Re: [PATCH 0/2] Demangler crash handler

[Gary Benson <gbenson@redhat.com>]

Joel Brobecker wrote:
> Tom Tromey wrote:
> > I realize there is an attractive quality to the "suffering is
> > good for us" idea.  It appeals to my inner spartan.  However,
> > I disagree very strongly with this.
> 
> Having been on the receiving end of this kind of logic, I agree
> with Tom - quite strongly too, in fact. As a user, I do not want
> to be held hostage, especially when there is no workaround. If
> the proposed solution brings no noticeable harm for our users
> in the situation where things are working as expected, I think
> we should consider it. And to help mitigating the fears that
> we would be hiding bugs, we can perhaps find a middle-ground;
> for instance, making sure that we print a really verbose error
> message.

I'm definitely not trying to hide bugs; if anything I'm trying to
make them more reportable.  FWIW users would see this:

  (gdb) set lang c++
  (gdb) maint demangle _Z1-Av23*;cG~Wo2Vu
  /home/gary/work/archer/demangle-crashcatcher/src/gdb/cp-support.c:1590:
  internal-warning: unable to demangle '_Z1-Av23*;cG~Wo2Vu' (demangler
  failed with signal 11)
  A problem internal to GDB has been detected,
  further debugging may prove unreliable.
  Quit this debugging session? (y or n)

A separate patch [1] I've posted augments this with the lines:

  This is a bug, please report it.  For instructions, see:
  <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.

The point is to make it easier for users to file straightforward bug
reports *with reproducers* rather than the opaque "GDB crashed at
startup" bugs we've been getting at the moment that people (by which
I mean Keith) have had to spend time triaging.  And, at the same time,
for the user to have the option to attempt to continue using GDB to
debug their program.  I realise that people may feel that the user
*should* then fix GDB, but not everyone has the time or the ability
or the inclination.  I don't want the workaround for this to become
"try LLDB".

Cheers,
Gary

-- 
[1] https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2014-05/msg00198.html