cvs commit: src/sys/kern imgact_elf.c

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 11:58:35AM +0200, Mark Kettenis wrote:
> 
> I think a redesign of the core file format along the lines you said
> above would defenitely pay off.  The NetBSD folks have done it, and I
> think their approach is pretty elegant.  An improtant benefit of their
> approach is that it's (almost) machine independent.  The BFD code is
> pretty much localized in elf.c (look for the functions with netbsd in
> their names).  Adapting that code for FreeNSD should not be much work.
> I don't think any further changes to GDB are needed.

One problem I see is that the pid and lwpid, as saved by binutils are
mangled into a single id before given to gdb. I guess the trick is to
not tell binutils about lwpid. If I'm not mistaken, binutils doesn't
really keep track if the lwpids anyway.

> Please realize that the problems you're citing largely stem from the
> let's simulate-Linux-which-simulates-SVR4 type notes currently used by
> FreeBSD.  Throwing that all overboard will save much trouble in the
> future.

Yes, I got that impression as well, but the impact on binutils and the
backward compatibility problems are more than I could handle for 5.3.

> I'm certainly willing to do some of the legwork, since it'd make life
> for me on the GDB side a lot easier if you'd adapt these NetBSD-style
> core file notes.  I certainly have some time the coming weeks to spend
> on it.

In principle I'm all for it. I like to see a plan and key players signed
up for it, if we're going to do this for 5.3.

-- 
 Marcel Moolenaar	  USPA: A-39004		 marcel at xcllnt.net