[fpc-devel] 0036144: Wrong Dwarf2/3/4 info for array (all array, but affects bitpacked) / incorrect use of DW_AT_bit_stride

[Joost van der Sluis]

Op 13-10-2019 om 00:22 schreef Martin:
> I have a few wishes with regards to: 
> https://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=36144
> 
> 1)
> FpDebug detects fpc as dwarf provider, and checks the fpc version. Based 
> on this it can interpret the misplaced tags, and work around the issue.
> I have now configured 3.3.0 as the cut-off for the workaround (since fpc 
> now puts the tags in the correct location).
> 
> Should this patch get merged to 3.2 then please alert me of this. So I 
> can adjust the check in FpDebug.

About the patch: I made the original change within the period that I 
tried to get multiple-dimensional arrays to be displayed correctly in 
gdb. Especially arrays of ansistrings. In the end this worked, does this 
still work?

We need some kind of debug-tests. I know you have some, and that there 
are huge differences between gdb versions, but still...

> 2)
> "I shot myself in the foot"
> Having reported this issue, and it no being fixed, I realized that I 
> (ab)used the presence of this issue.
> 
> - ShortString are encoded exactly as
> record  len: int;   st: array of char;  end;
> - And in dwarf 3, ansistring are encoded as array.
> 
> With the only difference that they always had the stride in the array, 
> and not in the range.
> 
> FpDebug used the knowledge of this implementation detail (in the hope 
> that it would not change) to detect the diff between a user defined 
> record (with the exact same fieldnames), and an actual shortstring.
> That no longer works....

Well. If someone creates a record called 'ShortString', (s)he should not 
be surprised that the debugger thinks that it is actually a shortstring?

I do not see the issue here. The compiler generates debug-information 
that makes it possible for any debugger to show the data correctly. For 
shortstrings it repors a structure with a length and the actual 
characters. This is what a shortstring is.

That some debuggers, specially made for fpc (like fpdebug, but in some 
regard this holds for gdb too) show a more convenient format, is nice. 
But I think this is not relevant for the compiler.

> So I need a new difference, please.

Adding an artificial difference (some sort of implementation-detail) on 
which some debuggers depend, does not seem to be a good idea, imho.

> Ideally using DW_TAG_string_type (available since dwarf 2).
> I have currently no idea what gdb will do with that.
> For FpDebug I will have to implement it, but that is no problem.

DW_TAG_string_type is deliberately not used, as it describes a 
string-type that fpc does not use.

> If that is not an option, can we go for a simpler (implementation detail 
> (yes again)) workaround (that then goes into trunk, and/or if the 
> original fix is merged, can be merged too):
> - The stride is optional. If absent it is equal to the element size 
> (shortstring = char = byte)
> - Arrays always have a stride
> - Drop it from the strings array
> And I can then detect that.

If the stride is optional, the compiler should always omit it when not 
necessary, to decrease the executable (debuginfo) size. What you ask is 
to add a bug deliberately, which you can use to detect whether something 
is a string or not.

Regards,

Joost.