In a test I was writting, I needed a procedure that would connect to
the target, and do "load", or equivalent.
Years ago, boards would override gdb_load to implement that. Then
gdb_reload was added, and gdb_load was relaxed to allow boards avoid
the spawing and connecting to the target. This sped up gdbserver
testing. See
https://www.sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2007-02/msg00318.html.
To actually spawn the target and load the executable on the target
side, gdb_reload was born:
# gdb_reload -- load a file into the target. Called before "running",
# either the first time or after already starting the program once,
# for remote targets. Most files that override gdb_load should now
# override this instead.
proc gdb_reload { } {
# For the benefit of existing configurations, default to gdb_load.
# Specifying no file defaults to the executable currently being
# debugged.
return [gdb_load ""]
}
Note the comment about specifying no file. Indeed looking at
config/sid.exp, or config/monitor.exp, we see examples of that.
However, the default gdb_load itself doesn't handle the case of no
file specified. When passed no file, it just calls gdb_file_cmd with
no file either, which ends up invocing the "file" command with no
argument, which means unloading the file and its symbols... That
means calling gdb_reload when testing against native targets is
broken. We don't see that today because the only call to gdb_reload
that exists today is guarded by target_info exists
gdb,do_reload_on_run.
The native-extended-gdbserver.exp board is likewise broken here. When
[gdb_load ""] is called, the board sets the remote exec-file to "" ...
Tested on x86_64 Fedora 17, native, remote gdbserver and
extended-remote gdbserver.
testsuite/
2014-05-01 Pedro Alves <palves@redhat.com>
* lib/gdb.exp (gdb_load): Extend comment. Skip calling
gdb_file_cmd if no file is specified.
* boards/native-extended-gdbserver.exp (gdb_load): Use the
last_loaded_file to set the remote exec-file.
5b80f00d51