[RFA/RFC] New command: ``start''

[Joel Brobecker <brobecker at gnat dot com>]

Hello,

As briefly discussed on gdb@ and gdb-patches@, here is a first proposal
for the addition of a new command: ``start''.

I handled the language-dependent issue by adding a new method to the
language vector. I returns a newly allocated string that tells GDB
where to insert the breakpoint. I named it "main_program_name" because
I would expect it to always return the name of a procedure. However,
it can actually return any location expression. So a language could
use a different approach and return something like "*0xdeadbeef" or
"source.c:10" for instance.

The other decision I made was to allow this new method to be undefined
(NULL). In that case, we use "main" as the location where to insert the
temporary breakpoint. I am not too sure about this approach, but I
selected it because it avoids a xstrdup ("main")/xfree sequence.
On the other hand, forcing the method to always be set would make the
implemention clearer, I think, just at the expense of an unnecessary
xstrdup/xfree sequence. I can add a procedure default_main_program_name
that would return a xstrdup of "main". The other option I thought about
was to still allow a NULL method, and then provide a procedure in
language.[hc] get_main_program_name (void) (or should maybe take a
language as argument) that would return the name of the main procedure
name based on the value of the new method (NULL => "main", otherwise
return string from method call).

I am also adding the documentation for this new command.

2004-05-17  Joel Brobecker  <brobecker@gnat.com>

        * language.h (language_defn): New field, la_xmain_procedure_name.
        * language.c (unknown_language_defn): Set new field to NULL.
        (auto_language_defn): Likewise.
        (local_language_defn): Likewise.
        * ada-lang.c (ada_language_defn): Likewise.
        * c-lang.c (c_language_defn): Likewise.
        (cplus_language_defn): Likewise.
        (asm_language_defn): Likewise.
        (minimal_language): Likewise.
        * f-lang.c (f_language_defn): Likewise.
        * jv-lang.c (java_language_defn): Likewise.
        * m2-lang.c (m2_language_defn): Likewise.
        * objc_language (objc_language_defn): Likewise.
        * p-lang.c (pascal_language_defn): Likewise.
        * scm-lang.c (scm_language_defn): Likewise.
        * infcmd.c (kill_if_already_running): New function, extracted
        from run_command().
        (run_command): Replace extracted code by call to
        kill_if_already_running().
        (start_command): New function.
        (_initialize_infcmd): Add "start" command.

2004-05-17  Joel Brobecker  <brobecker@gnat.com>

        * gdb.texinfo (Starting): Document new start command.

Tested on x86-linux.
Comments? OK?

-- 
Joel

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