Re: DWARF2 and COFF?

[Michael Meissner <meissner at cygnus dot com>]

On Sat, Dec 02, 2000 at 09:31:02AM -0500, Mark E. wrote:
> Hi guys,
> I've seen some messages from those involved with GDB that they will add 
> support for C++ debugging with the gcc 3.0 abi first with DWARF2 then stabs. 
> This got me wondering if dwarf2 could work with COFF (or at least the djgpp 
> flavor of COFF). At first, I only had to make a few tweaks, but then I ran 
> into problems with bfd/dwarf2.c which makes use of 'elf_tdata (abfd)-
> >dwarf2_find_line_info' which obviously doesn't work in a COFF environment.
> 
> It is my understanding that while dwarf2 happens to be used by environments 
> that use ELF, it is not dependant on ELF. Assuming my understanding is 
> correct, can bfd/dwarf2.c be made generic or should I just give up?

Depends on the COFF varient.  Dwarf2 needs:

   1)	The ability to create arbitrary sections (some COFF's, notably Mips &
	Alpha ECOFF can't create any sections not specified in the ABI);

   2)	The ability to to do address relocations non-byte boundaries;

   3)	The use of .8byte, .4byte, .2byte and .section pseudo ops;

   4)	The ability to mark sections not to be loaded into memory.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Red Hat, Inc.
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886, USA
Work:	  meissner@redhat.com		phone: +1 978-486-9304
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