GNU bug report logs - #79341
30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jeremy Bryant <jb <at> jeremybryant.net>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Cc: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Subject: 30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2025 23:22:32 +0100

Dear Emacs developers, Paul,

In .gdbinit, before the Python commands, we have this if statement.

2b91f3d1eac4 (Paul Eggert         2017-05-05 1334) # Omit pretty-printing in older (pre-7.3) GDBs that lack it.
2b91f3d1eac4 (Paul Eggert         2017-05-05 1335) if hasattr(gdb, 'printing'):

According to
https://sourceware.org/gdb/news/
GDB 7.3 was released in 2011.

Whilst older Emacs versions may be used by users for a long time 'in the
wild', it seems unlikely that a developer would use such an old GDB.

It would simplify this part of .gdbinit if we could remove this whole if
statement, and also make it more readable so we can add more Python
commands for GDB for Emacs.

Paul, any comments or suggestions, WDYT?

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jeremy Bryant <jb <at> jeremybryant.net>
Cc: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: 30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:42:34 -0700

On 2025-08-29 15:22, Jeremy Bryant wrote:
> Whilst older Emacs versions may be used by users for a long time 'in the
> wild', it seems unlikely that a developer would use such an old GDB.

Unlikely but it happens. When I test on Solaris 10 sparc (admittedly an 
old platform, but still supported by Oracle), I use the GDB it supplies, 
which is GDB 6.2.1 (2004).

> It would simplify this part of .gdbinit if we could remove this whole if
> statement

It's just a single "if" line, plus indenting some following lines. How 
much simplification would it really be if we removed one line and 
unindented the rest?

Message #11 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jeremy Bryant <jb <at> jeremybryant.net>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: 30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2025 18:45:44 +0100

Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> writes:

> On 2025-08-29 15:22, Jeremy Bryant wrote:
>> Whilst older Emacs versions may be used by users for a long time 'in the
>> wild', it seems unlikely that a developer would use such an old GDB.
>
> Unlikely but it happens. When I test on Solaris 10 sparc (admittedly
> an old platform, but still supported by Oracle), I use the GDB it
> supplies, which is GDB 6.2.1 (2004).

OK, noted the use case.
In that case, perhaps the time to stop supporting GDB 7 is 'not yet'

>> It would simplify this part of .gdbinit if we could remove this whole if
>> statement
>
> It's just a single "if" line, plus indenting some following lines. How
> much simplification would it really be if we removed one line and
> unindented the rest?

Is this a fundamental change?  No.  It would be a fairly trivial
amendment to your contribution, as you indeed describe, to improve
readability a little.  Should we wait?

Message #14 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jeremy Bryant <jb <at> jeremybryant.net>
Cc: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: 30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2025 11:53:03 -0700

On 2025-08-31 10:45, Jeremy Bryant wrote:
>>> It would simplify this part of .gdbinit if we could remove this whole if
>>> statement
>> It's just a single "if" line, plus indenting some following lines. How
>> much simplification would it really be if we removed one line and
>> unindented the rest?
> Is this a fundamental change?  No.  It would be a fairly trivial
> amendment to your contribution, as you indeed describe, to improve
> readability a little.  Should we wait?

Sounds like we should wait, if peoplestill want to debug on Solaris 10. 
I'm not seeing enough improvement to readability (unindent by one level 
is not much of an improvement) to justify cutting off an 
otherwise-supported platform.

Message #17 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jeremy Bryant <jb <at> jeremybryant.net>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>, 79341-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: 30.2; Outdated Python conditional in .gdbinit
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2025 21:34:14 +0100

Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> writes:

> On 2025-08-31 10:45, Jeremy Bryant wrote:
>>>> It would simplify this part of .gdbinit if we could remove this whole if
>>>> statement
>>> It's just a single "if" line, plus indenting some following lines. How
>>> much simplification would it really be if we removed one line and
>>> unindented the rest?
>> Is this a fundamental change?  No.  It would be a fairly trivial
>> amendment to your contribution, as you indeed describe, to improve
>> readability a little.  Should we wait?
>
> Sounds like we should wait, if peoplestill want to debug on Solaris
> 10. I'm not seeing enough improvement to readability (unindent by one
> level is not much of an improvement) to justify cutting off an
> otherwise-supported platform.

OK, we can revisit the suggestion at some future point.

Closing the bug number for the time being.

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