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| <h3 class="section">27.4 <span class="sc">gdb/mi</span> Development and Front Ends</h3> |
| |
| <p><a name="index-g_t_0040sc_007bgdb_002fmi_007d-development-2016"></a> |
| The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the |
| program being debugged to the user is called a <dfn>front end</dfn>. |
| |
| <p>Although <span class="sc">gdb/mi</span> is still incomplete, it is currently being used |
| by a variety of front ends to <span class="sc">gdb</span>. This makes it difficult |
| to introduce new functionality without breaking existing usage. This |
| section tries to minimize the problems by describing how the protocol |
| might change. |
| |
| <p>Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and |
| for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a |
| list of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should |
| parse MI output in a way that can handle them: |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>New MI commands may be added. |
| |
| <li>New fields may be added to the output of any MI command. |
| |
| <li>The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g., |
| <code>in_scope</code> (see <a href="_002dvar_002dupdate.html#g_t_002dvar_002dupdate">-var-update</a>) may be extended. |
| |
| <!-- The format of field's content e.g type prefix, may change so parse it --> |
| <!-- at your own risk. Yes, in general? --> |
| <!-- The order of fields may change? Shouldn't really matter but it might --> |
| <!-- resolve inconsistencies. --> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level |
| will be increased by one. This will allow the front end to parse the |
| output according to the MI version. Apart from mi0, new versions of |
| <span class="sc">gdb</span> will not support old versions of MI and it will be the |
| responsibility of the front end to work with the new one. |
| |
| <!-- Starting with mi3, add a new command -mi-version that prints the MI --> |
| <!-- version? --> |
| <p>The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front |
| end is to make your project known to <span class="sc">gdb</span> developers and |
| follow development on <a href="mailto:gdb@sourceware.org">gdb@sourceware.org</a> and |
| <a href="mailto:gdb-patches@sourceware.org">gdb-patches@sourceware.org</a>. |
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