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 - <title>Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer (Debugging with GDB)</title>
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 - <a name="Writing-a-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinter"></a>
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 - <p>
 - Next: <a href="Commands-In-Guile.html#Commands-In-Guile" accesskey="n" rel="next">Commands In Guile</a>, Previous: <a href="Selecting-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinters.html#Selecting-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinters" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers</a>, Up: <a href="Guile-API.html#Guile-API" accesskey="u" rel="up">Guile API</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>
 - </div>
 - <hr>
 - <a name="Writing-a-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinter-1"></a>
 - <h4 class="subsubsection">23.3.3.10 Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer</h4>
 - <a name="index-writing-a-Guile-pretty_002dprinter"></a>
 - 
 - <p>A pretty-printer consists of two basic parts: a lookup function to determine
 - if the type is supported, and the printer itself.
 - </p>
 - <p>Here is an example showing how a <code>std::string</code> printer might be
 - written.  See <a href="Guile-Pretty-Printing-API.html#Guile-Pretty-Printing-API">Guile Pretty Printing API</a>, for details.
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(define (make-my-string-printer value)
 -   "Print a my::string string"
 -   (make-pretty-printer-worker
 -    "string"
 -    (lambda (printer)
 -      (value-field value "_data"))
 -    #f))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>And here is an example showing how a lookup function for the printer
 - example above might be written.
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(define (str-lookup-function pretty-printer value)
 -   (let ((tag (type-tag (value-type value))))
 -     (and tag
 -          (string-prefix? "std::string<" tag)
 -          (make-my-string-printer value))))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>Then to register this printer in the global printer list:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(append-pretty-printer!
 -  (make-pretty-printer "my-string" str-lookup-function))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>The example lookup function extracts the value’s type, and attempts to
 - match it to a type that it can pretty-print.  If it is a type the
 - printer can pretty-print, it will return a <gdb:pretty-printer-worker> object.
 - If not, it returns <code>#f</code>.
 - </p>
 - <p>We recommend that you put your core pretty-printers into a Guile
 - package.  If your pretty-printers are for use with a library, we
 - further recommend embedding a version number into the package name.
 - This practice will enable <small>GDB</small> to load multiple versions of
 - your pretty-printers at the same time, because they will have
 - different names.
 - </p>
 - <p>You should write auto-loaded code (see <a href="Guile-Auto_002dloading.html#Guile-Auto_002dloading">Guile Auto-loading</a>) such that it
 - can be evaluated multiple times without changing its meaning.  An
 - ideal auto-load file will consist solely of <code>import</code>s of your
 - printer modules, followed by a call to a register pretty-printers with
 - the current objfile.
 - </p>
 - <p>Taken as a whole, this approach will scale nicely to multiple
 - inferiors, each potentially using a different library version.
 - Embedding a version number in the Guile package name will ensure that
 - <small>GDB</small> is able to load both sets of printers simultaneously.
 - Then, because the search for pretty-printers is done by objfile, and
 - because your auto-loaded code took care to register your library’s
 - printers with a specific objfile, <small>GDB</small> will find the correct
 - printers for the specific version of the library used by each
 - inferior.
 - </p>
 - <p>To continue the <code>my::string</code> example,
 - this code might appear in <code>(my-project my-library v1)</code>:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(use-modules (gdb))
 - (define (register-printers objfile)
 -   (append-objfile-pretty-printer!
 -    (make-pretty-printer "my-string" str-lookup-function)))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>And then the corresponding contents of the auto-load file would be:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(use-modules (gdb) (my-project my-library v1))
 - (register-printers (current-objfile))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>The previous example illustrates a basic pretty-printer.
 - There are a few things that can be improved on.
 - The printer only handles one type, whereas a library typically has
 - several types.  One could install a lookup function for each desired type
 - in the library, but one could also have a single lookup function recognize
 - several types.  The latter is the conventional way this is handled.
 - If a pretty-printer can handle multiple data types, then its
 - <em>subprinters</em> are the printers for the individual data types.
 - </p>
 - <p>The <code>(gdb printing)</code> module provides a formal way of solving this
 - problem (see <a href="Guile-Printing-Module.html#Guile-Printing-Module">Guile Printing Module</a>).
 - Here is another example that handles multiple types.
 - </p>
 - <p>These are the types we are going to pretty-print:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">struct foo { int a, b; };
 - struct bar { struct foo x, y; };
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>Here are the printers:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(define (make-foo-printer value)
 -   "Print a foo object"
 -   (make-pretty-printer-worker
 -    "foo"
 -    (lambda (printer)
 -      (format #f "a=<~a> b=<~a>"
 -              (value-field value "a") (value-field value "a")))
 -    #f))
 - 
 - (define (make-bar-printer value)
 -   "Print a bar object"
 -   (make-pretty-printer-worker
 -    "foo"
 -    (lambda (printer)
 -      (format #f "x=<~a> y=<~a>"
 -              (value-field value "x") (value-field value "y")))
 -    #f))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>This example doesn’t need a lookup function, that is handled by the
 - <code>(gdb printing)</code> module.  Instead a function is provided to build up
 - the object that handles the lookup.
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(use-modules (gdb printing))
 - 
 - (define (build-pretty-printer)
 -   (let ((pp (make-pretty-printer-collection "my-library")))
 -     (pp-collection-add-tag-printer "foo" make-foo-printer)
 -     (pp-collection-add-tag-printer "bar" make-bar-printer)
 -     pp))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>And here is the autoload support:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(use-modules (gdb) (my-library))
 - (append-objfile-pretty-printer! (current-objfile) (build-pretty-printer))
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <p>Finally, when this printer is loaded into <small>GDB</small>, here is the
 - corresponding output of ‘<samp>info pretty-printer</samp>’:
 - </p>
 - <div class="smallexample">
 - <pre class="smallexample">(gdb) info pretty-printer
 - my_library.so:
 -   my-library
 -     foo
 -     bar
 - </pre></div>
 - 
 - <hr>
 - <div class="header">
 - <p>
 - Next: <a href="Commands-In-Guile.html#Commands-In-Guile" accesskey="n" rel="next">Commands In Guile</a>, Previous: <a href="Selecting-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinters.html#Selecting-Guile-Pretty_002dPrinters" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers</a>, Up: <a href="Guile-API.html#Guile-API" accesskey="u" rel="up">Guile API</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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