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+This is Info file gdbint.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from
+the input file ./gdbint.texinfo.
+
+START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
+* Gdb-Internals: (gdbint). The GNU debugger's internals.
+END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
+
+ This file documents the internals of the GNU debugger GDB.
+
+ Copyright 1990-1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Contributed by
+Cygnus Solutions. Written by John Gilmore. Second Edition by Stan
+Shebs.
+
+ Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
+manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
+preserved on all copies.
+
+ Permission is granted to copy or distribute modified versions of this
+manual under the terms of the GPL (for which purpose this text may be
+regarded as a program in the language TeX).
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Top, Next: Requirements, Up: (dir)
+
+Scope of this Document
+**********************
+
+ This document documents the internals of the GNU debugger, GDB. It
+includes description of GDB's key algorithms and operations, as well as
+the mechanisms that adapt GDB to specific hosts and targets.
+
+* Menu:
+
+* Requirements::
+* Overall Structure::
+* Algorithms::
+* User Interface::
+* Symbol Handling::
+* Language Support::
+* Host Definition::
+* Target Architecture Definition::
+* Target Vector Definition::
+* Native Debugging::
+* Support Libraries::
+* Coding::
+* Porting GDB::
+* Hints::
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Requirements, Next: Overall Structure, Prev: Top, Up: Top
+
+Requirements
+************
+
+ Before diving into the internals, you should understand the formal
+requirements and other expectations for GDB. Although some of these may
+seem obvious, there have been proposals for GDB that have run counter to
+these requirements.
+
+ First of all, GDB is a debugger. It's not designed to be a front
+panel for embedded systems. It's not a text editor. It's not a shell.
+It's not a programming environment.
+
+ GDB is an interactive tool. Although a batch mode is available,
+GDB's primary role is to interact with a human programmer.
+
+ GDB should be responsive to the user. A programmer hot on the trail
+of a nasty bug, and operating under a looming deadline, is going to be
+very impatient of everything, including the response time to debugger
+commands.
+
+ GDB should be relatively permissive, such as for expressions. While
+the compiler should be picky (or have the option to be made picky),
+since source code lives for a long time usually, the programmer doing
+debugging shouldn't be spending time figuring out to mollify the
+debugger.
+
+ GDB will be called upon to deal with really large programs.
+Executable sizes of 50 to 100 megabytes occur regularly, and we've
+heard reports of programs approaching 1 gigabyte in size.
+
+ GDB should be able to run everywhere. No other debugger is available
+for even half as many configurations as GDB supports.
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Overall Structure, Next: Algorithms, Prev: Requirements, Up: Top
+
+Overall Structure
+*****************
+
+ GDB consists of three major subsystems: user interface, symbol
+handling (the "symbol side"), and target system handling (the "target
+side").
+
+ Ther user interface consists of several actual interfaces, plus
+supporting code.
+
+ The symbol side consists of object file readers, debugging info
+interpreters, symbol table management, source language expression
+parsing, type and value printing.
+
+ The target side consists of execution control, stack frame analysis,
+and physical target manipulation.
+
+ The target side/symbol side division is not formal, and there are a
+number of exceptions. For instance, core file support involves symbolic
+elements (the basic core file reader is in BFD) and target elements (it
+supplies the contents of memory and the values of registers). Instead,
+this division is useful for understanding how the minor subsystems
+should fit together.
+
+The Symbol Side
+===============
+
+ The symbolic side of GDB can be thought of as "everything you can do
+in GDB without having a live program running". For instance, you can
+look at the types of variables, and evaluate many kinds of expressions.
+
+The Target Side
+===============
+
+ The target side of GDB is the "bits and bytes manipulator". Although
+it may make reference to symbolic info here and there, most of the
+target side will run with only a stripped executable available - or
+even no executable at all, in remote debugging cases.
+
+ Operations such as disassembly, stack frame crawls, and register
+display, are able to work with no symbolic info at all. In some cases,
+such as disassembly, GDB will use symbolic info to present addresses
+relative to symbols rather than as raw numbers, but it will work either
+way.
+
+Configurations
+==============
+
+ "Host" refers to attributes of the system where GDB runs. "Target"
+refers to the system where the program being debugged executes. In
+most cases they are the same machine, in which case a third type of
+"Native" attributes come into play.
+
+ Defines and include files needed to build on the host are host
+support. Examples are tty support, system defined types, host byte
+order, host float format.
+
+ Defines and information needed to handle the target format are target
+dependent. Examples are the stack frame format, instruction set,
+breakpoint instruction, registers, and how to set up and tear down the
+stack to call a function.
+
+ Information that is only needed when the host and target are the
+same, is native dependent. One example is Unix child process support;
+if the host and target are not the same, doing a fork to start the
+target process is a bad idea. The various macros needed for finding the
+registers in the `upage', running `ptrace', and such are all in the
+native-dependent files.
+
+ Another example of native-dependent code is support for features that
+are really part of the target environment, but which require `#include'
+files that are only available on the host system. Core file handling
+and `setjmp' handling are two common cases.
+
+ When you want to make GDB work "native" on a particular machine, you
+have to include all three kinds of information.
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Algorithms, Next: User Interface, Prev: Overall Structure, Up: Top
+
+Algorithms
+**********
+
+ GDB uses a number of debugging-specific algorithms. They are often
+not very complicated, but get lost in the thicket of special cases and
+real-world issues. This chapter describes the basic algorithms and
+mentions some of the specific target definitions that they use.
+
+Frames
+======
+
+ A frame is a construct that GDB uses to keep track of calling and
+called functions.
+
+ `FRAME_FP' in the machine description has no meaning to the
+machine-independent part of GDB, except that it is used when setting up
+a new frame from scratch, as follows:
+
+ create_new_frame (read_register (FP_REGNUM), read_pc ()));
+
+ Other than that, all the meaning imparted to `FP_REGNUM' is imparted
+by the machine-dependent code. So, `FP_REGNUM' can have any value that
+is convenient for the code that creates new frames.
+(`create_new_frame' calls `INIT_EXTRA_FRAME_INFO' if it is defined;
+that is where you should use the `FP_REGNUM' value, if your frames are
+nonstandard.)
+
+ Given a GDB frame, define `FRAME_CHAIN' to determine the address of
+the calling function's frame. This will be used to create a new GDB
+frame struct, and then `INIT_EXTRA_FRAME_INFO' and `INIT_FRAME_PC' will
+be called for the new frame.
+
+Breakpoint Handling
+===================
+
+ In general, a breakpoint is a user-designated location in the program
+where the user wants to regain control if program execution ever reaches
+that location.
+
+ There are two main ways to implement breakpoints; either as
+"hardware" breakpoints or as "software" breakpoints.
+
+ Hardware breakpoints are sometimes available as a builtin debugging
+features with some chips. Typically these work by having dedicated
+register into which the breakpoint address may be stored. If the PC
+ever matches a value in a breakpoint registers, the CPU raises an
+exception and reports it to GDB. Another possibility is when an
+emulator is in use; many emulators include circuitry that watches the
+address lines coming out from the processor, and force it to stop if the
+address matches a breakpoint's address. A third possibility is that the
+target already has the ability to do breakpoints somehow; for instance,
+a ROM monitor may do its own software breakpoints. So although these
+are not literally "hardware breakpoints", from GDB's point of view they
+work the same; GDB need not do nothing more than set the breakpoint and
+wait for something to happen.
+
+ Since they depend on hardware resources, hardware breakpoints may be
+limited in number; when the user asks for more, GDB will start trying to
+set software breakpoints.
+
+ Software breakpoints require GDB to do somewhat more work. The basic
+theory is that GDB will replace a program instruction a trap, illegal
+divide, or some other instruction that will cause an exception, and then
+when it's encountered, GDB will take the exception and stop the program.
+When the user says to continue, GDB will restore the original
+instruction, single-step, re-insert the trap, and continue on.
+
+ Since it literally overwrites the program being tested, the program
+area must be writeable, so this technique won't work on programs in
+ROM. It can also distort the behavior of programs that examine
+themselves, although the situation would be highly unusual.
+
+ Also, the software breakpoint instruction should be the smallest
+size of instruction, so it doesn't overwrite an instruction that might
+be a jump target, and cause disaster when the program jumps into the
+middle of the breakpoint instruction. (Strictly speaking, the
+breakpoint must be no larger than the smallest interval between
+instructions that may be jump targets; perhaps there is an architecture
+where only even-numbered instructions may jumped to.) Note that it's
+possible for an instruction set not to have any instructions usable for
+a software breakpoint, although in practice only the ARC has failed to
+define such an instruction.
+
+ The basic definition of the software breakpoint is the macro
+`BREAKPOINT'.
+
+ Basic breakpoint object handling is in `breakpoint.c'. However,
+much of the interesting breakpoint action is in `infrun.c'.
+
+Single Stepping
+===============
+
+Signal Handling
+===============
+
+Thread Handling
+===============
+
+Inferior Function Calls
+=======================
+
+Longjmp Support
+===============
+
+ GDB has support for figuring out that the target is doing a
+`longjmp' and for stopping at the target of the jump, if we are
+stepping. This is done with a few specialized internal breakpoints,
+which are visible in the `maint info breakpoint' command.
+
+ To make this work, you need to define a macro called
+`GET_LONGJMP_TARGET', which will examine the `jmp_buf' structure and
+extract the longjmp target address. Since `jmp_buf' is target
+specific, you will need to define it in the appropriate `tm-XYZ.h'
+file. Look in `tm-sun4os4.h' and `sparc-tdep.c' for examples of how to
+do this.
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: User Interface, Next: Symbol Handling, Prev: Algorithms, Up: Top
+
+User Interface
+**************
+
+ GDB has several user interfaces. Although the command-line interface
+is the most common and most familiar, there are others.
+
+Command Interpreter
+===================
+
+ The command interpreter in GDB is fairly simple. It is designed to
+allow for the set of commands to be augmented dynamically, and also has
+a recursive subcommand capability, where the first argument to a
+command may itself direct a lookup on a different command list.
+
+ For instance, the `set' command just starts a lookup on the
+`setlist' command list, while `set thread' recurses to the
+`set_thread_cmd_list'.
+
+ To add commands in general, use `add_cmd'. `add_com' adds to the
+main command list, and should be used for those commands. The usual
+place to add commands is in the `_initialize_XYZ' routines at the ends
+of most source files.
+
+Console Printing
+================
+
+TUI
+===
+
+libgdb
+======
+
+ `libgdb' was an abortive project of years ago. The theory was to
+provide an API to GDB's functionality.
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Symbol Handling, Next: Language Support, Prev: User Interface, Up: Top
+
+Symbol Handling
+***************
+
+ Symbols are a key part of GDB's operation. Symbols include
+variables, functions, and types.
+
+Symbol Reading
+==============
+
+ GDB reads symbols from "symbol files". The usual symbol file is the
+file containing the program which GDB is debugging. GDB can be directed
+to use a different file for symbols (with the `symbol-file' command),
+and it can also read more symbols via the "add-file" and "load"
+commands, or while reading symbols from shared libraries.
+
+ Symbol files are initially opened by code in `symfile.c' using the
+BFD library. BFD identifies the type of the file by examining its
+header. `symfile_init' then uses this identification to locate a set
+of symbol-reading functions.
+
+ Symbol reading modules identify themselves to GDB by calling
+`add_symtab_fns' during their module initialization. The argument to
+`add_symtab_fns' is a `struct sym_fns' which contains the name (or name
+prefix) of the symbol format, the length of the prefix, and pointers to
+four functions. These functions are called at various times to process
+symbol-files whose identification matches the specified prefix.
+
+ The functions supplied by each module are:
+
+`XYZ_symfile_init(struct sym_fns *sf)'
+ Called from `symbol_file_add' when we are about to read a new
+ symbol file. This function should clean up any internal state
+ (possibly resulting from half-read previous files, for example)
+ and prepare to read a new symbol file. Note that the symbol file
+ which we are reading might be a new "main" symbol file, or might
+ be a secondary symbol file whose symbols are being added to the
+ existing symbol table.
+
+ The argument to `XYZ_symfile_init' is a newly allocated `struct
+ sym_fns' whose `bfd' field contains the BFD for the new symbol
+ file being read. Its `private' field has been zeroed, and can be
+ modified as desired. Typically, a struct of private information
+ will be `malloc''d, and a pointer to it will be placed in the
+ `private' field.
+
+ There is no result from `XYZ_symfile_init', but it can call
+ `error' if it detects an unavoidable problem.
+
+`XYZ_new_init()'
+ Called from `symbol_file_add' when discarding existing symbols.
+ This function need only handle the symbol-reading module's internal
+ state; the symbol table data structures visible to the rest of GDB
+ will be discarded by `symbol_file_add'. It has no arguments and no
+ result. It may be called after `XYZ_symfile_init', if a new
+ symbol table is being read, or may be called alone if all symbols
+ are simply being discarded.
+
+`XYZ_symfile_read(struct sym_fns *sf, CORE_ADDR addr, int mainline)'
+ Called from `symbol_file_add' to actually read the symbols from a
+ symbol-file into a set of psymtabs or symtabs.
+
+ `sf' points to the struct sym_fns originally passed to
+ `XYZ_sym_init' for possible initialization. `addr' is the offset
+ between the file's specified start address and its true address in
+ memory. `mainline' is 1 if this is the main symbol table being
+ read, and 0 if a secondary symbol file (e.g. shared library or
+ dynamically loaded file) is being read.
+
+ In addition, if a symbol-reading module creates psymtabs when
+XYZ_symfile_read is called, these psymtabs will contain a pointer to a
+function `XYZ_psymtab_to_symtab', which can be called from any point in
+the GDB symbol-handling code.
+
+`XYZ_psymtab_to_symtab (struct partial_symtab *pst)'
+ Called from `psymtab_to_symtab' (or the PSYMTAB_TO_SYMTAB macro) if
+ the psymtab has not already been read in and had its `pst->symtab'
+ pointer set. The argument is the psymtab to be fleshed-out into a
+ symtab. Upon return, pst->readin should have been set to 1, and
+ pst->symtab should contain a pointer to the new corresponding
+ symtab, or zero if there were no symbols in that part of the
+ symbol file.
+
+Partial Symbol Tables
+=====================
+
+ GDB has three types of symbol tables.
+
+ * full symbol tables (symtabs). These contain the main information
+ about symbols and addresses.
+
+ * partial symbol tables (psymtabs). These contain enough
+ information to know when to read the corresponding part of the full
+ symbol table.
+
+ * minimal symbol tables (msymtabs). These contain information
+ gleaned from non-debugging symbols.
+
+ This section describes partial symbol tables.
+
+ A psymtab is constructed by doing a very quick pass over an
+executable file's debugging information. Small amounts of information
+are extracted - enough to identify which parts of the symbol table will
+need to be re-read and fully digested later, when the user needs the
+information. The speed of this pass causes GDB to start up very
+quickly. Later, as the detailed rereading occurs, it occurs in small
+pieces, at various times, and the delay therefrom is mostly invisible to
+the user.
+
+ The symbols that show up in a file's psymtab should be, roughly,
+those visible to the debugger's user when the program is not running
+code from that file. These include external symbols and types, static
+symbols and types, and enum values declared at file scope.
+
+ The psymtab also contains the range of instruction addresses that the
+full symbol table would represent.
+
+ The idea is that there are only two ways for the user (or much of the
+code in the debugger) to reference a symbol:
+
+ * by its address (e.g. execution stops at some address which is
+ inside a function in this file). The address will be noticed to
+ be in the range of this psymtab, and the full symtab will be read
+ in. `find_pc_function', `find_pc_line', and other `find_pc_...'
+ functions handle this.
+
+ * by its name (e.g. the user asks to print a variable, or set a
+ breakpoint on a function). Global names and file-scope names will
+ be found in the psymtab, which will cause the symtab to be pulled
+ in. Local names will have to be qualified by a global name, or a
+ file-scope name, in which case we will have already read in the
+ symtab as we evaluated the qualifier. Or, a local symbol can be
+ referenced when we are "in" a local scope, in which case the first
+ case applies. `lookup_symbol' does most of the work here.
+
+ The only reason that psymtabs exist is to cause a symtab to be read
+in at the right moment. Any symbol that can be elided from a psymtab,
+while still causing that to happen, should not appear in it. Since
+psymtabs don't have the idea of scope, you can't put local symbols in
+them anyway. Psymtabs don't have the idea of the type of a symbol,
+either, so types need not appear, unless they will be referenced by
+name.
+
+ It is a bug for GDB to behave one way when only a psymtab has been
+read, and another way if the corresponding symtab has been read in.
+Such bugs are typically caused by a psymtab that does not contain all
+the visible symbols, or which has the wrong instruction address ranges.
+
+ The psymtab for a particular section of a symbol-file (objfile)
+could be thrown away after the symtab has been read in. The symtab
+should always be searched before the psymtab, so the psymtab will never
+be used (in a bug-free environment). Currently, psymtabs are allocated
+on an obstack, and all the psymbols themselves are allocated in a pair
+of large arrays on an obstack, so there is little to be gained by
+trying to free them unless you want to do a lot more work.
+
+Types
+=====
+
+ Fundamental Types (e.g., FT_VOID, FT_BOOLEAN).
+
+ These are the fundamental types that GDB uses internally.
+Fundamental types from the various debugging formats (stabs, ELF, etc)
+are mapped into one of these. They are basically a union of all
+fundamental types that gdb knows about for all the languages that GDB
+knows about.
+
+ Type Codes (e.g., TYPE_CODE_PTR, TYPE_CODE_ARRAY).
+
+ Each time GDB builds an internal type, it marks it with one of these
+types. The type may be a fundamental type, such as TYPE_CODE_INT, or a
+derived type, such as TYPE_CODE_PTR which is a pointer to another type.
+Typically, several FT_* types map to one TYPE_CODE_* type, and are
+distinguished by other members of the type struct, such as whether the
+type is signed or unsigned, and how many bits it uses.
+
+ Builtin Types (e.g., builtin_type_void, builtin_type_char).
+
+ These are instances of type structs that roughly correspond to
+fundamental types and are created as global types for GDB to use for
+various ugly historical reasons. We eventually want to eliminate these.
+Note for example that builtin_type_int initialized in gdbtypes.c is
+basically the same as a TYPE_CODE_INT type that is initialized in
+c-lang.c for an FT_INTEGER fundamental type. The difference is that the
+builtin_type is not associated with any particular objfile, and only one
+instance exists, while c-lang.c builds as many TYPE_CODE_INT types as
+needed, with each one associated with some particular objfile.
+
+Object File Formats
+===================
+
+a.out
+-----
+
+ The `a.out' format is the original file format for Unix. It
+consists of three sections: text, data, and bss, which are for program
+code, initialized data, and uninitialized data, respectively.
+
+ The `a.out' format is so simple that it doesn't have any reserved
+place for debugging information. (Hey, the original Unix hackers used
+`adb', which is a machine-language debugger.) The only debugging
+format for `a.out' is stabs, which is encoded as a set of normal
+symbols with distinctive attributes.
+
+ The basic `a.out' reader is in `dbxread.c'.
+
+COFF
+----
+
+ The COFF format was introduced with System V Release 3 (SVR3) Unix.
+COFF files may have multiple sections, each prefixed by a header. The
+number of sections is limited.
+
+ The COFF specification includes support for debugging. Although this
+was a step forward, the debugging information was woefully limited. For
+instance, it was not possible to represent code that came from an
+included file.
+
+ The COFF reader is in `coffread.c'.
+
+ECOFF
+-----
+
+ ECOFF is an extended COFF originally introduced for Mips and Alpha
+workstations.
+
+ The basic ECOFF reader is in `mipsread.c'.
+
+XCOFF
+-----
+
+ The IBM RS/6000 running AIX uses an object file format called XCOFF.
+The COFF sections, symbols, and line numbers are used, but debugging
+symbols are dbx-style stabs whose strings are located in the `.debug'
+section (rather than the string table). For more information, see
+*Note Top: (stabs)Top.
+
+ The shared library scheme has a clean interface for figuring out what
+shared libraries are in use, but the catch is that everything which
+refers to addresses (symbol tables and breakpoints at least) needs to be
+relocated for both shared libraries and the main executable. At least
+using the standard mechanism this can only be done once the program has
+been run (or the core file has been read).
+
+PE
+--
+
+ Windows 95 and NT use the PE (Portable Executable) format for their
+executables. PE is basically COFF with additional headers.
+
+ While BFD includes special PE support, GDB needs only the basic COFF
+reader.
+
+ELF
+---
+
+ The ELF format came with System V Release 4 (SVR4) Unix. ELF is
+similar to COFF in being organized into a number of sections, but it
+removes many of COFF's limitations.
+
+ The basic ELF reader is in `elfread.c'.
+
+SOM
+---
+
+ SOM is HP's object file and debug format (not to be confused with
+IBM's SOM, which is a cross-language ABI).
+
+ The SOM reader is in `hpread.c'.
+
+Other File Formats
+------------------
+
+ Other file formats that have been supported by GDB include Netware
+Loadable Modules (`nlmread.c'.
+
+Debugging File Formats
+======================
+
+ This section describes characteristics of debugging information that
+are independent of the object file format.
+
+stabs
+-----
+
+ `stabs' started out as special symbols within the `a.out' format.
+Since then, it has been encapsulated into other file formats, such as
+COFF and ELF.
+
+ While `dbxread.c' does some of the basic stab processing, including
+for encapsulated versions, `stabsread.c' does the real work.
+
+COFF
+----
+
+ The basic COFF definition includes debugging information. The level
+of support is minimal and non-extensible, and is not often used.
+
+Mips debug (Third Eye)
+----------------------
+
+ ECOFF includes a definition of a special debug format.
+
+ The file `mdebugread.c' implements reading for this format.
+
+DWARF 1
+-------
+
+ DWARF 1 is a debugging format that was originally designed to be
+used with ELF in SVR4 systems.
+
+ The DWARF 1 reader is in `dwarfread.c'.
+
+DWARF 2
+-------
+
+ DWARF 2 is an improved but incompatible version of DWARF 1.
+
+ The DWARF 2 reader is in `dwarf2read.c'.
+
+SOM
+---
+
+ Like COFF, the SOM definition includes debugging information.
+
+Adding a New Symbol Reader to GDB
+=================================
+
+ If you are using an existing object file format (a.out, COFF, ELF,
+etc), there is probably little to be done.
+
+ If you need to add a new object file format, you must first add it to
+BFD. This is beyond the scope of this document.
+
+ You must then arrange for the BFD code to provide access to the
+debugging symbols. Generally GDB will have to call swapping routines
+from BFD and a few other BFD internal routines to locate the debugging
+information. As much as possible, GDB should not depend on the BFD
+internal data structures.
+
+ For some targets (e.g., COFF), there is a special transfer vector
+used to call swapping routines, since the external data structures on
+various platforms have different sizes and layouts. Specialized
+routines that will only ever be implemented by one object file format
+may be called directly. This interface should be described in a file
+`bfd/libxyz.h', which is included by GDB.
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Language Support, Next: Host Definition, Prev: Symbol Handling, Up: Top
+
+Language Support
+****************
+
+ GDB's language support is mainly driven by the symbol reader,
+although it is possible for the user to set the source language
+manually.
+
+ GDB chooses the source language by looking at the extension of the
+file recorded in the debug info; `.c' means C, `.f' means Fortran, etc.
+It may also use a special-purpose language identifier if the debug
+format supports it, such as DWARF.
+
+Adding a Source Language to GDB
+===============================
+
+ To add other languages to GDB's expression parser, follow the
+following steps:
+
+*Create the expression parser.*
+ This should reside in a file `LANG-exp.y'. Routines for building
+ parsed expressions into a `union exp_element' list are in
+ `parse.c'.
+
+ Since we can't depend upon everyone having Bison, and YACC produces
+ parsers that define a bunch of global names, the following lines
+ *must* be included at the top of the YACC parser, to prevent the
+ various parsers from defining the same global names:
+
+ #define yyparse LANG_parse
+ #define yylex LANG_lex
+ #define yyerror LANG_error
+ #define yylval LANG_lval
+ #define yychar LANG_char
+ #define yydebug LANG_debug
+ #define yypact LANG_pact
+ #define yyr1 LANG_r1
+ #define yyr2 LANG_r2
+ #define yydef LANG_def
+ #define yychk LANG_chk
+ #define yypgo LANG_pgo
+ #define yyact LANG_act
+ #define yyexca LANG_exca
+ #define yyerrflag LANG_errflag
+ #define yynerrs LANG_nerrs
+
+ At the bottom of your parser, define a `struct language_defn' and
+ initialize it with the right values for your language. Define an
+ `initialize_LANG' routine and have it call
+ `add_language(LANG_language_defn)' to tell the rest of GDB that
+ your language exists. You'll need some other supporting variables
+ and functions, which will be used via pointers from your
+ `LANG_language_defn'. See the declaration of `struct
+ language_defn' in `language.h', and the other `*-exp.y' files, for
+ more information.
+
+*Add any evaluation routines, if necessary*
+ If you need new opcodes (that represent the operations of the
+ language), add them to the enumerated type in `expression.h'. Add
+ support code for these operations in `eval.c:evaluate_subexp()'.
+ Add cases for new opcodes in two functions from `parse.c':
+ `prefixify_subexp()' and `length_of_subexp()'. These compute the
+ number of `exp_element's that a given operation takes up.
+
+*Update some existing code*
+ Add an enumerated identifier for your language to the enumerated
+ type `enum language' in `defs.h'.
+
+ Update the routines in `language.c' so your language is included.
+ These routines include type predicates and such, which (in some
+ cases) are language dependent. If your language does not appear
+ in the switch statement, an error is reported.
+
+ Also included in `language.c' is the code that updates the variable
+ `current_language', and the routines that translate the
+ `language_LANG' enumerated identifier into a printable string.
+
+ Update the function `_initialize_language' to include your
+ language. This function picks the default language upon startup,
+ so is dependent upon which languages that GDB is built for.
+
+ Update `allocate_symtab' in `symfile.c' and/or symbol-reading code
+ so that the language of each symtab (source file) is set properly.
+ This is used to determine the language to use at each stack frame
+ level. Currently, the language is set based upon the extension of
+ the source file. If the language can be better inferred from the
+ symbol information, please set the language of the symtab in the
+ symbol-reading code.
+
+ Add helper code to `expprint.c:print_subexp()' to handle any new
+ expression opcodes you have added to `expression.h'. Also, add the
+ printed representations of your operators to `op_print_tab'.
+
+*Add a place of call*
+ Add a call to `LANG_parse()' and `LANG_error' in
+ `parse.c:parse_exp_1()'.
+
+*Use macros to trim code*
+ The user has the option of building GDB for some or all of the
+ languages. If the user decides to build GDB for the language
+ LANG, then every file dependent on `language.h' will have the
+ macro `_LANG_LANG' defined in it. Use `#ifdef's to leave out
+ large routines that the user won't need if he or she is not using
+ your language.
+
+ Note that you do not need to do this in your YACC parser, since if
+ GDB is not build for LANG, then `LANG-exp.tab.o' (the compiled
+ form of your parser) is not linked into GDB at all.
+
+ See the file `configure.in' for how GDB is configured for different
+ languages.
+
+*Edit `Makefile.in'*
+ Add dependencies in `Makefile.in'. Make sure you update the macro
+ variables such as `HFILES' and `OBJS', otherwise your code may not
+ get linked in, or, worse yet, it may not get `tar'red into the
+ distribution!
+
+
+File: gdbint.info, Node: Host Definition, Next: Target Architecture Definition, Prev: Language Support, Up: Top
+
+Host Definition
+***************
+
+ With the advent of autoconf, it's rarely necessary to have host
+definition machinery anymore.
+
+Adding a New Host
+=================
+
+ Most of GDB's host configuration support happens via autoconf. It
+should be rare to need new host-specific definitions. GDB still uses
+the host-specific definitions and files listed below, but these mostly
+exist for historical reasons, and should eventually disappear.
+
+ Several files control GDB's configuration for host systems:
+
+`gdb/config/ARCH/XYZ.mh'
+ Specifies Makefile fragments needed when hosting on machine XYZ.
+ In particular, this lists the required machine-dependent object
+ files, by defining `XDEPFILES=...'. Also specifies the header file
+ which describes host XYZ, by defining `XM_FILE= xm-XYZ.h'. You
+ can also define `CC', `SYSV_DEFINE', `XM_CFLAGS', `XM_ADD_FILES',
+ `XM_CLIBS', `XM_CDEPS', etc.; see `Makefile.in'.
+
+`gdb/config/ARCH/xm-XYZ.h'
+ (`xm.h' is a link to this file, created by configure). Contains C
+ macro definitions describing the host system environment, such as
+ byte order, host C compiler and library.
+
+`gdb/XYZ-xdep.c'
+ Contains any miscellaneous C code required for this machine as a
+ host. On most machines it doesn't exist at all. If it does
+ exist, put `XYZ-xdep.o' into the `XDEPFILES' line in
+ `gdb/config/ARCH/XYZ.mh'.
+
+Generic Host Support Files
+--------------------------
+
+ There are some "generic" versions of routines that can be used by
+various systems. These can be customized in various ways by macros
+defined in your `xm-XYZ.h' file. If these routines work for the XYZ
+host, you can just include the generic file's name (with `.o', not
+`.c') in `XDEPFILES'.
+
+ Otherwise, if your machine needs custom support routines, you will
+need to write routines that perform the same functions as the generic
+file. Put them into `XYZ-xdep.c', and put `XYZ-xdep.o' into
+`XDEPFILES'.
+
+`ser-unix.c'
+ This contains serial line support for Unix systems. This is always
+ included, via the makefile variable `SER_HARDWIRE'; override this
+ variable in the `.mh' file to avoid it.
+
+`ser-go32.c'
+ This contains serial line support for 32-bit programs running
+ under DOS, using the GO32 execution environment.
+
+`ser-tcp.c'
+ This contains generic TCP support using sockets.
+
+Host Conditionals
+=================
+
+ When GDB is configured and compiled, various macros are defined or
+left undefined, to control compilation based on the attributes of the
+host system. These macros and their meanings (or if the meaning is not
+documented here, then one of the source files where they are used is
+indicated) are:
+
+`GDBINIT_FILENAME'
+ The default name of GDB's initialization file (normally
+ `.gdbinit').
+
+`MEM_FNS_DECLARED'
+ Your host config file defines this if it includes declarations of
+ `memcpy' and `memset'. Define this to avoid conflicts between the
+ native include files and the declarations in `defs.h'.
+
+`NO_SYS_FILE'
+ Define this if your system does not have a `<sys/file.h>'.
+
+`SIGWINCH_HANDLER'
+ If your host defines `SIGWINCH', you can define this to be the name
+ of a function to be called if `SIGWINCH' is received.
+
+`SIGWINCH_HANDLER_BODY'
+ Define this to expand into code that will define the function
+ named by the expansion of `SIGWINCH_HANDLER'.
+
+`ALIGN_STACK_ON_STARTUP'
+ Define this if your system is of a sort that will crash in
+ `tgetent' if the stack happens not to be longword-aligned when
+ `main' is called. This is a rare situation, but is known to occur
+ on several different types of systems.
+
+`CRLF_SOURCE_FILES'
+ Define this if host files use `\r\n' rather than `\n' as a line
+ terminator. This will cause source file listings to omit `\r'
+ characters when printing and it will allow \r\n line endings of
+ files which are "sourced" by gdb. It must be possible to open
+ files in binary mode using `O_BINARY' or, for fopen, `"rb"'.
+
+`DEFAULT_PROMPT'
+ The default value of the prompt string (normally `"(gdb) "').
+
+`DEV_TTY'
+ The name of the generic TTY device, defaults to `"/dev/tty"'.
+
+`FCLOSE_PROVIDED'
+ Define this if the system declares `fclose' in the headers included
+ in `defs.h'. This isn't needed unless your compiler is unusually
+ anal.
+
+`FOPEN_RB'
+ Define this if binary files are opened the same way as text files.
+
+`GETENV_PROVIDED'
+ Define this if the system declares `getenv' in its headers included
+ in `defs.h'. This isn't needed unless your compiler is unusually
+ anal.
+
+`HAVE_MMAP'
+ In some cases, use the system call `mmap' for reading symbol
+ tables. For some machines this allows for sharing and quick
+ updates.
+
+`HAVE_SIGSETMASK'
+ Define this if the host system has job control, but does not define
+ `sigsetmask()'. Currently, this is only true of the RS/6000.
+
+`HAVE_TERMIO'
+ Define this if the host system has `termio.h'.
+
+`HOST_BYTE_ORDER'
+ The ordering of bytes in the host. This must be defined to be
+ either `BIG_ENDIAN' or `LITTLE_ENDIAN'.
+
+`INT_MAX'
+
+`INT_MIN'
+
+`LONG_MAX'
+
+`UINT_MAX'
+
+`ULONG_MAX'
+ Values for host-side constants.
+
+`ISATTY'
+ Substitute for isatty, if not available.
+
+`LONGEST'
+ This is the longest integer type available on the host. If not
+ defined, it will default to `long long' or `long', depending on
+ `CC_HAS_LONG_LONG'.
+
+`CC_HAS_LONG_LONG'
+ Define this if the host C compiler supports "long long". This is
+ set by the configure script.
+
+`PRINTF_HAS_LONG_LONG'
+ Define this if the host can handle printing of long long integers
+ via the printf format directive "ll". This is set by the configure
+ script.
+
+`HAVE_LONG_DOUBLE'
+ Define this if the host C compiler supports "long double". This is
+ set by the configure script.
+
+`PRINTF_HAS_LONG_DOUBLE'
+ Define this if the host can handle printing of long double
+ float-point numbers via the printf format directive "Lg". This is
+ set by the configure script.
+
+`SCANF_HAS_LONG_DOUBLE'
+ Define this if the host can handle the parsing of long double
+ float-point numbers via the scanf format directive directive "Lg".
+ This is set by the configure script.
+
+`LSEEK_NOT_LINEAR'
+ Define this if `lseek (n)' does not necessarily move to byte number
+ `n' in the file. This is only used when reading source files. It
+ is normally faster to define `CRLF_SOURCE_FILES' when possible.
+
+`L_SET'
+ This macro is used as the argument to lseek (or, most commonly,
+ bfd_seek). FIXME, should be replaced by SEEK_SET instead, which
+ is the POSIX equivalent.
+
+`MAINTENANCE_CMDS'
+ If the value of this is 1, then a number of optional maintenance
+ commands are compiled in.
+
+`MALLOC_INCOMPATIBLE'
+ Define this if the system's prototype for `malloc' differs from the
+ ANSI definition.
+
+`MMAP_BASE_ADDRESS'
+ When using HAVE_MMAP, the first mapping should go at this address.
+
+`MMAP_INCREMENT'
+ when using HAVE_MMAP, this is the increment between mappings.
+
+`NEED_POSIX_SETPGID'
+ Define this to use the POSIX version of `setpgid' to determine
+ whether job control is available.
+
+`NORETURN'
+ If defined, this should be one or more tokens, such as `volatile',
+ that can be used in both the declaration and definition of
+ functions to indicate that they never return. The default is
+ already set correctly if compiling with GCC. This will almost
+ never need to be defined.
+
+`ATTR_NORETURN'
+ If defined, this should be one or more tokens, such as
+ `__attribute__ ((noreturn))', that can be used in the declarations
+ of functions to indicate that they never return. The default is
+ already set correctly if compiling with GCC. This will almost
+ never need to be defined.
+
+`USE_MMALLOC'
+ GDB will use the `mmalloc' library for memory allocation for symbol
+ reading if this symbol is defined. Be careful defining it since
+ there are systems on which `mmalloc' does not work for some
+ reason. One example is the DECstation, where its RPC library
+ can't cope with our redefinition of `malloc' to call `mmalloc'.
+ When defining `USE_MMALLOC', you will also have to set `MMALLOC'
+ in the Makefile, to point to the mmalloc library. This define is
+ set when you configure with -with-mmalloc.
+
+`NO_MMCHECK'
+ Define this if you are using `mmalloc', but don't want the overhead
+ of checking the heap with `mmcheck'. Note that on some systems,
+ the C runtime makes calls to malloc prior to calling `main', and if
+ `free' is ever called with these pointers after calling `mmcheck'
+ to enable checking, a memory corruption abort is certain to occur.
+ These systems can still use mmalloc, but must define NO_MMCHECK.
+
+`MMCHECK_FORCE'
+ Define this to 1 if the C runtime allocates memory prior to
+ `mmcheck' being called, but that memory is never freed so we don't
+ have to worry about it triggering a memory corruption abort. The
+ default is 0, which means that `mmcheck' will only install the heap
+ checking functions if there has not yet been any memory allocation
+ calls, and if it fails to install the functions, gdb will issue a
+ warning. This is currently defined if you configure using
+ -with-mmalloc.
+
+`NO_SIGINTERRUPT'
+ Define this to indicate that siginterrupt() is not available.
+
+`R_OK'
+ Define if this is not in a system .h file.
+
+`SEEK_CUR'
+
+`SEEK_SET'
+ Define these to appropriate value for the system lseek(), if not
+ already defined.
+
+`STOP_SIGNAL'
+ This is the signal for stopping GDB. Defaults to SIGTSTP. (Only
+ redefined for the Convex.)
+
+`USE_O_NOCTTY'
+ Define this if the interior's tty should be opened with the
+ O_NOCTTY flag. (FIXME: This should be a native-only flag, but
+ `inflow.c' is always linked in.)
+
+`USG'
+ Means that System V (prior to SVR4) include files are in use.
+ (FIXME: This symbol is abused in `infrun.c', `regex.c',
+ `remote-nindy.c', and `utils.c' for other things, at the moment.)
+
+`lint'
+ Define this to help placate lint in some situations.
+
+`volatile'
+ Define this to override the defaults of `__volatile__' or `/**/'.
+