[fpc-devel] function StabBackTraceStr(addr:Pointer):shortstring; - problem with subsequent back traces

[Bogusław Brandys]

There is a problem with this function. To avoid recursion there is a 
hack there to  point BackTraceStrFunc to system implementation (which 
only shows addresses in hex).Long back trace which mostly ends with 
incorrect frame address as I suppose (OpenStabs is returning false for 
nil address) - thus function pointer is not returned back to lineinfo 
stabs processing method and next back trace contains only addresses .


This problem is minor if program crashes with exception and stack trace 
but in other cases , like in bigger program (any Lazarus ones) , ONLY 
first back trace has useful information (source,line number) attached to it.
That eliminates any useful logging like multilog for example.
And nobody really is able to know correct stack frames length before 
calling any of such functions to obtain back trace (that would resolve 
problem).

How we could fix it ? Is this recursion still a subject here ?

I have one idea, probably not perfect.


How about  a function to initialize
  BackTraceStrFunc  : TBackTraceStrFunc;


The only way now is to set :

BackTraceStrFunc := @SysBackTraceStr; (displays only hex of addresses)

Something generic is needed, able to set to StabBackTraceStr if lineinfo 
unit (option -gl) is used and only to  SysBackTraceStr in other case.
It might be used also to set to user defined function.

That way in any such functions in lcl 
(DumpExceptionBackTrace,GetStackTrace) or external package (like 
multilog), we could initialize BackTraceStrFunc to point again to 
correct function before obtaining stack trace.



Boguslaw Brandys