Re: [RFC] target defined OSABI sniffer

[Daniel Jacobowitz <drow at mvista dot com>]

On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 10:43:29AM -0400, Kris Warkentin wrote:
> It seems that a lot of effort has been put into the multi-arch stuff but
> most of it centers around recognizing a binary and setting things up based
> on that.  I'm pondering whether that is the right approach in all cases.
> Shouldn't the target be telling gdb what it should be doing rather than the
> other way around?  I've been looking at different ways of getting gdb to
> recognize a QNX binary so that it can set the OSABI properly but shouldn't
> the fact that I'm connected to a remote neutrino machine be sufficient?
> 
> One possible solution that I'm considering is to put something like a
> TARGET_SNIFF_OSABI() type function in the generic sniffer.  That way, when
> I'm connected to a remote machine, I can just set the osabi and arch to
> match that machine.  Then, if the binary isn't compatable, we can error out.
> 
> In the native case, my current_target should KNOW that it's on a Neutrino
> box and be able to respond with the appropriate osabi.
> 
> Can anyone comment on some possible downsides of this?  Our chief architect
> is fairly insistent that we shouldn't need a way to recognize a Neutrino
> binary and I'm not having a lot of luck convincing him otherwise.  Just from
> my experience chasing these osabi problems, it looks like there are LOTS of
> places where the arch can shift under my feet.  I'm thinking that maybe core
> files or simulators might be a problem.  The other problem might be that

You're quite right.  How do you expect to take a binary and a core dump
and realize they are QNX?

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer