gdb: Introduce setting construct within cmd_list_element

cmd_list_element can contain a pointer to data that can be set and / or
shown.  This is achieved with the void* VAR member which points to the
data that can be accessed, while the VAR_TYPE member (of type enum
var_types) indicates how to interpret the data pointed to.

With this pattern, the user of the cmd_list_element needs to know what
is the storage type associated with a given VAR_TYPES in order to do
the proper casting.  No automatic safeguard is available to prevent
miss-use of the pointer.  Client code typically looks something like:

	switch (c->var_type)
	{
	  case var_zuinteger:
	    unsigned int v = *(unsigned int*) c->var;
	    ...
	    break;
	  case var_boolean:
	    bool v = *(bool *) c->var;
	    ...
	    break;
	  ...
	}

This patch proposes to add an abstraction around the var_types and void*
pointer pair.  The abstraction is meant to prevent the user from having
to handle the cast and verify that the data is read or written as a type
that is coherent with the setting's var_type.  This is achieved by
introducing the struct setting which exposes a set of templated get /
set member functions.  The template parameter is the type of the
variable that holds the referred variable.

Using those accessors allows runtime checks to be inserted in order to
ensure that the data pointed to has the expected type.  For example,
instantiating the member functions with bool will yield something
similar to:

	const bool &get<bool> () const
	{
	  gdb_assert (m_var_type == var_boolean);
	  gdb_assert (m_var != nullptr);
	  return *static_cast<bool *> (m_var);
	}
	void set<bool> (const bool &var)
	{
	  gdb_assert (m_var_type == var_boolean);
	  gdb_assert (m_var != nullptr);
	  *static_cast<bool *> (m_var) = var;
	}

Using the new abstraction, our initial example becomes:

	switch (c->var_type)
	{
	  case var_zuinteger:
	    unsigned int v = c->var->get<unsigned int> ();
	    ...
	    break;
	  case var_boolean:
	    bool v = c->var->get<bool> ();
	    ...
	    break;
	  ...
	}

While the call site is still similar, the introduction of runtime checks
help ensure correct usage of the data.

In order to avoid turning the bulk of add_setshow_cmd_full into a
templated function, and following a suggestion from Pedro Alves, a
setting can be constructed from a pre validated type erased reference to
a variable.  This is what setting::erased_args is used for.

Introducing an opaque abstraction to describe a setting will also make
it possible to use callbacks to retrieve or set the value of the setting
on the fly instead of pointing to a static chunk of memory.  This will
be done added in a later commit.

Given that a cmd_list_element may or may not reference a setting, the
VAR and VAR_TYPES members of the struct are replaced with a
gdb::optional<setting> named VAR.

Few internal function signatures have been modified to take into account
this new abstraction:

-The functions value_from_setting, str_value_from_setting and
 get_setshow_command_value_string used to have a 'cmd_list_element *'
 parameter but only used it for the VAR and VAR_TYPE member. They now
 take a 'const setting &' parameter instead.
- Similarly, the 'void *' and a 'enum var_types' parameters of
  pascm_param_value and gdbpy_parameter_value have been replaced with a
  'const setting &' parameter.

No user visible change is expected after this patch.

Tested on GNU/Linux x86_64, with no regression noticed.

Co-authored-by: Simon Marchi <simon.marchi@polymtl.ca>
Change-Id: Ie1d08c3ceb8b30b3d7bf1efe036eb8acffcd2f34

0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions