Hi -
> > - ... and undoubtedly other complications exist!
>
> Interesting question.
Thanks!
We have been thinking in similar directions generally as y'all.
> Complication 2: The compiler reuses variable locations at the same PC. This
> seems to be a compiler bug.
(Actually, this could be a valid optimization, e.g.:
int a = expression;
int b = expression;
>>>>>
/* use/modify a */
/* use/modify b */
at that point, if $expression is a pure function, a compiler
could evaluate it once and reuse the value. It could do this
by temporarily storing both a and b in the same register, and
only separating the variables afterwards.
> [...]
> Presumably, a debugger could check that location lists do not
> overlap.
This could nevertheless be a valid heuristic to detect the case.
> Complication 3a: That the value of a variable has been fetched for a
> computation before the debugger modifies it. This is more complicated. The
> live range of the variable is accurate, but its value has been used before
> the current PC. DWARF does not include descriptions of data flow or
> indicate where variables are fetched, so there is no information that a
> debugger can use to assure that a modified value is actually used.
Yeah, and in the absence of dataflow metadata, tools like dyninst must
try to reverse-engineer the dataflow in order to perform binary
rewriting. Is this something way out of forseeable dwarf scope?
> There are a lot of issues with a debugger modifying a program while it is
> running. A debugger can make essentially unbounded changes to the program
> state. Some of these may work as expected, some may not, and it is unclear
> how a debugger would be able to know the difference.
This is the key question: how can a tool know what is safe. While the
trivial case of assuming every write is unsafe is not helpful :-), it
could be okay to have fairly conservative heuristics, known-partial
information, and rely on only clear signals to enable write
operations.
Anyway, it sounds like the next step is on us to analyze & prototype
in a compiler (gcc?). I'd also appreciate authors of other dwarf
consumer and producer tools to mention whether they have considered
this area, so as to collect a census.
- FChE
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