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Re: [remote protocol] step range?



On Sep 4, 2008, at 3:14 PM, Michael Snyder wrote:


What about a remote protocol command that says
"single step until you leave the range <begin> - <end>".

I wouldn't imagine any problem with such a packet - but it won't be useful on architectures that have variable length instructions (even ARM with its mix of ARM and Thumb opcodes) that don't have a hardware- supported single-instruction-step capability. Your remote driver would need to contain a disassembler in those cases to do anything useful.


There is a lot of overhead and unnecessary communication over a typical remote protocol connection that you can eliminate with some effort. But if the problem you're trying to solve is on a platform where single-instruction stepping is easy for the remote driver to do, this could be a reasonable alternate approach. I suppose the most complicated thing you'd have to worry about is a remote target that has multiple threads, with those threads executing when you're trying to step through that range, and one of the other threads hitting a breakpoint or getting a signal.

Just my two cents,

J


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