Re: [PATCH] Trace file support

[Stan Shebs <stan at codesourcery dot com>]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:34:00 -0800
> > From: Stan Shebs <stan@codesourcery.com>
> > CC: Stan Shebs <stan@codesourcery.com>, gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> >
> >     
> > > I wonder if we really need such a detailed description of the file's
> > > format in the user manual.  Who would need that? can we simply send
> > > the interested reader to some header file?
> > >   
> > >       
> > Good point - if one uses GDB to both create a trace file and read from 
> > it, then it's effectively a private format.  There is the case of the 
> > target agent writing the file directly, but I expect that will be less 
> > common.  On the other hand, if a target stub/agent does write trace 
> > files, then we should make some degree of stability promise (could one 
> > get compiled into Linux kernel?), and the GDB manual is our main avenue 
> > for describing that promise.  If we went the header file route, then 
> > there is a license issue for the file too.
> >     
>
> Then perhaps we should move the details to gdbint.texinfo, and leave
> only the basic stuff in gdb.texinfo.
>
>   
I started doing that, but you know, it's really looking out of place.  
The rest of the internals manual is all source files and macros and 
such; it would never be looked by anyone just using GDB, not even 
advanced users doing tricky things.  I'm now thinking appendix to the 
user's manual, a la agent expressions, which are also part of GDB's 
user-visible behavior, albeit a rather arcane part. :-)

Stan