http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ProjectArcher
Project Archer
Project
Archer is a gdb development branch primarily dedicated to improving the
C++ debugging experience. However, other modifications to gdb may be
attempted on the branch as well. (We will update this page with more
information as it is available.)
Getting the source
Archer is
hosted in a git repository.
You can clone it using:
The git:// scheme is not recommended
for read-write access. If you intend to push to the Archer repo, use
the ssh:// scheme.
Then you
can check out and track the trunk using:
Also see ArcherBranchManagement
for some information on branch management in archer.
Contacting Archer developers
Archer has
its own mailing
list (and as gmane group gmane.comp.debugging.archer).
You can
also find the Archer developers on the gdb irc channel, aka
irc.freenode.net #gdb.
Archer
also has a read-only commits mailing list.
All commits to the git repository are also sent to this list. Feel free
to follow-up posts to the commits list to the main archer list.
To
subscribe to a list, you can either send email to the standard
-subscribe address, or you can fill out the form about halfway down this page.
Roadmap
The Archer
project consists of a number of sub-projects. Most of these have to do
with improving the C++ user experience in some way; however, there are
a couple non-C++ projects as well. In general a given project is
developed on its own branch. The projects and their breakdowns into
tasks are:
- _expression_ Parsing.
GDB's understanding of C++ expressions is incomplete. Some particular
issues we are working on:
- Exception
handling.
-
catch throw
and catch catch are documented as catching named or all exceptions. GDB
can only catch all exceptions. Fix documentation to reflect reality. (GDB
PR 9598)
-
An
inferior function call which throws an exception will cause GDB to lose
control of the inferior. This is because of the mechanics of the dummy
frame construction. If this is the case, rescue the inferior and
unwind.(GDB PR 9600.
Solution submitted under archer-pmuldoon-exception-rewind branch).
-
next
over an exception-throwing call will cause GDB to lose control over the
inferior. This is very unfriendly. (GDB PR 9593.
Solution being worked on archer-pmuldoon-next-over-throw branch.)
-
catch throw
and catch catch return control of the inferior inside the: __cxa_throw
and __cxa_begin_catch functions respectively. This is not a very good
user experience. (GDB PR 9599).
-
Demangling.
We'd like gdb to follow a simple rule: whatis
should print what the user wrote in their source (within reason). After
investigating this we found that the problems are generally on the GCC
side.
- Pretty-printing.
Many containers in libstdc++, for example, are inscrutable to the user.
Our goal is to fix this by allowing application- and library-specific
pretty-printers, written in Python, to change how values are displayed.
- Scalability.
Attaching to programs with many shared libraries is very slow. One
subproject is to fix this.
- Froggy.
We'd like gdb to serve as a testbed for froggy (a user-space API to
utrace). Also, we hope froggy will help make gdb more robust when
linked with libpython.
- GCC
changes. Part of our project's scope spills over to gcc. There are a
number of gcc debuginfo bugs that we would like to fix.
- Fedora
patches. Fedora has a big backlog of gdb patches. We will rebase these
to a more recent gdb, integrate them into archer, and send them
upstream as appropriate.
-
Syscall.
One archer branch is dedicated to adding catch syscall functionality.
Process
The
development process for getting changes into Archer (and then upstream
GDB) is also being discussed on the mailing list:
Trivia
Q:
Why is it called Project Archer?
A: The Archer
Fish is the GDB Mascot.
