Custom completions

[ericonr]

Hi! I use GDB with a few custom functions, and it would be nice to be able to have auto completion for them, without requiring re-compiling the project. So I was thinking, ugdb could either:

• take a configuration file generated by a script similar to the one that creates the current completion array or with a new ugdb option. This file could be located in something like ~/.config/udgb/arm-none-eabi-gdb, for each debugger used; or
• the list could be generated at runtime, with an option to explicitly select this behavior

I think the project should still have a default version, but I would like to have the option. I do believe the implementation for this would be rather simpler than the other issues I have listed here, so I believe I can find the time to do it, but I'd like to know what solution you prefer!

Thanks!

[ftilde]

Hey! Although I currently have no use for it myself, I see how that could be useful. I think I would lean towards a command/script that can be passed as an option, is then executed at startup and just prints a newline separated list of possible completions. In a very simple case that command could just be `cat file_with_completions.txt`. In a more complicated scenario one could select the completions based on the selected debugger (e.g., we could execute the script with a `UGDB_GDB_EXECUTABLE` environment variable or something like that) or generate them procedurally (maybe even parse the file that defines your custom functions?). Another idea possibly also suitable for your use case: We could parse `.gdbinit` and look for function definitions in there (and/or somewhere else? where?). However, I'm not sure how difficult that would be and if that would include your custom functions. How do you include/define them in gdb? In a perfect world we would just ask gdb via gdbmi what functions are available, but I haven't found a way to do that. I'm not too happy with the hard coded list of gdb commands myself. :(

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On 15.07.2020 19:56, Érico Nogueira Rolim wrote: Hi! I use GDB with a few custom functions, and it would be nice to be able to have auto completion for them, without requiring re-compiling the project. So I was thinking, ugdb could either: - take a configuration file generated by a script similar to the one that creates the current completion array or with a new `ugdb` option. This file could be located in something like `~/.config/udgb/arm-none-eabi-gdb`, for each debugger used; or - the list could be generated at runtime, with an option to explicitly select this behavior I think the project should still have a default version, but I would like to have the option. I do believe the implementation for this would be rather simpler than the other issues I have listed here, so I believe I can find the time to do it, but I'd like to know what solution you prefer! Thanks! -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #15

[ericonr]

I like these three ideas:

• execute that outputs completions, with env var UGDB_GDB_EXECUTABLE set
• read that contains the completions
• automatically generate at runtime - your script for generating the completions seems to run at 50ms here, so running something similar inside Rust shouldn't add too much to the initialization time. I would make it an opt-in command line flag, though. The advantage with this one is that it will always have the options for any debugger that is being used.

That said, I do define my stuff in .gdbinit, but implementing a parser for that might be a bit complicated, since I believe the files can have include entries and a bunch of other stuff.

In a perfect world we would just ask gdb via gdbmi what functions are available

I haven't looked into gdbmi, I will see if I can find any clues about it there (or even ask upstream about adding it).

[ftilde]

If you want are willing to poke upstream about this, that would be awesome and definitely the best solution for the problem. In case that doesn't work out I would suggest: 1. Implement the `execute <file` option since it is the most flexible. 2. Then see if we can use the same infrastructure to dynamically read `gdb help` with a script and if it's fast enough.

[ftilde]

I've implemented dynamic completions in f59e621. Does that cover your use case? In my testing a function defined in .gdbinit can also be completed, since it appears in the "help all" output of gdb.

[ericonr]

This is great! Thanks :D