Re: GDB Remote Protocol Extension - Linux VMCOREINFO - Request for Feedback

Stephen Brennan <[email protected]> Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:11:48 -0800
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-debuggers
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Andrew Burgess <[email protected]> writes:
> I have included below a very simple example that implements 'info stuff'
> which just displays the 'threads' information from a remote target.
> Place the code into 'cmd.py', then from GDB 'source cmd.py', after which
> you can 'info stuff' and 'help info stuff'.

Hi Andrew (and others)

Thank you for your initial script for the qXfer command. I've started
implementation with QEMU and I used it to great effect to help me debug
and test that. I'll soon be submitting it to the QEMU mailing list (once
I address those 32-bit and other-endian concerns).

I went ahead and updated your script a bit, mostly to my own tastes. The
only major change I made was that the arguments to the qXfer command
need to be in HEX, not decimal.

https://gist.github.com/brenns10/c936c8e7ef8193e668884ed70070ccfb

In any case, at this point, I would like to submit a patch to GDB to
update the manual to include this new qXfer command, since I've at least
got a client & a stub both speaking the same language on it. So I know
it's a feasible design.

I surmise that I need to update the (very large) gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
file. But when I run commands like "make doc/gdb.dvi" to build the
resulting output, I get errors related to a missing file "gdb-cfg.texi"
(see below). I confirmed this not just on Oracle Linux but also on Arch
Linux. I'm happy to try out another distro via a container too. I have
texinfo, makeinfo, etc. istalled, so it's a bit confusing.

Does anybody have any advice for building the docs?

Thanks,
Stephen

Error below:
$ make doc/gdb.dvi
texi2dvi  doc/gdb.texinfo
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.21 (TeX Live 2020) (preloaded format=etex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode

(./doc/gdb.texinfo (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/texinfo/texinfo.tex
Loading texinfo [version 2019-09-20.22]: pdf, fonts, markup, glyphs,
page headings, tables, conditionals, indexing, sectioning, toc, environments,
defuns, macros, cross references, insertions,
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/epsf/epsf.tex
This is `epsf.tex' v2.7.4 <14 February 2011>
) localization, formatting, and turning on texinfo input format.)
./doc/gdb.texinfo:10: I can't find file `gdb-cfg.texi'.
@temp ->@input gdb-cfg.texi 
                            
@includezzz ...and @input #1 }@expandafter }@temp 
                                                  @popthisfilestack 
l.10 @include gdb-cfg.texi
                          
(Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit)
Please type another input file name
./doc/gdb.texinfo:10: Emergency stop.
@temp ->@input gdb-cfg.texi 
                            
@includezzz ...and @input #1 }@expandafter }@temp 
                                                  @popthisfilestack 
l.10 @include gdb-cfg.texi
                          
No pages of output.
Transcript written on gdb.log.
/usr/bin/texi2dvi: etex exited with bad status, quitting.
make: *** [<builtin>: doc/gdb.dvi] Error 1