Re: GDB Documentation and Request for Help

[Jim Blandy <jimb@codesourcery.com>]

Michael Eager <eager@eagercon.com> writes:
> So that's coming along, but I'm having trouble figuring out
> frame handling, in particular, when and where the current target
> registers are read into the current frame.

This is a tricky part; welcome to the club.  :)

> So I found the description of frames and the sentinel frame.
> Not where I had been looking, under the chapter titled Target
> Architecture Definition, but by accident, under Algorithms.
> Under the former section, I found what I was looking for:
> FRAME_INIT_SAVED_REGISTERS, now renamed DEPRECATED_.  But when
> I look in the code, I find that this was removed in 2004.
>
> So the gdb internals document comes close to being useless,
> IMO.  There are several sections which are empty, others which
> declare themselves to be obsolete, parts which are more-or-less
> unclear, and worse, parts which appear to explain the internals
> but are several years out of date.

The internals document functions more as a repository of explanations
that get written from time to time.  It certainly doesn't meet the
usual standards for reference works.

> If someone would volunteer to spend an hour or two helping me
> understand frame handling and what parts of the Architecture
> Definition section are (as the politicos say) no longer
> operative, and what they should say, I'll update the document
> to incorporate those changes.  I won't rewrite the gdb internals
> document, although it really needs this, but even removing
> misleading text would be an improvement.

If you post here, I think people would be happy to explain what's
current and what isn't.  I'll watch for your messages.