"tracepoints", "follow-fork-mode", "watch - remote"

["Sarnath K - CTD, Chennai." <k_sarnath at ctd dot hcltech dot com>]

Hi,

> I didn't want to say that you should run the progream after.
> Simply comparing the address of the xbreak with
> the position of the ret instruction
> in the function disassembly is enough to
> show that you are right in saying that this
> command is buggy for i386 at least.

  Fine Pierre. You are right.
I am not sure about the pointers you gave in 
the "sources". I dont have acquaintance with 
at the source level.

And I have 3 more doubts ;)
I am running GDB 5.1, Pentium III as I had told b4.

1. This is about tracepoints.

I tried setting "tracepoints" and dumping snapshots.
But unfortunately I am not able to do it. For the
commands "tstart" and "tstop"  GDB says that
"Trace can only be run on remote targets.". so I just
"run" the program. The program executed and exited 
normally. I followed the instructions from "onlinedocs"
in http://sources.redhat.com. I am not able to dump any
snapshots. ;(

This is a snapshot of the system:

Program Source:

[root@via1 gdb]# cat trace.c
int collected_data;

int main()
{
        collected_data = 3;
        a();
}

int a()
{
        return 0;
}
[root@via1 gdb]#

Compilation:
[root@via1 gdb]# cc -g -o trace trace.c
[root@via1 gdb]#

GDB Session:

[root@via1 gdb]# ./gdb ./trace
GNU gdb 5.1
Copyright 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain
conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...
(gdb) trace a
Tracepoint 1 at 0x80483b7: file trace.c, line 11.
(gdb) actions
Enter actions for tracepoint 1, one per line.
End with a line saying just "end".
> collect collected_data
> end
(gdb) tstart
Trace can only be run on remote targets.
(gdb) run
Starting program: /home/via/sarnath/gdb/./trace

Program exited normally.
(gdb) tdump
Trace can only be run on remote targets.
(gdb) tfind 1
Trace can only be run on remote targets.
(gdb)

So, Can't I trace on a standalone system.
If I use "gdbserver" as on the target side,
GDB says that "target doesnt support command".
So whats the solution ? Cant "tracepoints" be
used ?

2. hardware brkpoints, hardware "watch"es are
   not supported in the GDBSERVER. Is this true ?
   or Is there any configutation option for this, which 
   I am missing ?
   (PIII machine)

3. "set follow-fork-mode" always works as if it's value
   is "parent". I am not able to debug "child" or enable
   GDB "ask" for the choice. Is this configuraion, not
   supported on x86 machines or Am I missing something.

/*
 * I am relatively new to GDB envmt. I am just
 * learning the different features.
 * So if I am using GDB in a wrong way, please
 * let me know and ignore this mail.
 */

Sarnath