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| Next: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Output-Records.html#GDB_002fMI-Output-Records" accesskey="n" rel="next">GDB/MI Output Records</a>, Previous: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI.html#GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI" accesskey="p" rel="prev">GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI</a>, Up: <a href="GDB_002fMI.html#GDB_002fMI" accesskey="u" rel="up">GDB/MI</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> |
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| <a name="GDB_002fMI-Development-and-Front-Ends-1"></a> |
| <h3 class="section">27.4 <small>GDB/MI</small> Development and Front Ends</h3> |
| <a name="index-GDB_002fMI-development"></a> |
| |
| <p>The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the |
| program being debugged to the user is called a <em>front end</em>. |
| </p> |
| <p>Although <small>GDB/MI</small> is still incomplete, it is currently being used |
| by a variety of front ends to <small>GDB</small>. 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> |
| <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: |
| </p> |
| <ul> |
| <li> New MI commands may be added. |
| |
| </li><li> New fields may be added to the output of any MI command. |
| |
| </li><li> The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g., |
| <code>in_scope</code> (see <a href="GDB_002fMI-Variable-Objects.html#g_t_002dvar_002dupdate">-var-update</a>) may be extended. |
| |
| |
| </li></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 |
| <small>GDB</small> will not support old versions of MI and it will be the |
| responsibility of the front end to work with the new one. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front |
| end is to make your project known to <small>GDB</small> 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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