F38 proposal: Remove Guile Support from GDB (Self-Contained Change proposal)
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RemoveGuileFromGdb
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes
process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive
community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved
by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.
== Summary ==
Remove Guile extension language support from the GDB package in favor
of the widely tested and feature-rich Python support
== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:keiths| Keith Seitz]]
* Email: keiths(a)redhat.com
== Detailed Description ==
The GDB package supports Python and Guile for writing extensions to
the debugger. The Python extensions are actively used by many
developers including the glibc developers for printing detailed POSIX
Thread information and by libstdc++ (gcc) developers for printing
developer friendly views of the standard library data structures. The
current Guile extension support is less actively used and this change
request proposes to remove that support from GDB.
== Feedback ==
Red Hat's Platform Tools team supports this change.
== Benefit to Fedora ==
GDB already supports a much more widely tested and feature-rich Python
interface<sup>1</sup>, and the GDB maintainers would like to remove
the maintenance burden imposed by supporting multiple scripting
interfaces. The Guile interface has already been disabled in RHEL9 and
onwards. This would align Fedora and RHEL and standardize the
community more directly on the Python interface for extension
development.
<sup>1</sup> The GDB User Manual states,
“[https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Multiple-Extension-Languages.html#Multiple-Extension-Languages
python comes first].” The Manual’s
[https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Python-API.html#Python-API
Python] and [https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Guile-API.html#Guile-API
Guile] API pages demonstrate the disparity of support between these
two extension languages.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: Update gdb spec file.
* Other developers: Update GDB scripting files if using Guile.
Repository queries show no packages which rely on GDB that contain any
Guile source files.
* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issues #Releng issue number]
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Alignment with Objectives:
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
Users with Guile scripts will need to update and/or rewrite their
scripts in Python.
== How To Test ==
== User Experience ==
Guile scripts that extend the functionality of GDB will stop working
when users upgrade. Users are encouraged to use GDB's Python interface
instead.
== Dependencies ==
== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a
System Wide Change)
* Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
* Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Documentation ==
== Release Notes ==
Release notes should mention the removal of Guile support in GDB and
suggest alternatives.
--
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Fedora Program Manager
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis