gdb/mi or annotations detection

gdb/mi or annotations detection

[Bob Rossi]

Hi,

How is the front end supposed to detect whether or not it should use
annotations or GDB/MI? I think there needs to be a way of doing this
besides starting it once for detection/failure for MI, and then starting
it again for annotations.

Also, what about different versions of MI. As it progresses different
versions will have different functionality. How will the front end know
what functionality each version has?

ex.
   In the first release of MI there might not be the
   -symbol-info-linetable command. So, the front end will have to give
   commands 'info line' over and over. Then, when this command becomes
   available in the next release, the front end can start using it
   instead.

The front end can not do a 'gdb --version' because usually there are
gdb's installed that are cvs snapshots ( debian ).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Bob Rossi

Re: gdb/mi or annotations detection

[Alain Magloire]

> 
> Hi,
> 
> How is the front end supposed to detect whether or not it should use
> annotations or GDB/MI? I think there needs to be a way of doing this
> besides starting it once for detection/failure for MI, and then starting
> it again for annotations.
> 
> Also, what about different versions of MI. As it progresses different
> versions will have different functionality. How will the front end know
> what functionality each version has?
> 

I hear you loud and clear.
Eclipse/CDT, a debugger using heavily GDB/MI, is plague
with hacks trying to be compatible with all MI version.
This is probably not a problem with debuggers like insight, since they are
tied with a gdb version.

I thought, I had a PR on this, wait ... mi/1186

> ex.
>    In the first release of MI there might not be the
>    -symbol-info-linetable command. So, the front end will have to give
>    commands 'info line' over and over. Then, when this command becomes
>    available in the next release, the front end can start using it
>    instead.
> 
> The front end can not do a 'gdb --version' because usually there are
> gdb's installed that are cvs snapshots ( debian ).
> 

"gdb --version", generates all sort of things depending on the platform, the distrubution, etc ..
not reliable

> Does anyone have any ideas?
> 

-mi-level ? 8-)

bye,

Re: gdb/mi or annotations detection

[Andrew Cagney]

> Hi,
> 
> How is the front end supposed to detect whether or not it should use
> annotations or GDB/MI? I think there needs to be a way of doing this
> besides starting it once for detection/failure for MI, and then starting
> it again for annotations.
> 
> Also, what about different versions of MI. As it progresses different
> versions will have different functionality. How will the front end know
> what functionality each version has?
> 
> ex.
>    In the first release of MI there might not be the
>    -symbol-info-linetable command. So, the front end will have to give
>    commands 'info line' over and over. Then, when this command becomes
>    available in the next release, the front end can start using it
>    instead.
> 
> The front end can not do a 'gdb --version' because usually there are
> gdb's installed that are cvs snapshots ( debian ).
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas?

You can start gdb with -i=miN for a specific version, but that doesn't 
handle your case - you want to know the most up-to-date version in a 
running GDB.

You'll also need to watch out for GDB's cut mid-branch.  The version is 
only rolled when formal gdb releases are made.

Andrew