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Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:30:18 -0700
From: Tim Prince <timothyprince AT sbcglobal DOT net>
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Subject: Re: Gdb and debug symbol in pdb
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Brian Dessent wrote:
> Sergey Tovpeko wrote:
> 
>> I've a question about using gdb on windows. I'm debugging a
>> program produced by Microsoft compiler. It would be nice of GDB
>> to understand debug symbols in Microsoft-specific debug format (PDB).
>> Did anyone try to support this format in gdb? I know, it's private.
>> But Microsoft provides a big API for analyzing pdb format.
> 
> No, to my knowledge no one has ever tried to support PDB format in gdb. 
> It sounds like an extremely non-trivial undertaking.  It would not just
> be a matter of reading an undocumented file format.  Gdb would have to
> be taught all the details of the MSVC C++ ABI -- name mangling, vtable
> layout, and so on.  I suppose you could just support C only, but that
> would make it useless for a great deal of code.
> 
> And on top of that the people who develop gdb are also those who
> probably have the least desire to use MS proprietary compilers, as they
> tend to have a stake in the gnu toolchain anyway. 
Perhaps implicit in Brian's response, there is little incentive for 
anyone to do this, since generation of .pdb by open source compilers 
will not be permitted.  The obstacles to full functioning of .pdb with 
commercial 3rd party compilers are high enough.

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