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== Current status ==
== Current status ==
* Targeted release: [[Releases/11 | {{11}} ]]  
* Targeted release: [[Releases/11]]  
* Last updated: 2008-12-01
* Last updated: 2008-12-01
* Percentage of completion: 50%
* Percentage of completion: 50%

Revision as of 22:05, 16 January 2009

Archer

Summary

Archer is a gdb development branch focusing on better C++ support. It also includes Python scripting capabililites.

Owner

  • email: tromey@redhat.com

Current status

  • Targeted release: Releases/11
  • Last updated: 2008-12-01
  • Percentage of completion: 50%

Detailed Description

More information on the Archer project can be found on the gdb wiki: http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/ProjectArcher

Archer is a long-term project with multiple branches being developed in parallel. We'll merge these branches together to produce a released version for Fedora.

Benefit to Fedora

In the F11 time frame, this will bring Python scripting to gdb, plus some bug fixes. This will improve the debugging experience on Fedora by making the debugger more powerful. Note that, while all this code will eventually go into the upstream gdb, that process is very slow. Shipping Archer will put Fedora on the cutting edge here.

Scope

The Fedora-related changes are reasonably small. Essentially, the gdb package must be updated to require python-devel, and the gdb patches must be rebased on a later gdb.

We'll also be shipping some application- or library-specific pretty-printers. This functionality relies on the Python support. Currently we have printers for most of the containers in libstdc++; those will be integrated there.

How To Test

Testing is done using the gdb test suite. Archer ships tests for the Python work. A simple smoke test can be done by starting the resulting gdb and verifying that the "python" command works, e.g.: "python print 23"

User Experience

The most obvious change will be that libstdc++ classes will pretty-print nicely by default. For power users, Python scripting will open many more debugging possibilities.

Dependencies

I think this work is relatively self-contained.

The libstdc++ work amounts to just installing one more file in the appropriate place.

Contingency Plan

None necessary. We can just ship plain gdb.

Documentation

The Archer branches include updates to the gdb manual.

Release Notes

TBD

Comments and Discussion