Re: [RFA] Assuming malloc exists in callfwmall.exp

[Michael Elizabeth Chastain <chastain at cygnus dot com>]

> But how is it possible that GDB needs malloc() when the target does not
> have it?

(gdb) print strlen("foo")

GDB needs some mechanism to grab scratch memory in the target.
malloc() is the only mechanism that it has.

Michael

  /* gdb/valops.c */
  /* Allocate NBYTES of space in the inferior using the inferior's malloc
     and return a value that is a pointer to the allocated space. */

  value_ptr
  value_allocate_space_in_inferior (int len)
  {
    value_ptr blocklen;
    register value_ptr val = find_function_in_inferior ("malloc");

    blocklen = value_from_longest (builtin_type_int, (LONGEST) len);
    val = call_function_by_hand (val, 1, &blocklen);
    if (value_logical_not (val))
      {
	if (!target_has_execution)
	  error ("No memory available to program now: you need to start the target first");
	else
	  error ("No memory available to program: call to malloc failed");
      }
    return val;
  }