferior instead of relying on a global var. This could be pretty
> complicated, as I don't exactly know how someone would go about doing
> this and it might touch a couple different subsystems, but if you'd like
> your first contribution to be tough as nails, I know I would love to see
> it :)
>
>
> Once you decided on something to work on, if it isn't something that
> feels obvious to you or feels like it could depend on some design
> decisions, I recommend sending a very simple prototype as an RFC to the
> gdb-patches@sourceware list, so people can discuss if your approach
> makes sense.
>
> If you want some help understanding some bits of GDB, feel free to reach
> out on IRC (#gdb on libera chat), and if you feel shy about asking
> questions in public, feel free to reach to me privately :) (though I
> mostly only answer on work hours for Brazil).
>
>
> Just a heads up, too, if your patch isn't a trivial fix, you might need
> to sign a bit of paperwork giving the copyright of changes to GDB to the
> Free Software Foundation before we are able to accept the changes. I
> mention this up front because I know a few people who were turned off by
> the idea, even though the process itself isn't complicated.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Guinevere Larsen
> She/Her/Hers
>