GDB fails when workspace path has extended ASCII characters

[silabs-daperez]

GDB fails when workspace path has extended ASCII characters

[jonahgraham]

Thanks @silabs-daperez for coming back to this. I am going to close this issue as the bug is in GDB. I am glad you have a workaround.

[jonahgraham]

This bug, while showing up while you are using embed-cdt is almost certainly from the partner project Eclipse CDT.

Can you supply the gdb traces of the issue please?

Coincidentally I have just been looking at a similar issue and see that CDT has numerous places where, when communicating with GDB, there are encoding differences that are not properly accounted for. For example, even if you manage to launch you are likely to hit other problems such as setting breakpoints in such files.

The workaround is to use a workspace path with only ASCII characters.

It is likely that this is the workaround that will be needed for a while. However we can get a proper solution faster if you can contribute some PRs?

The other mitigation that is employed by some vendors is to prevent creation of projects with non-ASCII characters in the first place.

[silabs-daperez]

Thank you, Jonah!

Questions & Answers

Can you supply the gdb traces of the issue please?

Please see the GDB traces at the bottom of this post.

For example, even if you manage to launch you are likely to hit other problems such as setting breakpoints in such files.

Yes, we've encountered such scenarios as well. One that we're reproduced is after GDB launches successfully, it cannot display source code because the SourceLocator failed with workspace path that has extended ASCII characters.

However we can get a proper solution faster if you can contribute some PRs?

I can try. Where are the instructions for applying for CDT committer status? Does CDT committer status extend to Eclipse Embed CDT, or are they separate?

GDB Traces

Here's the trace for my failed GDB session launch.

135,414 2-gdb-show language
135,418 2^done,value="auto"
135,418 (gdb)
135,419 3-data-evaluate-expression "sizeof (void*)"
135,433 3^done,value="4"
135,433 (gdb)
135,434 4-gdb-set language auto
135,449 4^done
135,449 (gdb)
135,450 5-interpreter-exec console "show endian"
135,465 ~"The target endianness is set automatically (currently little endian).\n"
135,465 5^done
135,465 (gdb)
135,467 6-gdb-version
135,481 ~"GNU gdb (GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 10.3-2021.10) 10.2.90.20210621-git\n"
135,481 ~"Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n"
135,481 ~"License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\nThis is fre
e software: you are free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitt
ed by law."
135,481 ~"\nType "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.\n"
135,481 ~"This GDB was configured as "--host=i686-w64-mingw32 --target=arm-none-eabi".\n"
135,481 ~"Type "show configuration" for configuration details.\n"
135,481 ~"For bug reporting instructions, please see:\n"
135,481 ~"https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/.\n"
135,481 ~"Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:\n <http://www.gnu.org/\
software/gdb/documentation/>."
135,481 ~"\n\n"
135,482 ~"For help, type "help".\n"
135,482 ~"Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".\n"
135,482 6^done
135,482 (gdb)
135,484 7-environment-cd C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/étudiant_Test/project_name
135,497 7^error,msg="C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\303\251tudiant_Test/project_name: No such file or d
irectory."
135,498 (gdb)
135,499 8-gdb-exit
135,513 8^exit

[TommyMurphyTM1234]

Does GDB work standalone (in a terminal without any associated Eclipse/CDT/Embedded CDT) when using such paths/filenames containing accented characters? Ditto for OpenOCD assuming that you're using it?

I suspect that many tools may not deal with such characters well.

Edit: oh, judging by the first post you're using J-Link and not OpenOCD?

[jonahgraham]

I can try. Where are the instructions for applying for CDT committer status?

No special status is needed to contribute a Pull Request - only that you have a valid ECA on file with the Eclipse Foundation.

135,484 7-environment-cd C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/étudiant_Test/project_name
135,497 7^error,msg="C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\303\251tudiant_Test/project_name: No such file or d
irectory."

Looks like encoding of the é is inconsistent and therefore it comes out wrong. This is the same issue as microsoft/vscode-cpptools#1998 for VSCode and there the workaround was to ensure Windows is set to UTF-8 - microsoft/vscode-cpptools#1998 (comment) - interestingly vscode-cpptools have closed the issue pointing back at fixes needed in GDB. @TommyMurphyTM1234's question is quite relevant here, if you cannot do the -environment-cd when running gdb outside of Eclipse (in MI mode), then there isn't anything we can do in CDT.

[silabs-daperez]

• Thanks for the feedback so far. I see your point.
• The GDB client we are using is version 10.2.90.20210621-git, which we obtained from GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 10.3-2021.10.
• I tried your suggestion of using GDB outside of Eclipse. I launched the GDB client on command line with arguments --interpreter=mi --nx. Then I ran the file <path_to_program> command to load the program from command line, but it fails to handle the path with extended ASCII characters, resulting in error No such file or directory.. See command line output further below.
• I'll try upgrading the GDB client to a newer version to see if that resolves the issue.

$ arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe --interpreter=mi --nx
arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe: warning: Couldn't determine a path for the index cache directory.
=thread-group-added,id="i1"
~"GNU gdb (GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 10.3-2021.10) 10.2.90.20210621-git\n"
~"Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n"
~"License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\nThis is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law."
~"\nType "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.\n"
~"This GDB was configured as "--host=i686-w64-mingw32 --target=arm-none-eabi".\n"
~"Type "show configuration" for configuration details.\n"
~"For bug reporting instructions, please see:\n"
~"https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/.\n"
~"Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:\n http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/."
~"\n\n"
~"For help, type "help".\n"
~"Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".\n"
(gdb)
file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/étudiant_Test/project_name/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/project_name.axf
&"file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/project_name/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/project_name.axf\n"
&"C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/project_name/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/project_name.axf: No such file or directory.\n"
^error,msg="C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/project_name/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/project_name.axf: No such file or directory."
(gdb)

[TommyMurphyTM1234]

• The GDB client we are using is version 10.2.90.20210621-git, which we obtained from GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 10.3-2021.10.

GNU ARM Embedded seems to have stopped at 10.2

• https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/gnu-rm

and been superseded by the Arm GNU Toolchain:

• https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/arm-gnu-toolchain-downloads

You could also try @ilg-ul's xPack toolchain:

• https://xpack.github.io/dev-tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc/releases/

• I tried your suggestion of using GDB outside of Eclipse. I launched the GDB client on command line with arguments --interpreter=mi --nx. Then I ran the file <path_to_program> command to load the program from command line, but it fails to handle the path with extended ASCII characters, resulting in error No such file or directory.. See command line output further below.

So it sounds like GDB itself also (?) has problems handling "extended" characters?
So there may be several layers of tools that need to be updated to deal with this which is probably not a trivial task.

[silabs-daperez]

Status Update

• Sorry to take so long to reply. I got sidetracked with other tasks.
• I also tried the latest GDB client arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe from arm-gnu-toolchain-12.2.rel1-mingw-w64-i686-arm-none-eabi and get the same error No such file or directory.. Below is the the console output.
• @TommyMurphyTM1234 Thanks for the suggestion to use @ilg-ul's xPack toolchain. I get the same error using GDB client arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe within xpack-arm-none-eabi-gcc-12.2.1-1.2-win32-x64. Below is the console output.
• At this point, we'll have to rely on the workarounds (1. use paths with only ASCII chars 2. Enable Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support ) until this is fixed in the GDB client.
• Thanks for the help, @jonahgraham and @TommyMurphyTM1234 !

Console Output: Arm GNU Toolchain 12.2.Rel1

$arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe --interpreter=mi --nx
=thread-group-added,id="i1"
~"GNU gdb (Arm GNU Toolchain 12.2.Rel1 (Build arm-12.24)) 12.1.90.20221210-git\n"
~"Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n"
~"License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\nThis is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law."
~"\nType "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.\n"
~"This GDB was configured as "--host=i686-w64-mingw32 --target=arm-none-eabi".\n"
~"Type "show configuration" for configuration details.\n"
~"For bug reporting instructions, please see:\n"
~"https://bugs.linaro.org/.\n"
~"Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:\n http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/."
~"\n\n"
~"For help, type "help".\n"
~"Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".\n"
(gdb)
file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/étudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf
&"file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf\n"
&"C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf: No such file or directory.\n"
^error,msg="C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf: No such file or directory."
(gdb)
quit
&"quit\n"

Console Output: xpack-arm-none-eabi-gcc-12.2.1-1.2-win32-x64

$arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe --interpreter=mi --nx
=thread-group-added,id="i1"
~"GNU gdb (xPack GNU Arm Embedded GCC x86_64) 12.1.90.20221210-git\n"
~"Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n"
~"License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\nThis is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law."
~"\nType "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.\n"
~"This GDB was configured as "--host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --target=arm-none-eabi".\n"
~"Type "show configuration" for configuration details.\n"
~"For bug reporting instructions, please see:\n"
~"https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/.\n"
~"Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:\n http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/."
~"\n\n"
~"For help, type "help".\n"
~"Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word".\n"
(gdb)
file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/étudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf
&"file C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU\ ARM\ v10.3.1\ -\ Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf\n"
&"C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf: No such file or directory.\n"
^error,msg="C:/SiliconLabs/workspaces/\202tudiant_Test/mg22_Z3Switch/GNU ARM v10.3.1 - Default/mg22_Z3Switch.axf: No such file or directory."
(gdb)