Re: RFA: display thread names

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>]

> From: Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>
> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:47:10 -0700
> 
> When you have many threads, it is nice to be able to give them names to
> distinguish them.  This patch adds this facility via a new "thread name"
> command.  Also, on some systems a thread can give itself a name; this
> patch adds such support for Linux.

Is there a plan to add a possibility to switch to a thread by its
name, and otherwise use the name in the same context where we
currently allow only its number?  If there are no such plans, I'd say
having a name just for display is not a big deal it could be.

> 2011-01-12  Tom Tromey  <tromey@redhat.com>
> 
> 	* gdb.texinfo (Threads): Document thread name output and `thread
> 	name' command.
> 	(Threads In Python): Document Thread.name attribute.
> 	(GDB/MI Thread Commands): Document thread attributes.

This part is approved, with the following comment:

> +@smallexample
> +-thread-info
> +^done,threads=[
> +@{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90 (LWP 21257)",
> +   frame=@{level="0",addr="0xffffe410",func="__kernel_vsyscall",args=[]@},state="running"@},
> +@{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e156b0 (LWP 21254)",
> +   frame=@{level="0",addr="0x0804891f",func="foo",args=[@{name="i",value="10"@}],
> +           file="/tmp/a.c",fullname="/tmp/a.c",line="158"@},state="running"@}],

The long lines in this example needs to be broken in two.  (Yes, I
know that you inherited that from the original example, but we might
as well fix that now.)

> --- a/gdb/NEWS
> +++ b/gdb/NEWS
> @@ -15,6 +15,14 @@
>    It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
>    source path list instead of augmenting it.
>  
> +* GDB now understands thread names.
> +
> +  On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
> +  prctl or pthread_setname_np.
> +
> +  There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
> +  assign a name internally for GDB to display.
> +
>  * OpenCL C
>    Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
>    has been integrated into GDB.
> @@ -46,6 +54,9 @@
>    ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
>       selected thread.
>  
> +  ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute.  This
> +     holds the thread's name.
> +
>  * C++ Improvements:

This part is OK.

Thanks.