eclipse-cdt-cloud / eclipse-cdt-cloud/cdt-gdb-adapter

`isRunning` unreliable

Open
#325 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
39
Forks
56
Avg merge
3d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
2

Description

The `GDBDebugSession` maintains a [state `isRunning`](https://github.com/eclipse-cdt-cloud/cdt-gdb-adapter/blob/cd740cd0a72f1be57363ccfe07e21a63a6970dbe/src/GDBDebugSession.ts#L178) and guards various actions depending on that value. However, a synchronous check of that value isn't guaranteed to accurately reflect GDB's state by the time it tries to process an MI command: some other part of the adapter code could have issued a `continue` command without GDB having yet emitted the event indicating that it has continued.

I'd suggest that we implement something like a `tryIfNotRunning` method along the following lines:

```typescript
protected async tryIfNotRunning(
action: () => Promise,
defaultValue: U
): Promise {
if (this.isRunning) {
return defaultValue;
}
try {
return await action();
} catch (err) {
if (
err instanceof Error &&
err.message.includes('target is running')
) {
return defaultValue;
}
throw err;
}
}
```

That would centralize the handling of the error that such and such a command can't be handled while the target is running. I bet we could clean up the types a bit, too, for ergonomics.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start in src/GDBDebugSession.ts at the isRunning state and inspect the actions that use it to guard MI commands. Trace how the adapter reports the “target is running” error and identify the affected callers before deciding how to centralize handling. Done means those actions handle a race between isRunning and GDB’s actual state without masking unrelated errors.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.