NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Joel Brobecker]

Hey everyone,

Although 8.1.1 is not entirely out yet, I think we should start working
on GDB 8.2 now, rather than wait more. Looking at the NEWS files,
we have a reasonable list of new features to warrant a new release.

The initial plan, published at https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/,
called for a branch on Jun 15th, so 2 weeks from now. In internet time,
this is quite a short time-frame, but perhaps we'll be able to make it?

Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
or can the changes be backported afterwards?

All the information we can collect here will help us determine how
likely it is for us to branch on June 15th.

Besides the above, I have created a wiki page for that release
branch: https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB_8.2_Release.

I'll review the PRs marked for 8.2, to make sure they are all
legitimate blockers for 8.2.

Thank you,
-- 
Joel

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Alan Hayward]

> On 30 May 2018, at 23:53, Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:
> 
> Hey everyone,
> 
> Although 8.1.1 is not entirely out yet, I think we should start working
> on GDB 8.2 now, rather than wait more. Looking at the NEWS files,
> we have a reasonable list of new features to warrant a new release.
> 
> The initial plan, published at https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/,
> called for a branch on Jun 15th, so 2 weeks from now. In internet time,
> this is quite a short time-frame, but perhaps we'll be able to make it?
> 
> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> or can the changes be backported afterwards?


I’d very much like to get SVE support into 8.2.
What that entails is:
1) Enable for gdb: https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00755.html
2) Enable for gdbserver
3) Small fix to un-break core files on see
4) Add dwarf registers

2 and 3 are fairly short and should probably be rolled into a V2 of 1.
4 is trivial.

Hopefully all recache and target description changes over the past year
means all the contentious parts of the sve patches have been solved.

This would give full register dumps on aarch64 sve programs.
However, core dumps will be missing sve registers and any program
that changes vector length on the fly will cause an error (this
is expected to be very rare in the wild). The plan is to fix both
of those for 8.3

Alan.

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Philippe Waroquiers]

On Wed, 2018-05-30 at 15:53 -0700, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> or can the changes be backported afterwards?

If possible, I would like to include 
https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00462.html
('frame apply COMMAND', enhance 'thread apply COMMAND').

It is (supposed to be) ready :
  * doc reviewed and OK-ed by Eli
  * a first code review by Simon (I think I handled/clarified
    all comments).

Thanks

Philippe
 
  
   

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Pedro Alves]

On 05/31/2018 07:06 PM, Philippe Waroquiers wrote:
> On Wed, 2018-05-30 at 15:53 -0700, Joel Brobecker wrote:
>> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
>> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
>> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
>> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
>> or can the changes be backported afterwards?
> 
> If possible, I would like to include 
> https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00462.html
> ('frame apply COMMAND', enhance 'thread apply COMMAND').
> 
> It is (supposed to be) ready :
>   * doc reviewed and OK-ed by Eli
>   * a first code review by Simon (I think I handled/clarified
>     all comments).

Does it include testcases already?

Thanks,
Pedro Alves

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Philippe Waroquiers]

On Thu, 2018-05-31 at 19:20 +0100, Pedro Alves wrote:
> On 05/31/2018 07:06 PM, Philippe Waroquiers wrote:
> > On Wed, 2018-05-30 at 15:53 -0700, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> > > Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> > > important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> > > what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> > > Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> > > or can the changes be backported afterwards?
> > 
> > If possible, I would like to include 
> > https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00462.html
> > ('frame apply COMMAND', enhance 'thread apply COMMAND').
> > 
> > It is (supposed to be) ready :
> >   * doc reviewed and OK-ed by Eli
> >   * a first code review by Simon (I think I handled/clarified
> >     all comments).
> 
> Does it include testcases already?
Yes, I added the test case and the changelog for the RFA.

Philippe

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Sergio Durigan Junior]

On Wednesday, May 30 2018, Joel Brobecker wrote:

> Hey everyone,

Hey Joel,

As usual, thanks for taking care of the release!

> Although 8.1.1 is not entirely out yet, I think we should start working
> on GDB 8.2 now, rather than wait more. Looking at the NEWS files,
> we have a reasonable list of new features to warrant a new release.
>
> The initial plan, published at https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/,
> called for a branch on Jun 15th, so 2 weeks from now. In internet time,
> this is quite a short time-frame, but perhaps we'll be able to make it?
>
> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> or can the changes be backported afterwards?

I'd like to see the IPv6 support included in 8.2, if possible.

  https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00629.html

Eli has made a few comments about the documentation part, and I
addressed everything.  I'm still waiting for a code review; I intend to
ping the patch today.

Thanks,

-- 
Sergio
GPG key ID: 237A 54B1 0287 28BF 00EF  31F4 D0EB 7628 65FC 5E36
Please send encrypted e-mail if possible
http://sergiodj.net/

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Joel Brobecker]

> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> or can the changes be backported afterwards?

I am thinking we should also include the following patch:

    gdb: Don't drop SIGSTOP during stop_all_threads
    https://www.sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2018-05/msg00401.html

This one causes GDB to (sometimes) hang while trying to attach to
a process. Unfortunately, the while the patch looks fairly simple,
I think it needs careful review from someone who knows this area well...

-- 
Joel

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Pedro Franco de Carvalho]

Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> writes:

> Hey everyone,
>
> Although 8.1.1 is not entirely out yet, I think we should start working
> on GDB 8.2 now, rather than wait more. Looking at the NEWS files,
> we have a reasonable list of new features to warrant a new release.
>
> The initial plan, published at https://www.sourceware.org/gdb/schedule/,
> called for a branch on Jun 15th, so 2 weeks from now. In internet time,
> this is quite a short time-frame, but perhaps we'll be able to make it?
>
> Does anyone have projects that are nearly finished and would be
> important to include in 8.2 rather than wait for 8.3? If yes,
> what kind of time frame can we expect for getting those in.
> Should we wait for the patch to be in master before we cut the branch,
> or can the changes be backported afterwards?
>
> All the information we can collect here will help us determine how
> likely it is for us to branch on June 15th.
>
> Besides the above, I have created a wiki page for that release
> branch: https://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB_8.2_Release.
>
> I'll review the PRs marked for 8.2, to make sure they are all
> legitimate blockers for 8.2.
>
> Thank you,
> -- 
> Joel

Hello,

I'm working on a few patches to enable access to additional registers in
ppc, which I was hoping to finish in time for 8.2. No patches are ready
yet, and probably won't be ready in two weeks. I might be able to finish
them in 3 or 4 weeks. They should be backportable to the branch.

Thank you!

Re: NEED FEEDBACK: time to start the GDB 8.2 release process (2018-05-30 update)

[Joel Brobecker]

Hello,

> I'm working on a few patches to enable access to additional registers in
> ppc, which I was hoping to finish in time for 8.2. No patches are ready
> yet, and probably won't be ready in two weeks. I might be able to finish
> them in 3 or 4 weeks. They should be backportable to the branch.

OK. Good to know. In case you're not familiar with the process,
once the branch is cut, you'll need one of the Global Maintainers,
typically the maintainer who reviews your patch, to OK it for
the branch. We would normally only do that if it makes sense.
In particular, we want to make sure that there is very little chance
the branch's stability might be impacted.

In the meantime, we're not ready for the branch, yet, but I will
try to push for it to be created by end of this month.

-- 
Joel