Re: proposed fix for PR 114

[Ian Lance Taylor <ian at wasabisystems dot com>]

Ben Elliston <bje@au.ibm.com> writes:

> Doug Evans <dje@transmeta.com> writes:
> 
> > What if instead bfd provided a facility to return in an
> > application independent (*) fashion the entire line number
> > table for a given address range?
> > Then let the app use the data as it sees fit (including
> > post-processing the data for its own optimal use).
> > 
> > Such a facility might have general use far beyond just gprof.
> > 
> > (*) and debug format independent
> 
> Well, this sounds good.  However, I was under the impression that
> there would be a lot of resistance to widening the BFD interface.

Some other interfaces are set in stone.  I think the BFD interface is
pretty much the exact opposite, whatever that is.

> Any comments before I begin? :-)

There is a certain degree of overlap with objdump --debugging.
However, that gives you more than you need, and the format is not
really what you are looking for.  I wonder if it would make sense to
modify the debug readers used by objdump --debugging to have a mode in
which they just return line number information.  Of course, somebody
would have to implement a DWARF debugging reader to make this useful
in the current normal case.

Ian