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This is gdbint.info, produced by Makeinfo version 3.12f from
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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::
* Testsuite::
* 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 with 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.

   Before removing commands from the command set it is a good idea to
deprecate them for some time.  Use `deprecate_cmd' on commands or
aliases to set the deprecated flag.  `deprecate_cmd' takes a `struct
cmd_list_element' as it's first argument.  You can use the return value
from `add_com' or `add_cmd' to deprecate the command immediately after
it is created.

   The first time a comamnd is used the user will be warned and offered
a replacement (if one exists). Note that the replacement string passed
to `deprecate_cmd' should be the full name of the command, i.e. the
entire string the user should type at the command line.

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.  `find_sym_fns' 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_STD_REGS'
     This macro is deprecated.

`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.

`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_GENERIC_DUMMY_FRAMES'
     Define this to 1 if the target is using the generic inferior
     function call code.  See `blockframe.c' for more information.

`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 `/**/'.