Re: C programs introspection using binutils/gdb

[Alexandre Courbot <Alexandre dot Courbot at lifl dot fr>]

> > > valgrind _can_ do things like record linked list
> > > depth.  You have to write a skin for it.
> >
> > Ah, useful.
> >
> >
> > > > > Have a look at nana (http://www.gnu.org/software/nana/) which uses GDB 
> > > > > to do assertion checking.  If the objective is to analyze the dynamic 
> > > > > state of the program then GDB is probably a good choice.
> >
> > > This means that nana isn't a good option for him,
> >
> > Er, Nana was never an option?  Nana simply illustrates how it is 
> > possible, and with some success, to use GDB analyze the dynamic state of 
> > a program.

Thanks for your thoughts. Now I have a much clearer idea of what to do.

Valgrind would be fine with a dedicated skin. Unfortunately it would 
require to write a valgrind skin for every bench I want to run. I'd like 
to have something scriptable for obvious convenience reasons. However, a 
scriptable valgrind skin that allows introspection of C programs would 
be a neat idea, if you ask me.

Clearly, gdb sounds like the way to go. Its scripting capabilities are 
sufficient and I am already able to monitor some nice things with it. 
The only complain I'd have with it is that its batch mode doesn't 
prevent it from printing its own messages - obviously the batch mode 
wasn't designed with the idea that the output of gdb scripts could be
used as gnuplot input data, for instance.

I think I'll discuss this with the gdb guys.

Thanks again! :)
Alex.
--
Alexandre Courbot - PhD student
RD2P/LIFL
http://www.lifl.fr/~courbot