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authorMartin Galvan <martin.galvan@tallertechnologies.com>2016-12-08 18:59:02 +0530
committerSiddhesh Poyarekar <siddhesh@sourceware.org>2016-12-08 18:59:02 +0530
commit23b5cae1af04f2d912910fdaf73cb482265798c1 (patch)
treed7d463b80da7c33ada5073d1e09bc889639b82e7 /NEWS
parent297635d82bf5ff55899f694a5261ffd97636df98 (diff)
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Add pretty printers for the NPTL lock types
This patch adds pretty printers for the following NPTL types:

- pthread_mutex_t
- pthread_mutexattr_t
- pthread_cond_t
- pthread_condattr_t
- pthread_rwlock_t
- pthread_rwlockattr_t

To load the pretty printers into your gdb session, do the following:

python
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/path/to/glibc/build/nptl/pretty-printers')
end

source /path/to/glibc/source/pretty-printers/nptl-printers.py

You can check which printers are registered and enabled by issuing the
'info pretty-printer' gdb command. Printers should trigger automatically when
trying to print a variable of one of the types mentioned above.

The printers are architecture-independent, and were tested on an AMD64 running
Ubuntu 14.04 and an x86 VM running Fedora 24.

In order to work, the printers need to know the values of various flags that
are scattered throughout pthread.h and pthreadP.h as enums and #defines. Since
replicating these constants in the printers file itself would create a
maintenance burden, I wrote a script called gen-py-const.awk that Makerules uses
to extract the constants. This script is pretty much the same as gen-as-const.awk,
except it doesn't cast the constant values to 'long' and is thorougly documented.
The constants need only to be enumerated in a .pysym file, which is then referenced
by a Make variable called gen-py-const-headers.

As for the install directory, I discussed this with Mike Frysinger and Siddhesh
Poyarekar, and we agreed that it can be handled in a separate patch, and shouldn't
block merging of this one.

In addition, I've written a series of test cases for the pretty printers.
Each lock type (mutex, condvar and rwlock) has two test programs, one for itself
and other for its related 'attributes' object. Each test program in turn has a
PExpect-based Python script that drives gdb and compares its output to the
expected printer's. The tests run on the glibc host, which is assumed to have
both gdb and PExpect; if either is absent the tests will fail with code 77
(UNSUPPORTED). For cross-testing you should use cross-test-ssh.sh as test-wrapper.
I've tested the printers on both native builds and a cross build using a Beaglebone
Black running Debian, with the build system's filesystem shared with the board
through NFS.

Finally, I've written a README that explains all this and more.

	* INSTALL: Regenerated.
	* Makeconfig: Add comments and whitespace to make the control flow
	clearer.
	(+link-printers-tests, +link-pie-printers-tests, CFLAGS-printers-tests,
	installed-rtld-LDFLAGS, built-rtld-LDFLAGS, link-libc-rpath,
	link-libc-tests-after-rpath-link, link-libc-printers-tests): New.
	(rtld-LDFLAGS, rtld-tests-LDFLAGS, link-libc-tests-rpath-link,
	link-libc-tests): Use the new variables as required.
	* Makerules ($(py-const)): New rule.
	generated: Add $(py-const).
	* README.pretty-printers: New file.
	* Rules (tests-printers-programs, tests-printers-out, py-env): New.
	(others): Depend on $(py-const).
	(tests): Depend on $(tests-printers-programs) or $(tests-printers-out),
	as required.  Pass $(tests-printers) to merge-test-results.sh.
	* manual/install.texi: Add requirements for testing the pretty printers.
	* nptl/Makefile (gen-py-const-headers, pretty-printers, tests-printers,
	CFLAGS-test-mutexattr-printers.c CFLAGS-test-mutex-printers.c,
	CFLAGS-test-condattr-printers.c, CFLAGS-test-cond-printers.c,
	CFLAGS-test-rwlockattr-printers.c CFLAGS-test-rwlock-printers.c,
	tests-printers-libs): Define.
	* nptl/nptl-printers.py: New file.
	* nptl/nptl_lock_constants.pysym: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-cond-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-cond-printers.py: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-condattr-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-condattr-printers.py: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-mutex-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-mutex-printers.py: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-mutexattr-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-mutexattr-printers.py: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-rwlock-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-rwlock-printers.py: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-rwlockattr-printers.c: Likewise.
	* nptl/test-rwlockattr-printers.py: Likewise.
	* scripts/gen-py-const.awk: Likewise.
	* scripts/test_printers_common.py: Likewise.
	* scripts/test_printers_exceptions.py: Likewise.
Diffstat (limited to 'NEWS')
-rw-r--r--NEWS5
1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c2e973d183..922a5004ff 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -141,6 +141,11 @@ Version 2.25
   variable for a particular architecture in the GCC source file
   'gcc/config.gcc'.
 
+* GDB pretty printers have been added for mutex and condition variable
+  structures in POSIX Threads. When installed and loaded in gdb these pretty
+  printers show various pthread variables in human-readable form when read
+  using the 'print' or 'display' commands in gdb.
+
 Security related changes:
 
   On ARM EABI (32-bit), generating a backtrace for execution contexts which