Re: FW: [PATCH] readelf: attach location views to DW_LLE_startx_endx/startx_length loclists
Project / Subsystem
binutils / fw
Date
2026-07-17
Proposer
Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
—/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Supporting non-standard extensions like `DW_AT_GNU_locviews` improves debugging capabilities for users of specific toolchains but complicates standardization efforts.
- • The lack of a formal specification for these extensions makes it challenging for other tools (like `readelf`) to interpret the debugging information correctly.
All attributes
- project
- binutils
- subsystem
- fw
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- 7ac24bb0-2107-4ffd-8df0-bcd50d00287e@suse.com
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- Re: FW: [PATCH] readelf: attach location views to DW_LLE_startx_endx/startx_length loclists
- headline
- FW: [PATCH] readelf: attach location views to DW_LLE_startx_endx/startx_length loclists
- tldr
- Discussion on the specification and implementation of GNU's non-standard DW_AT_GNU_locviews attribute in DWARF debugging information.
- proposer
- Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- —
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Supporting non-standard extensions like `DW_AT_GNU_locviews` improves debugging capabilities for users of specific toolchains but complicates standardization efforts.
- • The lack of a formal specification for these extensions makes it challenging for other tools (like `readelf`) to interpret the debugging information correctly.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • binutils
- • readelf
- • DWARF
- • debugging
- • GCC
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-07-17T00:00:00.000Z
Re: FW: [PATCH] readelf: attach location views to DW_LLE_startx_endx/startx_length loclists
This email thread discusses the DW_AT_GNU_locviews attribute in DWARF debugging information, a GNU extension not yet part of the official DWARF standard. Jan Beulich raises concerns about the lack of clear specification for the encoding of location views, particularly for DW_LLE_startx_endx/startx_length loclists and DW_LLE_offset_pair. Kamil Bucki clarifies that it’s a GNU extension and points to existing GCC source code and a design document for more details. However, Beulich still finds the provided documentation insufficient for understanding the specific encoding mentioned in the patch.