From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 120641 invoked by alias); 1 May 2019 16:57:19 -0000 Mailing-List: contact binutils-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: binutils-owner@sourceware.org Received: (qmail 120577 invoked by uid 89); 1 May 2019 16:57:18 -0000 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SPF_HELO_PASS autolearn=ham version=3.3.1 spammy= X-HELO: mx1.redhat.com Received: from mx1.redhat.com (HELO mx1.redhat.com) (209.132.183.28) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.93/v0.84-503-g423c35a) with ESMTP; Wed, 01 May 2019 16:57:17 +0000 Received: from smtp.corp.redhat.com (int-mx02.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.11.12]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 39B9B81E07; Wed, 1 May 2019 16:57:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [10.36.116.125] (ovpn-116-125.ams2.redhat.com [10.36.116.125]) by smtp.corp.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8A7057CD81; Wed, 1 May 2019 16:57:15 +0000 (UTC) To: Nick Alcock , binutils@sourceware.org References: <20190430225706.159422-1-nick.alcock@oracle.com> <20190430225706.159422-2-nick.alcock@oracle.com> From: Nick Clifton Openpgp: preference=signencrypt Subject: Re: [PATCH 01/19] include: new header ctf.h: file format description Message-ID: Date: Wed, 01 May 2019 16:57:00 -0000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.6.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20190430225706.159422-2-nick.alcock@oracle.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-IsSubscribed: yes X-SW-Source: 2019-05/txt/msg00033.txt.bz2 Hi Nick. Some random thoughts as I read through this patch... > +/* CTF format description. > + Copyright (C) 2004-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Copyright starting from 2004, really ? > +/* CTF - Compact ANSI-C Type Format ANSI-C ? Isn't everyone using ISO-C these days ? Also - does this format explicitly exclude other languages like C++ or Go or Rust ? > + operating system kernel in a form that is significantly more compact than > + the equivalent stabs or DWARF representation. Out of curiosity, do you have any data on how much better CTF is than say, DWARF ? > + CTF assumes that a standard ELF symbol table is > + available for use in the debugger, In my experience many executables are stripped of their symbol tables. (The symbol tables are stored in the separate debug information file associated with the executable, but often these are not installed by the users. Plus if they are installed, then what benefit would CTF provide ?) So will CTF work if the symbol table is missing ? > + header itself. If the CTF data has been uniquified against another set of Is "uniquified" really a word ? :-) > +#define CTF_VERSION_3 4 > +#define CTF_VERSION CTF_VERSION_3 /* Current version. */ Hang on - so the value of CTF_VERSION_3 is 4 ? Does this mean that the full version number is 3.4, or 4.0 or just 4 ? I am a bit confused... OK, I am going to stop here as my brain is starting to hurt. I will resume looking at the patches tomorrow. Cheers Nick