Re: [PATCH] Fix double apropos output when both alias name and command name match the pattern

On 5/31/26 1:37 PM, Philippe Waroquiers wrote:
> apropos_cmd first tries to match the command name with the pattern.
> If that succeeds, it prints the command and all its aliases not having
> a specific doc string.
> In this case, it should not try to match the command aliases names as
> the command has already been printed.
>
> Without this patch, the behaviour is:
> (gdb) alias ter-exec = interpreter-exec
> (gdb) apropos er-exe
> interpreter-exec, ter-exec -- Execute a command in an interpreter.
> interpreter-exec, ter-exec -- Execute a command in an interpreter.
> (gdb)
> ---

Hi! Thanks for working on this and sorry for the delay in getting a review.

This looks like a pretty good and straight-forward change. Hopefully it 
gets approved soon.

Reviewed-By: Guinevere Larsen <[email protected]>

-- 
Cheers,
Guinevere Larsen
it/its
she/her (deprecated)

>   gdb/cli/cli-decode.c            | 18 ++++++++++--------
>   gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/help.exp |  8 ++++++++
>   2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/gdb/cli/cli-decode.c b/gdb/cli/cli-decode.c
> index de40faeed59..36f911c2cd6 100644
> --- a/gdb/cli/cli-decode.c
> +++ b/gdb/cli/cli-decode.c
> @@ -1784,16 +1784,18 @@ apropos_cmd (struct ui_file *stream,
>   	  returnvalue = regex.search (c->name, name_len, 0, name_len, NULL);
>   	  if (returnvalue >= 0)
>   	    print_doc_of_command (*c, verbose, regex, stream);
> -
> -	  /* Try to match against the name of the aliases.  */
> -	  for (const cmd_list_element &alias : c->aliases)
> +	  else
>   	    {
> -	      name_len = strlen (alias.name);
> -	      returnvalue = regex.search (alias.name, name_len, 0, name_len, NULL);
> -	      if (returnvalue >= 0)
> +	      /* Try to match against the name of the aliases.  */
> +	      for (const cmd_list_element &alias : c->aliases)
>   		{
> -		  print_doc_of_command (*c, verbose, regex, stream);
> -		  break;
> +		  name_len = strlen (alias.name);
> +		  returnvalue = regex.search (alias.name, name_len, 0, name_len, NULL);
> +		  if (returnvalue >= 0)
> +		    {
> +		      print_doc_of_command (*c, verbose, regex, stream);
> +		      break;
> +		    }
>   		}
>   	    }
>   	}
> diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/help.exp b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/help.exp
> index a8c55721ef2..6a88c8d4db2 100644
> --- a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/help.exp
> +++ b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/help.exp
> @@ -135,6 +135,14 @@ gdb_test_no_output "alias mybt10 = backtrace 10" "define mybt10 alias"
>   gdb_test "apropos Print backtrace of all stack frames, or innermost COUNT frames\." \
>       "backtrace, mybt10, mybt, where, bt -- Print backtrace of all stack frames, or innermost COUNT frames\.\[\r\n\]+  alias mybt10 = backtrace 10"
>   
> +# Test apropos when both the alias name and the aliased command match the pattern.
> +gdb_test_no_output "alias ter-exec = interpreter-exec" "define ter-exec alias"
> +gdb_test_multiple "apropos er-exe" "check we have a single output line when alias and command name match" {
> +    -re "^apropos er-exe\r\ninterpreter-exec, ter-exec -- Execute a command in an interpreter\.\r\n$gdb_prompt $" {
> +	pass $gdb_test_name
> +    }
> +}
> +
>   # Test help for commands having aliases.
>   gdb_test "help bt" "backtrace, mybt10, mybt, where, bt\[\r\n\]+  alias mybt10 = backtrace 10\[\r\n\]+Print backtrace of all stack frames, or innermost COUNT frames\..*"
>