tree 26b38a818b57d50815d1450bd4b18118c2ecb864
parent b601c58034ed755fb765fc13782b6876bffd25d4
author Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com> 1737735175 +0000
committer Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com> 1738068490 +0000

gdb/remote: add 'binary-upload' feature to guard 'x' packet use

This mailing list discussion:

  https://inbox.sourceware.org/gdb-patches/CAOp6jLYD0g-GUsx7jhO3g8H_4pHkB6dkh51cbyDT-5yMfQwu+A@mail.gmail.com

highlighted the following issue with GDB's 'x' packet implementation.

Unfortunately, LLDB also has an 'x' packet, but their implementation
is different to GDB's and so targets that have implemented LLDB's 'x'
packet are incompatible with GDB.

The above thread is specifically about the 'rr' tool, but there could
be other remote targets out there that have this problem.

The difference between LLDB and GDB is that GDB expects a 'b' prefix
on the reply data, while LLDB does not.  The 'b' is important as it
allows GDB to distinguish between an empty reply (which will be a 'b'
prefix with no trailing data) and an unsupported packet (which will be
a completely empty packet).  It is not clear to me how LLDB
distinguishes these two cases.

See for discussion of the 'x' packet:

  https://inbox.sourceware.org/gdb-patches/cover.1710343840.git.tankut.baris.aktemur@intel.com/#r

with the part specific to the 'b' marker in:

  https://inbox.sourceware.org/gdb-patches/87msq82ced.fsf@redhat.com/

I propose that we add a new feature 'binary-upload' which can be
reported by a stub in its qSupported reply.  By default this feature
is "off", meaning GDB will not use the 'x' packet unless a stub
advertises this feature.

I have updated gdbserver to send 'binary-upload+', and when I examine
the gdbserver log I can see this feature being sent back, and then GDB
will use the 'x' packet.

When connecting to an older gdbserver, the feature is not sent, and
GDB does not try to use the 'x' packet at all.

I also built the latest version of `rr` and tested using current HEAD
of master, where I see problems like this:

  (rr) x/10i main
     0x401106 <main>:   Cannot access memory at address 0x401106

Then tested using this patched version of GDB, and now I see:

  (rr) x/10i main
     0x401106 <main>:   push   %rbp
     0x401107 <main+1>: mov    %rsp,%rbp
     0x40110a <main+4>: mov    0x2f17(%rip),%rax        # 0x404028 <global_ptr>
     ... etc ...

and looking in the remote log I see GDB is now using the 'm' packet
instead of the 'x' packet.

Bug: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32593
Reviewed-By: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Reviewed-By: Tankut Baris Aktemur <tankut.baris.aktemur@intel.com>