From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 3191 invoked by alias); 20 Oct 2003 00:32:49 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 3180 invoked from network); 20 Oct 2003 00:32:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO nevyn.them.org) (66.93.172.17) by sources.redhat.com with SMTP; 20 Oct 2003 00:32:48 -0000 Received: from drow by nevyn.them.org with local (Exim 4.24 #1 (Debian)) id 1ABNya-0005JI-2j for ; Sun, 19 Oct 2003 20:32:48 -0400 Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 00:32:00 -0000 From: Daniel Jacobowitz To: gdb@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: GDB's command qualifier character is `/' Message-ID: <20031020003248.GA20365@nevyn.them.org> Mail-Followup-To: gdb@sources.redhat.com References: <3F92C0D2.6050807@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3F92C0D2.6050807@gnu.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i X-SW-Source: 2003-10/txt/msg00220.txt.bz2 On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 12:50:26PM -0400, Andrew Cagney wrote: > This seems to keep comming up, sigh! > > GDB's CLI, long ago established `/' as its command qualifier character vis: > > x/i > display/i > print/x > > GDB's user base is very familar with this syntax(1) so adding new > qualfiers using this syntax would provide a consistent user experience > (if there is x/i, how come there isn't "info break/l"?). > > In fact, in the case of all these specific commands (including "info > break/l") trying to switch to UNIX's option syntax vis: > > x --i > > would be a disaster! I stand by my previous disagreement with this position. All of the currently accepted / options that I can find are output format qualifiers. I find nothing strange or inconsistent about using a different syntax for options and for output qualifiers. GDB doesn't have any examples of break /shlib libc.so.6 round or break /shlib:libc.so.6 round only print/x round I don't think x/i is prior art for break /shlib. > What's unfortunate in all this is that the current CLI code doesn't > directly parse the qualifier convention. For instance: > > (gdb) x > x/i x/b x/8 x/4 > and > (gdb) load/vma /lma > (load, using vma addresses, the file "/lma"). Yes, this is unfortunate - at least in the minor bit that it generates some strange error messages. Almost nothing is centrally parsed in the CLI and that's a shame. > (1) Personally, I'm always using the `/' qualifier, but I can't remember > when, if ever, I used one of the UNIX style command options. That's because there are very few commands in all of GDB's CLI which _take_ options. /, -, or otherwise. -- Daniel Jacobowitz MontaVista Software Debian GNU/Linux Developer