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authorSergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>2017-11-24 16:56:08 -0500
committerSergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com>2017-12-01 12:23:30 -0500
commite2e321740ce2e36a97be2a410cd56eebaa2304aa (patch)
treee6fc159416df7c153c130432a174413e139b1d29 /gdb/NEWS
parent0f873fd58b51a2906f31bb445ab685da04a1be23 (diff)
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Add support for the readnever concept
The purpose of this concept is to turn the load of debugging information off, either globally (via the '--readnever' option), or objfile-specific. The implementation proposed here is an extension of the patch distributed with Fedora GDB; looking at the Fedora patch itself and the history, one can see some reasons why it was never resubmitted: - The patch appears to have been introduced as a workaround, at least initially; - The patch is far from perfect, as it simply shunts the load of DWARF debugging information, without really worrying about the other debug format. - Who really does non-symbolic debugging anyways? One use of this feature is when a user simply wants to do the following sequence: attach, dump core, detach. Loading the debugging information in this case is an unnecessary cause of delay. This patch expands the version shipped with Fedora GDB in order to make the feature available for all the debuginfo backends, not only for DWARF. It also implements a per-objfile flag which can be activated by using the "-readnever" command when using the 'add-symbol-file' or 'symbol-file' commands. It's also worth mentioning that this patch tests whether GDB correctly fails to initialize if both '--readnow' and '--readnever' options are passed. Tested on the BuildBot. gdb/ChangeLog: 2017-12-01 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.com> Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com> * NEWS (Changes since GDB 8.0: Mention new '--readnever' feature. * coffread.c (coff_symfile_read): Do not map over sections with 'coff_locate_sections' if readnever is on. * dwarf2read.c (dwarf2_has_info): Return 0 if readnever is on. * elfread.c (elf_symfile_read): Do not map over sections with 'elf_locate_sections' if readnever is on. * main.c (validate_readnow_readnever): New function. (captured_main_1): Add support for --readnever. (print_gdb_help): Document --readnever. * objfile-flags.h (enum objfile_flag) <OBJF_READNEVER>: New flag. * symfile.c (readnever_symbol_files): New global. (symbol_file_add_with_addrs): Set 'OBJF_READNEVER' when 'READNEVER_SYMBOL_FILES' is set. (validate_readnow_readnever): New function. (symbol_file_command): Handle '-readnever' option. Call 'validate_readnow_readnever'. (add_symbol_file_command): Handle '-readnever' option. Call 'validate_readnow_readnever'. (_initialize_symfile): Document new '-readnever' option for both 'symbol-file' and 'add-symbol-file' commands. * top.h (readnever_symbol_files): New extern global. * xcoffread.c (xcoff_initial_scan): Do not read debug information if readnever is on. gdb/doc/ChangeLog: 2017-12-01 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.com> Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com> * gdb.texinfo (File Options): Document --readnever. (Commands to Specify Files): Likewise, for 'symbol-file' and 'add-symbol-file'. gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog: 2017-12-01 Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@redhat.com> Pedro Alves <palves@redhat.com> * gdb.base/readnever.c, gdb.base/readnever.exp: New files.
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*** Changes since GDB 8.0
+* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
+ symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
+ but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
+ This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
+ not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
+
* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version