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Make GDBserver abort on internal error in development mode
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Currently, if GDBserver hits some internal assertion, it exits with
error status, instead of aborting.  This makes it harder to debug
GDBserver, as you can't just debug a core file if GDBserver fails an
assertion.  I've had to hack the code to make GDBserver abort to debug
something several times before.

I believe the reason it exits instead of aborting, is to prevent
potentially littering the filesystem of smaller embedded targets with
core files.  I think I recall Daniel Jacobowitz once saying that many
years ago, but I can't be sure.  Anyhow, that seems reasonable to me.

Since we nowadays have a distinction between development and release
modes, I propose to make GDBserver abort on internal error if in
development mode, while keeping the status quo when in release mode.

Thus, after this patch, in development mode, you get:

 $ ../gdbserver/gdbserver
 ../../src/gdbserver/server.cc:3711: A problem internal to GDBserver has been detected.
 captured_main: Assertion `0' failed.
 Aborted (core dumped)
 $

while in release mode, you'll continue to get:

 $ ../gdbserver/gdbserver
 ../../src/gdbserver/server.cc:3711: A problem internal to GDBserver has been detected.
 captured_main: Assertion `0' failed.
 $ echo $?
 1

I do not think that this requires a separate configure switch.

A "--target_board=native-extended-gdbserver" run on Ubuntu 20.04 ends
up with:

		 === gdb Summary ===

 # of unexpected core files      29
 ...

for me, of which 8 are GDBserver core dumps, 7 more than without this
patch.

Change-Id: I6861e08ad71f65a0332c91ec95ca001d130b0e9d
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palves committed Jun 27, 2022
1 parent e3e5ae0 commit 171fba1
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Showing 4 changed files with 43 additions and 3 deletions.
20 changes: 17 additions & 3 deletions gdbserver/utils.cc
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -28,13 +28,27 @@

/* Generally useful subroutines used throughout the program. */

/* If in release mode, just exit. This avoids potentially littering
the filesystem of small embedded targets with core files. If in
development mode however, abort, producing core files to help with
debugging GDBserver. */
static void ATTRIBUTE_NORETURN
abort_or_exit ()
{
#ifdef DEVELOPMENT
abort ();
#else
exit (1);
#endif
}

void
malloc_failure (long size)
{
fprintf (stderr,
PREFIX "ran out of memory while trying to allocate %lu bytes\n",
(unsigned long) size);
exit (1);
abort_or_exit ();
}

/* Print the system error message for errno, and also mention STRING
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -82,7 +96,7 @@ vwarning (const char *string, va_list args)
fprintf (stderr, "\n");
}

/* Report a problem internal to GDBserver, and exit. */
/* Report a problem internal to GDBserver, and abort/exit. */

void
internal_verror (const char *file, int line, const char *fmt, va_list args)
Expand All @@ -91,7 +105,7 @@ internal_verror (const char *file, int line, const char *fmt, va_list args)
%s:%d: A problem internal to " TOOLNAME " has been detected.\n", file, line);
vfprintf (stderr, fmt, args);
fprintf (stderr, "\n");
exit (1);
abort_or_exit ();
}

/* Report a problem internal to GDBserver. */
Expand Down
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions gdbsupport/config.in
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -11,6 +11,9 @@
/* Define to 1 if using `alloca.c'. */
#undef C_ALLOCA

/* Define if development-mode features are enabled. */
#undef DEVELOPMENT

/* Define to 1 if translation of program messages to the user's native
language is requested. */
#undef ENABLE_NLS
Expand Down
13 changes: 13 additions & 0 deletions gdbsupport/configure
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -624,6 +624,7 @@ ac_subst_vars='am__EXEEXT_FALSE
am__EXEEXT_TRUE
LTLIBOBJS
LIBOBJS
CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES
WERROR_CFLAGS
WARN_CFLAGS
HAVE_PIPE_OR_PIPE2_FALSE
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -10452,6 +10453,15 @@ ac_compiler_gnu=$ac_cv_c_compiler_gnu



# Set the 'development' global.
. $srcdir/../bfd/development.sh

if test "$development" = true ; then

$as_echo "#define DEVELOPMENT 1" >>confdefs.h

fi

case ${host} in
*mingw32*)

Expand All @@ -10460,6 +10470,9 @@ $as_echo "#define USE_WIN32API 1" >>confdefs.h
;;
esac

CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES='$srcdir/../bfd/development.sh'


ac_config_files="$ac_config_files Makefile"

cat >confcache <<\_ACEOF
Expand Down
10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions gdbsupport/configure.ac
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -63,6 +63,14 @@ GDB_AC_PTRACE
AM_GDB_COMPILER_TYPE
AM_GDB_WARNINGS

# Set the 'development' global.
. $srcdir/../bfd/development.sh

if test "$development" = true ; then
AC_DEFINE(DEVELOPMENT, 1,
[Define if development-mode features are enabled.])
fi

case ${host} in
*mingw32*)
AC_DEFINE(USE_WIN32API, 1,
Expand All @@ -73,5 +81,7 @@ case ${host} in
;;
esac

AC_SUBST([CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES], ['$srcdir/../bfd/development.sh'])

AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

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