[ECOS]Console-input & GDB

[ECOS]Console-input & GDB

[Andrea Acquaviva]

Hi all,

in the eCos Reference Manual, pg. 117, I found that GDB remote protocol
not allows console-input functionality for the applications. This means
that is never
possible to debug an application which requires such functionality, or
is there any workaround?

Thanks,
Andrea.


--
Ing. Andrea Acquaviva
D.E.I.S. - Universita' di Bologna
V.le Risorgimento, 2    40136 BOLOGNA (ITALY)
Tel: (+39) 051 20 93787 Fax: (+39) 051 2093786

Re: [ECOS]Console-input & GDB

[Andrew Lunn]

> in the eCos Reference Manual, pg. 117, I found that GDB remote
> protocol not allows console-input functionality for the
> applications. This means that is never possible to debug an
> application which requires such functionality, or is there any
> workaround?

This is one of those issues that comes up every so often. No its not
possible to use a serial port for both gdb and I/O. You either need
two serial ports, or you connect gdb to the target via some other
means like ethernet or maybe JTAG. 

        Andrew

Re: [ECOS]Console-input & GDB

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Lunn <andrew.lunn@ascom.ch> writes:

    >> in the eCos Reference Manual, pg. 117, I found that GDB remote
    >> protocol not allows console-input functionality for the
    >> applications. This means that is never possible to debug an
    >> application which requires such functionality, or is there any
    >> workaround?

Theoretically, if the embedded application needs keyboard input then
you need some sort of keyboard device on the target hardware, plus an
appropriate device driver. Granted, during initial development it
might sometimes be useful to use the host's keyboard instead, but that
functionality is not supported at present.

If you need something more general such as full serial I/O then, as
Andrew says, that really requires a separate serial port. Sharing a
communications channel for both debugging and real I/O is usually a
bad idea.

Theoretically the GDB remote protocol can be extended to provide some
sort of general purpose I/O service, allowing the target to access the
host's filing system and other devices until such time as the
corresponding target-side device drivers are up and running, but that
is for long term wish lists.

Bart