Upgrading from old gdb version

Upgrading from old gdb version

[Michael Eager]

I'm trying to upgrade a proprietary target from an old
(well ancient) version of gdb (version 5.3) to the current
version.  In some areas, there have been major changes,
for example, in handling frames and analyzing a function
prologue.

Looking at the documentation, there are several places in
the chapter on Target Architecture Definition which either
are empty (e.g., Frame Interpretation) or there are notes
which say that the documentation is obsolete (Raw and
Virtual Register Representations).  The notes refer to the
bug database and AR index.  Unfortunately, I can't really
see anything in either which give me much of a clue.

Can someone suggest a starting point?

-- 
Michael Eager	 eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306  650-325-8077

Re: Upgrading from old gdb version

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 01:34:34PM -0800, Michael Eager wrote:
> Can someone suggest a starting point?

Not really - last time I had to do this, I found it easiest to take a
working target from the current GDB and redo my older port based on
that model.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: Upgrading from old gdb version

[Jim Blandy]

Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org> writes:
> On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 01:34:34PM -0800, Michael Eager wrote:
>> Can someone suggest a starting point?
>
> Not really - last time I had to do this, I found it easiest to take a
> working target from the current GDB and redo my older port based on
> that model.

I concur with that.  The New Way to do ports is much simpler and
cleaner; if you're coming from the 5.3 era, it's better to just start
from scratch.

Re: Upgrading from old gdb version

[Michael Eager]

Jim Blandy wrote:
> Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org> writes:
>> On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 01:34:34PM -0800, Michael Eager wrote:
>>> Can someone suggest a starting point?
>> Not really - last time I had to do this, I found it easiest to take a
>> working target from the current GDB and redo my older port based on
>> that model.
> 
> I concur with that.  The New Way to do ports is much simpler and
> cleaner; if you're coming from the 5.3 era, it's better to just start
> from scratch.

Thanks Daniel & Jim.  I'm going to look at the Sparc port
as a base for re-implementing the target.

-- 
Michael Eager	 eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306  650-325-8077