Andrew Burgess
b63a5e38ef
This commit lays the ground work for allowing GDB to write its target description into a generated core file. The goal of this work is to allow a user to connect to a remote target, capture a core file from within GDB, then pass the executable and core file to another user and have the user be able to examine the state of the machine without needing to connect to a running target. Different remote targets can have different register sets and this information is communicated from the target to GDB in the target description. It is possible for a user to extract the target description from GDB and pass this along with the core file so that when the core file is used the target description can be fed back into GDB, however this is not a great user experience. It would be nicer, I think, if GDB could write the target description directly into the core file, and then make use of this description when loading a core file. This commit performs the binutils/bfd side of this task, adding the boiler plate functions to access the target description from within a core file note, and reserving a new number for a note containing the target description. Later commits will extend GDB to make use of this. The new note is given the name 'GDB' and a type NT_GDB_TDESC. This should hopefully protect us if there's ever a reuse of the number assigned to NT_GDB_TDESC by some other core file producer. It should also, hopefully, make it clearer to users that this note carries GDB specific information. bfd/ChangeLog: * elf-bfd.h (elfcore_write_gdb_tdesc): Declare new function. * elf.c (elfcore_grok_gdb_tdesc): New function. (elfcore_grok_note): Handle NT_GDB_TDESC. (elfcore_write_gdb_tdesc): New function. (elfcore_write_register_note): Handle NT_GDB_TDESC. binutils/ChangeLog: * readelf.c (get_note_type): Handle NT_GDB_TDESC. include/ChangeLog: * elf/common.h (NT_GDB_TDESC): Define.
README for GNU development tools This directory contains various GNU compilers, assemblers, linkers, debuggers, etc., plus their support routines, definitions, and documentation. If you are receiving this as part of a GDB release, see the file gdb/README. If with a binutils release, see binutils/README; if with a libg++ release, see libg++/README, etc. That'll give you info about this package -- supported targets, how to use it, how to report bugs, etc. It is now possible to automatically configure and build a variety of tools with one command. To build all of the tools contained herein, run the ``configure'' script here, e.g.: ./configure make To install them (by default in /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, etc), then do: make install (If the configure script can't determine your type of computer, give it the name as an argument, for instance ``./configure sun4''. You can use the script ``config.sub'' to test whether a name is recognized; if it is, config.sub translates it to a triplet specifying CPU, vendor, and OS.) If you have more than one compiler on your system, it is often best to explicitly set CC in the environment before running configure, and to also set CC when running make. For example (assuming sh/bash/ksh): CC=gcc ./configure make A similar example using csh: setenv CC gcc ./configure make Much of the code and documentation enclosed is copyright by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the file COPYING or COPYING.LIB in the various directories, for a description of the GNU General Public License terms under which you can copy the files. REPORTING BUGS: Again, see gdb/README, binutils/README, etc., for info on where and how to report problems.