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Re: [patch] Add external symbol table file support for gprof


Hi Homer,

The attached patch adds support for external symbol table file in gprof.
"external symbol table file" is a file such as /proc/kallsyms , or a file generated by "nm a.out".

Thanks very much for submitting this patch. There are a few issues with it however that need to be addressed before we can accept it into the binutils sources:


* You need a binutils copyright assignment on file with the FSF.

  * The code needs to be more paranoid:
      Check the return values of all system calls.

Never read information into fixed length buffers without passing the buffer size as a parameter to the function performing the read.

Plus, put fixed length buffers into the data section rather than on the stack.

* The "nm" program can produce output in several different formats. It would be useful if your code could handle all of these formats, or failing that, that it could detect the formats that it does not handle and issue a warning message.

* You open the same file twice, which is inefficient. It would be better to open it only once even if it is still necessary to scan it twice.

* A new feature like this needs to be described in the gprof/gprof.texi file. It would also be helpful to add an entry to the binutils/NEWS file mentioning this new feature.

Cheers
  Nick



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