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Re: [PATCH v4 1/2] Add back gdb_pretty_print_insn


On 2017-01-31 19:30, Pedro Alves wrote:
ui_file_rewind is a ui_file method that only really works with mem
buffer files, and is a nop on other ui_file types.  It'd be desirable
to eliminate it from the base ui_file interface, and move it to the
"mem_fileopen" subclass of ui_file instead.  A following patch does
just that.

Unfortunately, there are a couple references to ui_file_rewind inside
gdb_disassembler::pretty_print_insn that were made harder to eliminate
with the recent addition of the gdb_disassembler wrapper.

Before the gdb_disassembler wrapper was added, in commit
e47ad6c0bd7aa3 ("Refactor disassembly code"), gdb_pretty_print_insn
used to be passed a ui_file pointer as argument, and it was simple to
adjust that pointer be a "mem_fileopen" ui_file pointer instead, since
there's only one gdb_pretty_print_insn caller.

That commit made gdb_pretty_print_insn be a method of
gdb_disassembler, and removed the method's ui_file parameter at the
same time, replaced by referencing the gdb_disassembler's stream
instead.  The trouble is that a gdb_disassembler can be instantiated
with a pointer any kind of ui_file.  Casting the gdb_disassembler's
stream to a mem_fileopen ui_file inside
gdb_disassembler::pretty_print_insn in order to call the reset method
would be gross hack.

The fix here is to:

 - make gdb_disassembler::pretty_print_insn a be free function again
   instead of a method of gdb_disassembler.  I.e., bring back
   gdb_pretty_print_insn.

 - but, don't add back the ui_file * parameter.  We'd always be
   passing in a fresh mem_fileopen anyway, so move the mem_fileopen
   allocation inside.  That is a better interface, given that the
   ui_file is only ever used as temporary scratch buffer as an
   implementation detail of gdb_pretty_print_insn.  The function's
   real "where to send output" parameter is the ui_out pointer.

 - don't add back a disassemble_info pointer either.  That used to be
   necessary for this bit:

	  err = m_di.read_memory_func (pc, &data, 1, &m_di);
	  if (err != 0)
	    m_di.memory_error_func (err, pc, &m_di);

   ... but AFAIK, it's not really necessary.  We can replace those
   three lines with a call to read_code.  This seems to fix a
   regression even, because before commit d8b49cf0c891d0 ("Don't throw
   exception in dis_asm_memory_error"), that memory_error_func call
   would throw an error/exception, but now it only records the error
   in the gdb_disassembler's m_err_memaddr field.  (read_code throws
   on error.)

With all these, gdb_pretty_print_insn is completely layered on top of
gdb_disassembler only using the latter's public API.

I don't think I understand the situation fully, but what you suggest looks good to me. I was confused by the fact that the gdb_disassembler constructor accepts a stream, but the pretty_print_insn method takes a uiout. Which one is used for printing then? I think that your patch clears that up.

The only possible issue I can see is that in your version, one gdb_disassembler and one string_file object are constructed for each disassembled instruction, rather than re-using them for as long as we need to disassemble. I don't know how much impact it has on the performance (probably negligible), but something to keep in mind.


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